The typical female models in alcohol advertisement, as a
representation of the female population, are young, slim, and highly attractive
women. This is only a marginal representation of the actual population and
reality of women. This “ideal” physical perfection depicted during alcohol
advertisement can lead to guilt, dissatisfaction and even depression to women
who do not hold these physical attributions. Alcohol ads, in essence,
illustrate the physical perfection of women as an erroneous way to measure
their desirability to their male counterparts.
1950s advertisement on beer and alcohol focused on the
notion of unity and family, specifically how a mother and a father, supporting
a family and maintaining a household, should enjoy beer. This ad shows a group
of young, white adults with strong socioeconomic status, surrounding beer they
are consuming with very happy looks on their faces.
1960s alcohol advertisement, eliminated the focus on females
and males together, and focused their attention on solely the male consumer.
This ad shows a white male in a sophisticated suit leaned over a small table
with a cocktail in his hand. This image portrays the working class man with
hopes to relate the cocktail with independent men enjoying a beverage after a
long day of work. The 1960s marked the beginning of what seems to be an
obsession of catering to the male consumer.
In the 1970s, the alcohol advertisement industry began to
elevate the way they wanted to grab the attention of male consumers. What do
men like more than beer? Maybe women. The 1970s was the start of depicting
women in alcohol advertisement in such a way that would make the male consumer
to stop looking at the advertisement as a way of trying to sell a commodity,
but instead, a way to show a beautiful woman being associated with the alcohol.
The 1980s presented a much more seductive utilization of
women in their advertisements. The representation of women started to become
young, slim, and highly attractive while wearing inviting attire. This ad shows
attractive women in a one-piece swimsuit literary wearing the Budweiser logo.
It is important to note that the advertising continued to focus on the product
as these women wore the logo, as if they were the beer.
The 1990s marked another change in alcohol advertisement.
While women continued to be shown in sexy attire, the advertisement industry
began to utilize women as a way to simply be associated with the ad and not
necessarily the product. This Absolut vodka ad shows a woman wearing a leather
corset that compliments her good physical shape and appearance: thin and
seductive. This ad shows no connection to the girl and the actual liquor
itself, besides the name of it towards the bottom of the ad. The focus on this
ad is the concept of “physical perfection” on display.
The 2000s continued to portray women in ways to make the
male consumer happy. This 2002 SkyyBlue ad not only shows two very attractive
women in swim wear, it shows women showing more skin and cleavage. More
importantly, the women are looking at each other in a sexy way, acting on
trying to fulfill the male fantasy of two women having sexual desires for each
other.
Recent alcohol ads are the result of this evolution of what
the consumer (mainly men) wants to see or what reality they want to live by,
not necessarily what they want to purchase. This 2007 Miller Lite commercial embodies
how the world of alcohol advertisement has become, in terms of the depiction of
women. It shows what two guys at a bar; using their imaginations, consider being
a “great beer commercial.”
To conclude, women are dehumanized in liquor advertisement,
used solely as sexual objects to cater to the male consumer. Women act and look
in seductive ways as if to say: a man would become more of a man as a result of
the consumption of the alcohol being advertised. Also, these ads give men hope
that because hot women are associated with certain beers, consuming that
particular beer would connect them with these types of women. Obviously, this
does not work that way in a realistic perspective, but has played a huge role
in the economic boom of alcohol throughout the decades.
Kilbourne,
J. (1995). Beauty and Beast of Advertising. In G. Dines & J.M. Humez
(eds.), Gender, Race and Class in Media. A Text-Reader. Thousand Oaks:
Sage Publications.
