Dear Heineken,

Women drink beer, too.

If you'd like women to drink your beer, perhaps you should rethink ad campaigns like this one

That's right up there with those Volkswagen "Fast" commercials.  Remember them?/a>

Count me as one consumer who will not be buying your sorry excuse for a beer.

Love, Zuzu

Comments

[Dave]

Am I missing something because I don't have audio here?

[zuzu]

Not on the Heineken ad, but you miss the full obnoxiousness of the Volkswagen ad when you can't hear the guy telling his girlfriend, who wants him to shut the windows, that he can't hear the engine over her yammering.

[Dave]

If I didn't miss anything in the Heineken ad then please explain what is wrong with it. It is a very imaginative ad and I see nothing wrong with it.

[zuzu]

Woman as beer keg, Dave.

Woman as robotic, replicating beer keg.

[zuzu]

Woman as beer keg, Dave.

Woman as robotic, replicating beer keg.

[Palau]

Are you aare of the new 'light sparkling brew' Heineken are making for women, called Charli?

Just waiting for a 70's retro ad full of bold women striding along in pants suits..

[Dave]

Sorry I don't think there is anything wrong with that commercial.

Hey, but I will join the boycott! I don't drink beer anyway.

[Palau]

Apologies, that should be 'aware'. I have a sticky 'w'.

[DJA]

Heinenken drinkers are (at least in my totally unscientific observations) primarily women. I'll bet the marketers are counting on the misogyny of this campaign to make their product seem like less of a "girl's beer."

[zuzu]

Oddly enough, DJA, that was the same reason that Volkswagen used to justify its "fast" ads and their misogyny.

Palau, that stuff looks nasty. Like the Arbor Mist of beers.

[Palau]

Zuzu: There's another Dutch "women's" beer too, called "Sophie and Sophie." I may buy some just because it has the same name as one of or cats.

All the big Dutch breweries are coming out with pink beers for girls at the moment, too twee for words.

[DJA]

Also -- I was going to let someone else jump in with this, but since inexplicably no one has yet:

"Heineken? Fuck that shit! PABST! BLUE! RIBBON!"

[Dave]

DJA that is the nastiest beer known to man/redneck women.

Have you no taste buds?

Sorry, I am a bourbon kind of guy. Jack Daniels Single Barrel on the rocks please.

[Dave]

Hey Zuzu would it be better for you if it were a guy robot with a tap in place of his penis or perhaps he could just shit beer cans?

[DJA]

Dave, see those little quotation marks bookending the comment? That usually indicates the person is, you know, quoting something. I'm not surprised you didn't get the reference, but in these situations, Google is your friend.

But anyway, while we're at it, calling yourself a "bourbon kind of guy" and then announcing your preference for Jack Daniels is kind of like calling yourself a "tequila kind of guy" when proclaiming your allegiance to José Cuervo.

[Candice]

I don't know... I'm trying to be offended, but... nope, nothing. I like both commercials. The robot is just neat, and in the VW commercial, they're obviously portraying the guy's behaviour as wrong and unacceptable (hence the association they make with the whole Darth Vader thing), and it succeeds fairly well in making its point. It doesn't seem to me like they're encouraging men to be assholes, at all, and I wouldn't say that it's intrinsically sexist to make use of a character like this one. It's how it's presented that matters. I think the VW ad doesn't bother me because the character is so over the top -- his actions are definitely presented as a "don't", vs. glamourizing his behaviour.

[Lesley]

Heineken seemed exotic eleventy billion years ago when most of the universe was still drinking craptastic commercial brews. With the number of lovely microbreweries out there dishing up gorgeous ales, Heineken ranks pretty low in my book.

[Jerry]

Zuzu, consider how men are depicted in ads like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6krr40mdHM

If Trojan ever comes out with an ad depicting women who don't use female prophylactics as dogs, then feminists will actually have a right to complain. Until then, please get a life, and stop carping about a pair of completely innocuous commercials.

[Bloix]

Man, that VW ad is nasty. Don't you want to hear her say, "Tonight you can fuck your fast, I'm outa here."

Dave, Jack Daniels is not bourbon. It's Tennessee whiskey. Tennessee whiskey is filtered through charcoal. Bourbon is unfiltered. There are laws about these things. Look at the Jack Daniels label - it doesn't say "bourbon."

[Dave]

The only reason it isn't a bourbon is because it is made in Tenn. and not Kentucky. Oddly though you will find it listed as a bourbon everywhere you go to include bars, restaurants, and spirits shops.

[zuzu]

If Trojan ever comes out with an ad depicting women who don't use female prophylactics as dogs, then feminists will actually have a right to complain. Until then, please get a life, and stop carping about a pair of completely innocuous commercials.

Jerry, I take it you object to using condoms? Or are you simply trying to insinuate that because men are portrayed as pigs, it's okay to portray women as automatons who don't speak but are happy to provide beer?

Men *should* object to be portrayed as pigs or subhumans in ads. Kinda like how women should object to being portrayed as servile vessels of beer for men's enjoyment. Just because I'm discussing one here doesn't mean that the other is less objectionable.

BTW, that ad was disallowed on a number of networks because condom ads had to hint at disease prevention rather than pregnancy prevention.

And I disagree that either of these commercials are "innocuous." Sure, the Heineken ad is visually lovely, but it features a woman who's not only not real and conventionally beautiful, but a beer keg to boot, and will replicate herself for your and your friends' pleasure. The Volkswagen ad treats women as an annoyance that gets between the pleasure of a man in his machine (which has to rely on misogyny to distract from the fact that it's a far less powerful machine than it's made out to be in these ads.

Ads are rarely innocuous. They're trying to sell you something, after all. Don't simply accept that they are what they appear to be -- examine their message.

[andy]

I know somebody who once referred to Heineken as "green death". Truely, for just a tiny bit more, there's a whole world of better brews out there. Get twenty bucks and go to a place that has one of those "walls of beer" where you can get single bottles. Fill up a couple six packs worth and I guarantee you'll not go back to the macrobrew stuff.

[Candice]

Ads are trying to sell you something, sure. And therefore, they will use whatever tactics are available to sell to you. And the most effective tactics will be based on techniques that work well as applied to the product's target market. If advertising is sexist, it is not because advertisers prefer to propagate a sexist message, but because a sexist message is effective due largely in part to sexist attitudes in society. The choice is more reactive than proactive. It's very rare that an advertiser woud appeal to change in the consumer, and very common for them to adapt their product and image to adhere to current trends, values, or situations. A particular advertiser, nor individual, nor entity of any sort can be held responsible for blank-ist attitudes in popular culture these days. But if society were to change, you would see advertising change right along with it. And NOT vice versa.

[Danny Yee]

As an antidote to that Volvo ad, try the RTA speeding ads that are running in Australia http://youtube.com/watch?v=c2nvAFOk7x0
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qDTrl3F0Y_s

[zuzu]

If advertising is sexist, it is not because advertisers prefer to propagate a sexist message, but because a sexist message is effective due largely in part to sexist attitudes in society.

Or, because advertisers assume that attitude sells their product well. Or that the kind of consumer that buys into that advertising based on the sexist message it's selling is the only kind of consumer there is.

We as consumers don't have to stand for it, though. We don't have to passively accept advertising that tells us we're pigs, or annoyances, or robotic fucktoy kegerators. We can react.

Keep in mind, advertisers are trying to seduce consumers into buying their products. If we object to their methods, don't you think they'll change them?