Project 3

"Clothing Drive" the banned Bud Light commercial

Introduction to the commercial

The commercial begins in an office building. The woman asks the man if he brought any clothes to donate for the clothing drive and that each article of clothing earned him a free Bud Light. The man immediately began taking off his tie to offer it for the free beer. As the commercial goes farther, you start to see men particularly without much coverage of clothing and walking around in their underwear and some are even nude. I will explain why this commercial is wrong and inappropriate towards both genders and how it ties in with Jean Kilbourne's "Killing Us Softly" and "Two ways a woman can get hurt."

Although Jean Kilbourne's Killing US softly movie mainly focuses on woman's bodies being using to sell products and made more appealing for a wider range of audience, this Bud Light commercial shows men's bodies in a negative way. The commercial only uses examples with woman's bodies but mostly shows shade towards the men in the commercial. The men are seen in a negative way because they have traded in their clothing for the free beer and are looked at in disgust by their female peers not participating in the "clothing drive." The men are also shown fully nude and cashing in on all the free beer they can get and are presumed by the audience that all men care about is free alcohol. There are many examples and faults with this commercial and not only the message behind it but also the profiling in it.

Screenshot from Bud Light clothing drive- Man without clothes (figure 1)

Profiling

This commercial has a ton of male profiling in it. It starts by showing mostly men taking part in the clothing drive and not thinking twice about giving up their clothes for free beer. This is can easily be presumed that all men care about is beer or free alcohol by the audience. This can also show that men are easily tricked into gimmicks like a free beer for an article of clothing and makes out that all men are idiotic and would get nude for a bunch of beer (See Figure 1). As a male myself, this can be taken as a hurtful implication from the commercial and I believe many educated male individuals would also agree with me. Bud Light as a company should have done a better job with adding more female actors to help balance the load a little. Although this commercial is mostly supposed to be a joke and make people laugh, but if you really look into it as a whole, it is very wrong.

Inappropriate actions

In this scene, there is an young attractive white woman surrounded by two men in underwear. One of the men claims, "it's for a good cause" as if they are trying to persuade her to also take off her clothes without her wanting to. As she says no to the idea the other man quickly says "I'll get you a beer!" and continues to take off his underwear so he can give the woman a drink (see figure 2). This scene is very troubling because not only are they trying to persuade her to take off her clothes, but then it is taken a step further by the man trying give her alcohol so maybe she will take her clothes off or do something else with the men. Kilbourne states, "Perhaps most dangerous are the alcohol ads that objectify women and that link alcohol with sex," although this commercial isn't directly linked with sex, it is closely implied in this scene with the two men.

Making taking off underwear from Bud Light commercial (figure 2)

Nude man in elevator with disgusted women screenshot (figure 3)

Gender Inequality

Consistently in this commercial the men who are nude are seen as gross individuals and are shamed. In this scene, the man runs to the elevator door and gets in with the two women and instantly when he gets into the elevator, the two women are shown to be disgusted(see Figure 3). Although it is not normal for men to be running around an office building nude, this commercial regularly shows women not wanting to be near or see the nude men who have participated in the clothing drive. In another example that deals with this same issue, one nude man gets up from a chair a returns in to its female owner and she says "gross!" If the tables were turned, I feel the men would not be making disgusted remarks towards nude women especially if they were attractive. This commercial features mostly males who are nude besides from one female shown once. Kilbourne states from her article Two ways a woman can get hurt, "There is a difference between women being objectified and men being objectified. The commercials towards men are almost humorous because there is no real danger towards men, whereas women are almost always at risk." I agree with this statement that it is worse for women, but this commercial shows how the men are being treated and looked at by the women they are around when all they are doing is their jobs. The men are not trying to harm the women or harass them, they are only caring on with their day as normal.

Racial Inequality

From this screenshot from the end of the commercial, it is easy to look and see what is wrong with it. There are barely any other races besides white individuals(see Figure 4). This is unfair to other races and the white race too in the way that it seems they are only advertising to the white population and also because it shows that only white men are dumb enough to trade in their clothes for free beer. This commercial could do a much better job with racial equality with including other races. As is stands in this commercial it seems Bud Light is only advertising to the white population and mostly to the male population to try and sell their beer. While they are trying to promote their beer, they are also discriminating by only using mostly white actors and it's not right.

Screenshot from Bud Light commercial (figure 4)

In conclusion, this Bud Light commercial is very wrong and has many things about it that are in poor taste. This commercial was made to be a joke and was mostly supposed to be funny but has many little things such as profiling, inappropriate actions, racial inequality, and gender inequality that ties it all together to become one messed up commercial. This commercial was popular while it was allowed to be aired on television but was soon banned for being too inappropriate. If children were to view this commercial they would think it is normal to be running around nude in public and totally get the wrong idea from this commercial. I believe it was the smart thing to do to ban this commercial once and for all.

Works cited

"Bud Light clothing drive commercial." YouTube, uploaded by Lemacedo, Jan 25. 2010, youtube.com/watch?v=ew9cEATPzDE

Killing Us Softly 4. Directed by Sut Jhally, performance by Jean Kilbourne, Media Education Foundation, 2010.

Two ways a woman can get hurt. Kilbourne, Jean. Rereading America. Eds. Colombo, Cullen, Lisle. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's P. 2013.

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