This commercial, designed to resemble an educational presentation, features “Professor Gerald E. Rodney”. He emerges from an Ivy-covered building of the “Bud Light Institute” and explains how Bud Light has been devising new ways of “keeping women occupied, so men could go out with their friends and maybe have a cold, refreshing Bud Light.” The professor then attributes the creation of tea parties, Tupperware parties, shoe sales, soap operas, and even feminism to the Bud Light Institute – all in the name of distracting women long enough to “free” men to drink beer. The commercial ends with the professor standing before a hundred or so white-coated lab technicians from the “Institute.”

discussion

On what stereotypes regarding relationships between men and woman does this commercial rely? What assumptions does it make about men, women, and marriages in general? What is the effect of listing the creation of feminism alongside shoe sales, soap operas, days at the spa, and 24 hour online shopping?

Critique: It is also worth mentioning that Bud Light released an album, entitledUlterior Emotions,as part of the “Bud Light institute” campaign. Although it was originally only the subject of a fake commercial, the company received so many phone calls from customers interested in purchasing the album that they made it available for download on their website. In addition to 21 tracks of “inspirational thoughts” from the Bud Light Institute, the album also featured songs with titles such as “Our Relationship is Getting Stronger With Every Golf Game that I Play”, “You Didn’t Have To (Get Me That Beer)”, “It Takes a Special Kind of Woman to Make Sandwiches For the Guys” and “You Said It Was OK (I Should Have Known it Wasn’t)”.