Busty Beer Ads: Sexist or Just Smart Selling?

Fox News Channel ^ | Monday, February 03, 2003 | By Amy C. Sims

[JoeSixPack1]

Being a knuckle dragging oaf and freak of nature who has been known to imbibe and ponder feminalities while wearing a beerfoam mustache, the bottomline here is :

Capitalizim and Boobs go nicely together!

BARWENCH!!!.............. Another round for my friends! :-)

[Varda]

True, the fascination teenagers have with the disgusting is amazing and there's no denying if it weren't for teenagers DUMB and DUMBER wouldn't have been a hit.

However, I always remember that they are still kids and somethings which might seem really obvious to adults aren't obvious to them. If we parents don't teach them, the school of hard knocks will.

[WashingtonCollegeofLaw]

As a child who grew up on GI Joe and Transformers, at a young age i was able to differentiate between reality and fantasy. My parents never sheltered me from the real world, all they did was truthfully answer my questions and try to lead by example. I turned out fine. Women who decide that they are not attractive enough for men make a choice, and for many of them, getting a boob job or what have you actually makes them more confident and boosts their self-esteem. Men have always found women attractive, and hopefully they always will.
The Barney-fication of children is going to do more damage than good. Little boys grew up playing sword fights or cops and robbers for centuries, now they all get in a group with friends and sing songs. I have a 9 yr old male cousin who already is showing hints of homosexuality. Rather than playing basketball or pretend fighting with boys, he has only girl friends and takes tap dance lessons.
The point of my diatribe is that yes, you can try to prevent kids from seeing things, but once they reach high school, and in many cases grade school, all the teaching goes out the window.

[Varda]

LOL It's a commercial about two guys fanticizing about women doing martial arts! You're right I did miss that part! And the clothes ripping part only added to the realism, I see that now . And guys really do subsribe to Playboy for the articles and drink whiskey for the taste.... (/sarcasm)

"If you don't like it fine, just don't try to tell everybody else that they shouldn't"

Doesn't your point C contradict the above since this is exactly the (weakly made) message at the end. The girlfriends expressions were of disapproval; the guys were pigs i.e. they shouldn't have been excited by this.

You, I take it, are an adult. You can do as you wish but those of us who want something better for our children struggle with crass culture and the numbing effects of vulgarity.

[ventana]

You got me on your side, Varda. I am sorry I don't want to get preachy, but let him who has eyes see. Our culture is in a freefall. And it's not just because we got the media reporting on stuff more these days. Weird sex stuff is an epidemic. Fifty years ago we didn't have a multi billion dollar porn industry. We do today. And it's going mainstream. Pride is probably the hardest sin to recognize and it easily explains away any need to humble ourselves to God's laws. These guys who are ridiculing you here are selfish: they don't want the fun to go away no matter the price society pays. I watched John Huston's The Bible not long ago. Great cinema! The most striking thing in it was the Sodom and Gomorra scene. The freaks look like the homosexuals in a gay pride parade; the women look like the over made up strumpets glorified in pop culture today; basically the people were so debased that if it moved they'd do it--vulgar as that is to say. So what are we left with. If as a society we spit on God's Law, if we are lustful and covetous and make gods of ourselves, and if all we do is idolize the human body, then we will have art without virtue, and people without chastity, fidelity, etc. Hold up the mirror people. Oh, and don't lecture about turn off the tv blah, blah, blah. It is the Public Square, and I have a right to insist on the visual squalor being kept to a minimum. You know how Rudy Giuliani turned around the free fall in New York? He cleaned up Times Square. Well, tv is our National Time Square/Public Square and it needs a Herculean Cleaning. V's wife.

[Varda]

"LOL. You've got a lovely daughter. :>"

What if he's not joking? Is it still OK?

[Redcloak]

I have a 9 yr old male cousin who already is showing hints of homosexuality. Rather than playing basketball or pretend fighting with boys, he has only girl friends and takes tap dance lessons.

Huh? Sounds to me like he's figured out where the chicks are.

[Varda]

OK you watch football to see people get "bashed", I just like the game. The adversities football players overcome are not of the extraordinary variety (Helen Keller) but they display commitment, a work ethic and focus on goals that can be inspiring. The ones I have met or known don't fit your description. They are decent human beings. You paint with too broad a brush.

[proust]

"What if he's not joking? Is it still OK?"

Technically speaking, isn't every woman someone's daughter? I'm not sure what your point is in asking him if the woman was his daughter.

[ventana]

Yah but bestiality, pedophilia, etc. were taboo once upon a time. Now these things are widely disseminated via porn and are making their way into the public square. The Meese comission stemmed the tide awhile back, but under Clinton the porn industry grew to the power it enjoys today. It holds sway on the public square, the public imagination, and thus culture. In the public imagination of the last fifty years there was never a Brittany Spears or a lesbian girl group like Tatu: both arguably pedophile inspired marketing strategies. Obviously, this is moving into and has gained more then a foothold in the public square and I and Varda are entitled to have a dialogue about it without being silenced by ridicule that we are prudes. Liberals name call in an effort to shut down a dialogue with the opposition. I would like to think the people at Freerepublic are a little more sophisticated then that, but some posts here lead me to think otherwise. V's wife.

[cpprfld]

If I was a stockholde, my first question would be "do these ads increase sales?" The answer is no.

I don't know, I bought a case because of the commercial.

[Varda]

"you can try to prevent kids from seeing things, but once they reach high school, and in many cases grade school, all the teaching goes out the window."

You're so wrong about this. Teenagers care what their parents think more than anyone or anything else. What makes that difference is parents who have prepared themselves for the onslaught. It's not enough to know what is good and evil, you have to know why. "I have a 9 yr old male cousin who already is showing hints of homosexuality." This child is in trouble not because of his preferences in companions and activities but because he has people around him denigrating him for them. If he becomes the self-fulling prophecy will there be anyone around him to tell him why homosexual behavior is bad? Why it's wrong to act on those kind of urges? I guarentee you there will be a multitude to tell him that it's OK and everyone should just accept him "for what he is".

This is the tightrope that parents walk on all kinds of issues. Failure is assured if we have the attitude of acquiesence. If failure comes it won't be because I surrendered at the outset.

[Varda]

You weren't too preachy, you were right on target.
Thank You.

[1Old Pro]

St. Pauli Girl has been doing this for years:

http://www.stpauligirl.com/TheGirl/poster.php

 

[Varda]

My point is I wouldn't treat my daughter like that and therefore wouldn't treat someone else's daughter like that. Would you?

[beachn4fun]

for many of them, getting a boob job or what have you actually makes them more confident and boosts their self-esteem

One must as themselves --- why? Why must they get a boob job or any other "body" job to feel good about themselves. It is because society (thru advertising) has put it into people's minds that it must be so.

[beachn4fun]

Yeah, but without men, it probably would never have been thought of!!!

[beachn4fun]

You can bet that those ads increase sales. The advertising business would be defunk if it didn't.

[ventana]

Oh come on St. Pauli Girl graphics are sweet and sexy in the tradition of Vargas. It' s a little different then the blatant lust stuff we are talking about. Better beer, too, V's wife.