I was watching a cerveza modelo commercial and was really impressed to see how quickly and cleanly they drew up a specific idea of masculinity and tied it to their product. The commercial, ‘Work for it’ (seen here) reminds men what you need to do in order to subscribe to what it means to be a hard working American Male. Now these are things that align with classic masculine perceptions: blue collar men than break their backs for a job, speak with manners, and always ask the dad before they ask the gal to marry them. Nowadays men are rarely drawn in these 50’s inks. I liked it. I don’t subscribe at all, but I liked it. The alignment to these values is so obvious and blatant that it, for me, far surpasses the low key nonsense you get from the average Ice Age driven product ad.
These two things may seem disparate but in fact they are both trying to create a sense of unity/belonging among a specific population in a way that reflects their product as a symbolic piece or even signifier of that population. Just food for thought.
Some Thoughts:
- Chelsea Clinton, despite (rare) appearances still has a lot of political juice.
- Obama may no longer be able to be our president, but he is still the People’s Champ.