Skinny Beer Falls Flat

You have probably already realised that I blog a great deal about girls and women’s issues, but today I want to give a special ‘shout-out’ to parents who are doing their best to raise kind and respectful men of the future. I think your task is a hard one when you are faced with things such as the following.

I first heard of Skinny Blonde Beer a couple of weekends ago. I was appalled to learn of this new beer and its use of a 1950’s style Vargas Girl on the bottle called Daisy. Now I must confess that I am actually a fan of the original Vargas Girls. They were curvaceous, beautiful and gorgeously styled. They have always appealed to my feminine side and passion for vintage photography, fashion and clothing.

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Daisy however, is not so gorgeously styled. She perches provocatively on the beer label in a red bikini, eventually losing the top half of her suit as the beer is drunk and the bottle warms up. The accompanying website that promotes the beer is just as offensive. Six Daisy look-a-likes, all blonde, all pouty, all in red bikini’s, are photographed corralled in a cardboard six-pack box. After making sure you have informed the owners of the website you are over the age of 18 (but who really knows), you can click one of the Daisy’s for a close up shot. There’s a strategically placed thermometer next to Daisy’s 1 through 6 that you then raise to get her to drop her top too.

The spokesman for the beer claims this is all meant to be a “bit of cheeky fun” but Women’s Forum Australia has a more educated viewpoint – “this is another blatant example of the alcohol industry objectifying women to move product.” Indeed. An investigation by the Advertising Standards Bureau of the campaign has been requested.

This blatant objectification of women in advertising is something that I thought was a product of our media saturated current times. Further research however tells me this is not the case as these examples of vintage sexist ads clearly demonstrate.

The terrible impact these ads have on women’s body image and self esteem is potentially so insidious it cannot even be accurately measured. It’s an area of interest of mine in my ongoing quest for women to more media literate that I will continue to explore. What is of increasing interest to me as well now though is how such culture impacts on boys and young men. How can the parents of boys teach their sons about respect for women, love for diversity in shape, size, colour, race and responsible drinking of alcohol, when such products are directly targeting young drinkers?

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One suggestion I would like to make to them is to tell them that if they were to choose to drink such a beer in a bar or at a party and think they had any chance of catching the eye of a fabulous gal to hang out with – I think their chances are pretty low. I think most women who respected themselves and other women would realise what a terrible product this beer is and that any man who was drinking it would not be particularly well rounded. My husband has told me that he would be embarrassed for any man drinking such a product and has likened it to them having a portable ‘peep show’ in their hand. I have my fingers crossed that the Bureau’s investigation sees the beer pulled from shelves and the offending website shut down. We are up against it enough with so many other forms of advertising and products. This is surely one we could do without.

Tagged as: Advertising, Body Image, Boys, Diversity, Girls, Media, Men, Parenting, Self Esteem, Skinny Blonde Beer, Vargas Girls, Women, Womens Forum Australia