Beer commercials:  Do they actually increase drinking?
     The purpose of most advertisements is to convince us that the quality of our lives will improve if we use a particular product.  Body odor?  Speed stick can take care of that.  More fat than we'd like?  A billion different companies promise to solve that problem for us overnight.  Alcohol ads have been notorious for their pairings of scantily clad, attractive young women with the product.  The message is not hard to decipher here -- we are supposed to believe that average looking males (note that males between 21-35 represent the major target audience for beer ads) will be mobbed by attractive women the moment they crack open a particular brand of beer.  As we will see, this message is not restricted to commercials from the US, by the way. 
       What exactly do these ads do?  Specifically, do they actually cause people to drink more?  Research has failed to reveal a clear-cut relationship between alcohol ads and alcohol use.  There are some troubling data, like
those suggesting that some alcohol ads are very
appealing and familiar to children.   However, there
is no clear evidence that these ads actually cause
anyone to start drinking (for review see NIAAA,
2000).  In fact, it does not make good financial
sense for a company to focus their efforts on this
portion of the population.  Americans spend more
than $120 billion on alcohol every year, between
$50-$70 billion of which is spent on beer.  A
company stands to make far more profit by
stealing a few percent of the market away from
a competitor than by causing a few abstainers to
become drinkers.  For instance, gaining just 0.5%
of a $50 billion dollar market would generate an
extra $250 million dollars for a company.        
       If alcohol ads do not cause non-drinkers to start drinking alcohol, then what's the harm?  In my opinion, at the very minimum, alcohol ads tend to transmit and reinforce socially inappropriate messages that the world could do without.  Beer commercials, for instance, tend to promote the expectation that alcohol and sex go together perfectly at a time when campuses are attempting to deal with sexual assault and the spread of sexual transmitted infections among intoxicated individuals.  While the commercial might not influence a student's overall drinking rates, the message could certainly affect how male students view and treat women, or how female students view themselves.  How many beer commercials have you seen that send the message that women should be treated with respect?  In these ads, women are invariably shown as the prize that men will receive for drinking a particular brand of beer. 
        Below are nine different beer commercials.  The first eight clips represent cliche beer commercials pairing women with alcohol.  They are from the US, Spain, Canada, Russia, Australia, and Cuba.  The ninth clip is a parody of types of commercials represented by the first seven.  It is not only hilarious, but really seems to nail the problem on the head! 

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Commercial #1:  USA, Miller Brewing Company

This commercial adequately captures the common theme of American beer commercials -- when attractive women come anywhere near an American beer they suddenly either disrobe or become extremely interested in the guy holding the beer. Relative to other recent commercials, this one was particularly controversial (read about it here)

Commercial #2:  Canada, Molson Canadian      

Here is a Canadian commercial that cuts to the chase and states, in so many words, that Molson is the beer to chose if you're a guy trying to hook up.

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Commercial #3:  Spain, Brahma

This commercial is particularly interesting to me.  In some ways, it appears to be your typical beer commercial -- beer paired with attractive female.  However, this commercial has an interesting twist.  Essentially, after seeing an attractive woman at a bar, a male starts sweating and is clearly flustered by the experience. This is all explained by a series of scenes in which she holds a a lighter to a voodoo doll in his likeness. He orders a Brahma and quickly chugs it, which makes
him feel much better.  I believe that the message from this commercial is that, in reality, you probably will not hook up with a hot woman while you're drinking at a bar.  However, the best way to deal with that sexual frustration is by drinking a Brahma.

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Commercial #4:  Russia, Tinkoff

       The following two commercials are for a Russian beer called Tinkoff.  They each represent the raw pairing of nakedness and sexuality with beer.  These are truly unbelievable!  In the first, two young women disrobe and make out in a dressing room.  A freshly opened bottle of Tinkoff is shown at the very end with foam slowly running out of the top of the bottle and down the side.  Hello!  Is it possible for this to be any more over-the-top!?  I didn't think so... until I saw the other Tinkoff commercial (see Commercial #5). By the way, the version of the dressing room commercial shown below is an edited, toned down version.  I also have what appears to be an unedited version in which the two females make out for a considerable amount of time.  I will post that version at a later data.

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Commercial #5:  Russia, Tinkoff

       This has to be the most interesting beer commercial I have ever seen!  On the surface, what appears to happen is that a large group of young, very attractive people quickly assemble for a picnic.  However, keeping in mind that nothing is left to chance in advertisements such as this one, please take a look at the image below.  Notice the positioning of the male on the right, how he is holding his beer bottle (between his legs!), the positioning of the blond female on the right, the dude in the far right corner, etc.  Now, notice the portion of the scene on the left.  It is certainly no coincidence that the back of the female's head is in this shot, and that she appears to be hovering above the crotch of the gentleman on the far left.  This commercial either represents a thinly veiled orgy, I am becoming a perverted college professor, or both!  You be the judge!

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Commercials #6 and #7:  Australia, Hahn Premium

       These two commercials, for the most part, rely on the standard attractive women+ product strategy.  However, the endings are both surprising and really funny.   

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Commercial #8:  Cuba, Cristal

Let's see if this theme sounds familiar by now...  Guy buys a beer.  Immediately after opening it, a very attractive female falls for him and actually comes over and kisses him.  His friends are amazed so they all buy the same beer and have similar results.

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Commercial #9:  USA, T&A beer parody       

This is hysterical.  It is a parody of the type of beer commercials discussed above.  There is some very brief nudity in it, so please do not view it unless you are 18 or older.  By the way, I have no idea who made it, so I am unable to give credit where it is due.  If you know anything about this particular commercial, please let me know.