As Mark Reardon sat in front of his TV watching the first and second round of the NCAA basketball tournament, he claims to have been tormented by the spectre of the Bud Light ad you see above. He contacted me and asked what I thought of the ad, and I told him we likely had a disagreement on our hands.
I like the ad, as it is devoid of slapstick humor and flatulent horses. It shows two attractive but normal people in a nearly normal dating situation. They’re not purposely ugly or purposely knockouts. The ad is upbeat, contains smiles, and is not demeaning to any race or sex. However, Mark and I agree that the ad was in notably heavy rotation this weekend, and likely caused some consternation when it aired for the 50th time. So not a ringing endorsement from me, but like I said on the air, I know the entire ad by heart now. I should not possess this knowledge.
Reading the YouTube comments and some other forum comments, I think we’re getting overly cynical. Thanks to some newfound tools of expression, we have YouTube comments and biting Yelp reviews and fake Facebook profiles and MY OPINION MATTERS. Social media offers us so much flexibility. Now, we all have a voice. If we choose to rip on the woman in the ad because she has short hair (seriously, do not go read the YouTube comments), then we’re exercising our freedom of expression in kind of an ugly way.
HAVE A LISTEN HERE and let me know what you think.
p.s. Gotta admit, I miss the Miller Lite “Man Law” ads:
