Analysis of Bud Light commercial

The below ad was banned from the 2010 Superbowl, but it actually says a lot about American culture.

Through the lens of race: All of the office employees who are highlighted in the commercial are white. At the end of the commercial, the African American man and woman who work in the office are shoved behind the line of white people so they are hardly visible. Furthermore, the only African American individual featured in the commercial is a delivery man, who oafishly slams into a wall after seeing the secretary naked behind her desk. This implies a number of things. 1. White collar jobs are mostly reserved for white people in this world. The delivery man's shirt is blue, implying that if your are not white, you are doomed to blue collar work. So, race in this video is also related to class. 2. The delivery man is the only person to have a large reaction to nudity in the commercial, and he is the only man to react to the naked woman. This could be viewed as an echo of the brutally racist idea that African American men lust after white women.

This commercial can also be viewed from the feminist lens: First, the commercial starts with traditional gender role reinforcement. Women are supposed to be the nurturers in our society, so naturally the female office employee takes it upon herself to organize the clothing drive. The men couldn't care less, until they are offered a personal benefit: beer. And apparently, women do not like beer. Throughout the whole video, the only woman who derobes for extra beer is the secretary. This subtle indication of class differences implies that well bred, white collar women do not drink beer, but lower middle class and working class women can drink with the boys. And, of course, we need to talk about body image. The secretary is fit, tan, and embodies the male ideal of what "sexy" looks like. The other women in the commercial, who are a bit plain, are dressed extremely conservatively and seem prudish. This is also measured against the men who strip for beer. Most of them have bellies, unkempt body hair, expose skin that has never seen the sun, and do not embody what would be called "sexy." Their nudity is supposed to be funny, but why couldn't the stuffy women strip down as well? That would be funny, wouldn't it? This disparity between body types, intentions, and genders are all earmarks of the pale perspective of the human body.

Check it out for yourself!