Share One With a Friend... o_O

[eumelia]

I've seen many sexist adds in my life, because hey, I'm a child of Consumer Culture... advertisement is the culture.

But this one, takes the cake.

I'm not a huge drinker, I in fact don't drink that much as I dislike being more than buzzed and it doesn't take much for me to get a buzz.
I do, however, know what I like in my alcohol and if there is a beer that I really relish drinking, it's Guinness.
I mean for fuck's sake one of my planned stops while I was in Dublin was the Guinness Brewery!

And now they bloody well went and ruined my love for them and their clever and hilarious adverts.
Fuck them. They just lost a loyal consumer.
*weeps*

Edited To Add: I'm so upset by this that I actually wrote a letter to Guinness. Here's what I wrote .

[To Guinness.com]Hello,

Recently an internet viral ad of Guinness beer has been flowing through the internet.

[link to video]

It shows the back of a woman being used as a table and two male hands each take a sip of the bottle resting on her back. They are quite obviously in the middle of a sexual act and are sharing this woman as well as the beer. The tag line is "share one with a friend. Or two".

As a woman who enjoys drinking Guinness and has always appreciated the cleverness and originality of the company's adverts, I have to say I was deeply offended to see an advert of this kind bearing the name of a beer I've always associated with class and genuine consumer caring - the company that has been the forerunner in responsible drinking.
This particular ad completely negates this image.
It is sexist and demeaning towards both women (who are completely dehumanized in this ad) and towards men (who show no compunction in treating a woman as they would a bottle of beer).

I hope I am not the only one who has written to you on this issue and I hope you take it to heart.
This ad should never have been made and I hope it is removed from the internet as soon as possible.
Or at the very least acknowledged as demeaning and offensive.

Comments

[sabotabby]

Ugh. I'm a big Guinness fan (and I even collect those old ads—you know, the ones that used children's cartoons to sell booze).

This is just dreadful. And it doesn't even make sense, sexism aside. Why would you share your beer? And why would you drink Guinness out of a bottle?

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I also have post cards of the old cartoon ads, I love that Toucan :(

It would have been more impressive if indeed it was a drought and the foam remained in the glass But I'm having a hard time getting past the creepy sexist thing.

[avgboojie.livejournal.com]

It's FUNNY!

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

It could be read as a homoerotic desire ad, which would make it marginally more interesting.

It's a pretty bad ad overall.

[avgboojie.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, but I really disagree with you on that one. This ad made me laugh. I think this is more a parody of chauvinistic ideas than actually chauvinistic ideas.
Of course, I would have liked this far better if they had several more ads portraying different combinations of threeways and more...

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

It being parody (and I don't disagree with you there, it very well could have been designed as a parody, though IMO it totally missed the mark in that case) doesn't make it any less offensive.

If the ad were a sequence of a bunch of people sharing each other it would have been a whole lot better and probably more comprehensible.

Using a woman as nothing more than a receptacle (either for sex or as a table for a beer bottle) is disgusting and I would have bee equally offended if they'd done the same with a man, but I doubt that would have happened.

[kalaam.livejournal.com]

Ew. It took me a while to actually realize what was going on, because wow I didn't think they would do that. That's gross.

Beer is unfortunately usually marketed towards men.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

It is gross.

Most beer ads are ewww in any event, that's true, which is why I always appreciated the Guinness ads, both the older ones and the new ones (though obviously not this one).

[arnavtul.livejournal.com]

i was just going to comment that Guinness is traditionally considered a woman's drink so m guess is they are trying to change the perception of Guinness as being a manly drink quite literally on the back of women.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Is it really?
Because I constantly get weird looks from the men who look at me say "You drink Guinness... but, but it's such a Guy Beer", or something a kin to that idiocy.

[arnavtul.livejournal.com]

I am not talking about the attitude here in Israel, but in The US and I have heard in Great Britain (but you would have to check with the Brits.

[aesiron.livejournal.com]

I'm American and know of no gender bias. It's considered a beer drinker's beer, though, and would be very surprised if it's thought to be a woman's drink

[aesiron.livejournal.com]

I laughed. It was more out of shock than amusement and I can see why you're offended, but I don't mind it, personally.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

As mentioned above in other comments, had there been different sharing poses and less objectification it would have been better and more comprehensible.

This was just... ewwww.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_yggdrasil/]

I didn't think it was nearly as bad as you were describing until I clicked on the video. Good Lord. It's not even funny. Just really awkward.

And people drink Guinness out of bottles? Really? I've only seen 'em in pints.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Yes, you can buy them in four packs and it most often Stout, because it lasts longer.

You can but them in cans too *shudder*

Not that I'm going to. Not for a long time. I need time to recover from this travesty.

[bitter-moss.livejournal.com]

O.o. Good Lord that *is* offensive! I'm glad you wrote the letter, it's well written and i hope it actually makes 'em think.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

My brother and I postulated that this might be a fan-ad, because it's a viral video and that the people at Guinness might not know about it (though I'm inclined to think otherwise) and that my letter might bring attention to something the company wasn't aware of (though I doubt it).

Conceivably, it's the same kind of humour you'd see in any of their ads, only this time they went way off the mark when it comes to what was humourous.

[bitter-moss.livejournal.com]

Ah that [the fan-ad probability] makes sense.

[quicksilvermad.livejournal.com]

Okay... That was incredibly offensive. And not at all as creative as they usually are. Just godamn offensive. That makes me sick.

Sticking with Miller Lite from now on.

And Dos Equis.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I'm moving to Murphy... despite Guinness being a superior beer, I can't be a customer of theirs anymore.

Just... *sigh*.

An update on this

[lishablog.livejournal.com]

I also wrote a letter to Guinness and I got a response back from pamla dot daly at diageo dot com:

Dear Lisha,

Thank you for contacting us with your concerns over the ‘Guiness (sic) Good Times’ video on YouTube.

Please be assured that Guinness is in no way associated with this video, and has approached YouTube to have it removed. We are proud of our brands, and our commitment to responsible marketing, and this is not how we want our brand portrayed.

We have made this clear in a statement on the video’s site, and the producer of the video has also now made it clear that the material is not associated with Guinness.

For further information, check out our marketing code at http://www.diageo.com/, and thank you again for raising your concerns with us.”

We hope you continue to enjoy our brand and hope to hear from you in the future.

Kind Regards
Pam
Consumer Relations

I just thought you should know.

Re: An update on this

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

OMG! YAYZ!

Thank you for updating me.

Would it be alright to copy-paste this letter to an entry?

Re: An update on this

[lishablog.livejournal.com]

Go right ahead!