Garfield's Ad Review
Stay on top of the news, sign up for our free newsletters
Heineken 'DraftKeg': The Most Sexist Beer Commerical Ever Produced?
Berlin Cameron United Has Essentially Animated the 'Perfect Woman' Joke
|
Title: DraftKeg Marketer: Heineken  Agency: Berlin Cameron United |
|
| Heineken's new beer babe is a cyborg. | ALSO: Comment on this review in the 'Your Opinion' box below. |
We were a one-man gland.
So it is not out of self-righteousness, but out of genuine astonishment that we castigate, denounce and generally hold up to ridicule a new ad for the Heineken DraughtKeg that is arguably the most sexist beer commercial ever produced.
That may sound like a preposterous charge regarding an industry that has given us nudie pinups, the Swedish Bikini Team and an '80s spot for an Israeli import called Maccabee in which a sultry sabra masturbated a longneck. But this spot from Berlin Cameron United, New York, finds an unprecedented new way to be a gender offender. We shall explain this presently. First, a misogynistic joke:
The perfect woman: a mute nymphomaniac whose father owns a brewery.
We'd argue that this is almost a perfect punch line, at least in the crystalline purity with which it reduces women to sex objects with no redeeming quality save their capacity to keep your mug overflowing. Here's a variation:
The perfect woman: She's yay high with a flat head for you to rest your beer on.
Please note that "yay high" is accompanied by a gesture indicating waist level. Even more degrading, even more pure. Yet neither of those two jokes -- i.e., the gold standards of female objectification -- manages to trivialize the essence of femininity quite as egregiously as Heineken. And why don't they?
Because they don't portray a woman's uterus as a beer keg.
Heineken does. At least, it looks that way to us.
The spot is ostensibly a dramatization of how futuristic the DraughtKeg is as a home beer-dispensing apparatus. That's an odd positioning to begin with, as the underlying technology is about a century old. But put that aside. The premise is "futuristic"; so be it. This is conveyed with a techno jingle titled "Robot Repair" and the animated image of a babelicious cyborg who looks like the issue of C3PO and Gwen Stefani -- a totally hot blonde bot, in other words.
The commercial opens with her strutting mechanically out to a dance floor, Ms. Roboto style, to the pounding techno beat. Then the front of her pleated, futuristic minidress dissolves to reveal her innards. Va va va womb? Nope. We do not see her reproductive organs. This is, after all, the perfect cyberwoman. What we see is a Heineken DraughtKeg.
She then grabs the handy umbilicus and taps a cold one. Then she somehow clones herself into a set of three Android Sisters and robo-bumps and robo-grinds for the delight of her male viewers. Then AdReview hits the pause button, even more slackjawed than in the company of actual flesh-and-blood tarts in Montenegro.
Are we, one wonders, being not only hypocritical but hypercritical here? Are we reacting (excuse the expression) hysterically? Maybe. But we believe that Berlin Cameron United has essentially animated the "perfect woman" joke. Whether intentionally or out of pure animal instinct uncivilized by the most basic notion of respect, they have reduced half the world to a man-servicing beer tap.
That isn't futuristic. It's retrograde. And when women see what Heineken is up to, it won't be a robot that needs to be repaired.
RSS Feed
Stay on top of the news and stay ahead of the game—sign up for e-mail newsletters now!
›› Garfield's Ad Review
Most Recent Posts 
- JC Penney's 'Doghouse' Returns
- Autism Speaks Hosts Chicago Fundraiser
- The Invisible Hand of Agency Culture
- Buffalo Soldiers Wings & Things
- Publicis' 'Boost' Wins Create for a Cause Contest
- A DigitalNext Challenge: What's Your Favorite Consumer Mobile Application?
- BCS Enters Twitter: Beat Down Like Notre Dame in a Bowl Game
- What Kind of Agency Are You?
- Vice Finds Oil in L.A. for Palladium Boots
- Scuzzy Bubbles Are Filthy Little Pervs in Method Video
- The Coming Darwinism of IPhone Apps
- Behind the Redesign: Virgin.com Mixes Social Activity and Lead Generation
- How Black Friday Can Be Brown Friday
- Trees for Troops: Helping Military Families
- Your Experience Is Your Biggest Hurdle
White Paper
The New Female Consumer: The Rise of the Real Mom
This Advertising Age and JWT white paper explores what multiple generations of American women want when it comes to family, work and life in the 21st century, decades after the women's liberation movement.
Bob Garfield
Verizon Exiles IPhone to Island of Misfit Toys for the Holidays
Too-Cool Apple Now Finding Itself on the Receiving End of Competitor Ridicule
Special Report
America's Hottest Brands
Advertising Age Honors the Top Brands of the Year -- and the Brains Behind Them
3 Minute Ad Age Video
Marketers as Media Companies: A Disruptive Trend Revisited
Ad Age Editor Jonah Bloom at the ANA Conference
Special Report
Marketer of the Year: Hyundai
The carmaker won handily in our reader poll, besting Walmart, McDonald's, Lego and Amazon
Ad Age Video
Eddie Murphy's Long-Term Effect on Ad Agency Diversity
The Video Story of Dallas' Marcus Graham Project
Weekly Online Poll
Will small digital-production shops working directly with clients turn big digital agencies into unnecessary middlemen?
White Paper: 2010 America
What the 2010 Census Means for Marketing and Advertising
2010 America explains what you need to know about the biggest consumer market-research project of the decade: the 2010 U.S. census. Demographics expert Peter Francese, author of this highly readable Ad Age white paper, analyzes what the census will reveal about the changing face of consumers.
Most Read Most E-Mailed
Most Read Most E-mailed
Be part of the celebration at The Ad Age Media Mavens Awards Luncheon
Sponsored by ESPN. Join the world's leading media strategists for a celebration of creative thinking, innovation and a look at how the best are preparing for 2010. More
(What is RSS?)
But, really it's the same old "sex sells" formula for selling products to men. So, if you get past the strange bot, it's really not that crazy for a beer commercial.
Factoring out how women might interpret this message (who really cares? this is an ad for men), it's just not a very exciting commercial (at least in my opinion).
Of course, the automatic response to these type of commercials -- would it be sexist and demeaning if it were a cyborg male unit? I guess that would depend on what they use as the beer dispensing apparatus.
dON'T HAVE TO BE THAT COMPLICATED WHEN ANALYZING A COMMERCIAL.
REGINO DIAZ
WWW.FILMARTPRODUCTIONS.NET
MEXICO
Nice story. What on earth was Berlin Cameron United thinking? The last time I checked most people bought and drank a beer for it's taste!!!
Depending on how serious people take this commercial I agree with you that Heineken might actually see a dip in their sales.
This is yet another example of a bad television ad which leads me to question how the "client" could approve this message!
Uterus = beer keg. That is a complete stretch. What have you been drinking?
You must be going through a dry spell!
New York, NY
...Nope. Nothing comes to mind. Sorry to break it to you, Berlin Cameron, Heineken and other creative dimwits involved in producing this god-awful misogynist spot. It's a god-awful misogynist spot.
Back to the ad. Heineken is a good enough brew, but I stopped drinking it years ago and probably would not switch because of this ad. It's not fatal, it's just not convincing. I tell you, that Light crap really put me off of Heineken - more than this ad.
My wife hated the ad. She pointed me to this article as proof. I suppose in that sense you're right.
As a professional woman in the biz, I'm actually more offended by the bikini-clad Eastern European women running in high heels contests being touted as 'news?' and the consistent commercial use of 'real women' [mostly jail-bait age b-cause their skin is 'still perfect' according to one AD]
to sell cosmetics, pefumes and clothing.
We are all guilty, until we stop using women's body parts to sell everything under the sun...no one is exempt.
I've commented on a few of your columns in the past, usually to compliment you on your great insights and for agreeing with ME. This time I think you swung and missed. Realizing ads are all about impressions I totally respect your impression. Mine was very different. I'm a 53 yr old male whose "gland" is at least as big as yours, yet is very sensitive to women's issues (for a 53 yr old Southern male with a ...gland.) I LOVE this ad! I love the music, I love the art design & photography, I love the casting, and am ready for the ABC series a la the Caveman! I didn't get the "retrograde" or the uterus or the "perfect woman joke" (which I've told many times over the years - I prefer the "yay high" version.) I saw her simply as the perfect robot with a keg in her RIB CAGE. In fact I asked my wife to stop what she was doing to come see it. Her reaction was "What was that about?" and walked away. So what does all this mean? I think it means it will most often appear between Chevy truck and Slim Jim ads. But I don't expect to see it on "The View". Git'r done! Bud Elsea, Norcross, GA
Sorry. Don't see it, no matter how hard I stretch for it.
Barbara Esmedina, Dallas, TX
Shashank Singh, PDM India
1. Come out of the closet. You are waaaay oversensitive about women's issues that it makes you sound like a woman yourself. Come out of the closet or R. Kelly will have to bust a cap in someone.
2. Chill out. You are completely overanalyzing this commercial. To associate the beer keg as a metaphor for a woman's uterus is kinda stretching it a bit far.
I'd like to have heard how that one was sold in as a concept. Bottle up that pitch and drink it!
Ha!
- THG
Marie LeFevre, New York
The song is the worst part for me..
Ryan Csolak - Princeton, NJ
Lately, advertising seems bent on insulting both men and women with its stereotypes and politcal-correctness - perhaps you should focus on the bigger problem instead of a single ad. - David Bruce, Kansas City
The perfect woman: a woman that change after the sex into a crate of heineken and two good friends.
Not before the sex into a hulkwoman and two ugly sisters
Wouldn't make me buy a Heinie, though.
If you haven't seen this silent classic you shouldn't be working in media. Geez. And I'm going broke! Will someone give me a job please?
Lance Frank
760-899-6805
It is also interesting to note that Heinekin is a German Beer company, the ad was produced by a German ad agency, "Metropolis" was a German film and Fritz Lang was...you guessed it...German.
As for anti feminist themes, one pseudo intellectual argument deserves another so here goes:
What's wrong with portraying the female uterus as a kegger? Beer is made from hops and other grains, the fruit of the Earth. The female womb is the orafice from which new life flows. The commercial, then, could be interepreted a celebration of the female reproductive gender, not a misogynstic attack.
Though, I wondered "How did they get away with this one?" From a legal perspective they can get into all sorts of trouble. But it didn't offend me in particular. I knew it would offend at least somebody and as I read this article, I found out I was on the right track. Funny!
I wouldn't change my Michelob Ultra for a Heinie though. And yeah I am sending the article to my friends. This was humorous.
I'm curious how many articles have received this kind of response? Most of the women posting seem to be much less offended than you.
What makes this different than your run-of-the-mill T&A beer advertisement? Well for starters, it is artistic in both conception and execution. This is not some bimbo, bump and grind, double-d cleavage close-up, bare navel beer ad. It's like comparing Chicago on Broadway to a Girls Gone Wild video. Do you have no taste?
Equal parts Daft Punk- Harder Better Faster Stronger, and Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Good inspirations, both. And who made that louvered one-piece?
LYRICS:
Futuristic...
Futuristic Delivery System,
Draughtkeg
Innovation
H. E. I. N. E. K. E. N.
Chill Cap
Pop Snap
Link Plug
Lock and Tap
Fix Flex
Grip Rig
Tip Tap
Sip and Swig
Pump Pour
Gush Sink
Drip Drain
Draught and Drink
Innovative
Draughtkeg
Heineken
.
For starters, I'm not a beer drinker (I'm more of a Cabernet guy).
I'm curious how many articles have received this kind of response? Most of the women posting seem to be much less offended than you.
What makes this different than your run-of-the-mill T&A beer advertisement? Well for starters, it is artistic in both conception and execution. This is not some bimbo, bump and grind, double-d cleavage close-up, bare navel beer ad. It's like comparing Chicago on Broadway to a Girls Gone Wild video. Do you have no taste?
Equal parts Daft Punk- Harder Better Faster Stronger, and Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Good inspirations, both. And who made that louvered one-piece?
LYRICS:
Futuristic, Futuristic Delivery System, Draughtkeg, Innovation, H. E. I. N. E. K. E. N., Chill Cap, Pop Snap, Link Plug, Lock and Tap, Fix Flex, Grip Rig, Tip Tap, Sip and Swig, Pump Pour, Gush Sink, Drip Drain, Draught and Drink, Innovative, Draughtkeg, Heineken
For starters, I'm not a beer drinker. I'm more of a Cabernet guy, myself. So I'm not really the target.
I'm curious how many articles have received this kind of response? Most of the women posting seem less offended than you.
What makes this different than your run-of-the-mill T&A beer spot? Well for starters, it is artistic in both conception and execution. This is not some bump and grind, double-d cleavage close-up, bare navel beer ad. It's like equating Chicago on Broadway to a Girls Gone Wild video. Do you have no taste?
The spot is equal parts Daft Punk- Harder Better Faster Stronger (clearly the song that inspired the music), and Fritz Lang's Metropolis (which clearly inspired the visual). Good inspirations, both. And who designed that fabulous louvered one-piece?
A few people have posted about the great writing. For those who cannot decipher, here's the copy:
Futuristic
Futuristic Delivery System
Draughtkeg
Innovation
H. E. I. N. E. K. E. N.
Chill Cap
Pop Snap
Link Plug
Lock and Tap
Fix Flex
Grip Rig
Tip Tap
Sip and Swig
Pump Pour
Gush Sink
Drip Drain
Draught and Drink
Innovative
Draughtkeg
Heineken