Moving With The Times

Today, I turned my studies toward alcohol advertising through the ages and the way it has evolved to become the tightly restricted and highly controversial product that it is in modern day. I started my search in the 1940's where I found this advertisement for Budweiser. The Ad encourages you to indulge in the product for at least 5 straight days, promoting a long term abuse of alcohol alongside the encourage to wives that filling your 'icebox' with Budweiser will 'give the busy man-about-town the urge to become a gracious man-about-home'. As well as promoting the homeward wife as a slave to her husband this advertisment talks about the man of the house as the 'hero', giving the male audience and no doubt target audience for the ad the smug boost that he will no doubt appreciate. The slogan to the beer also acts as a metaphore - relating the beer to life. It reads 'Live Life.. Every Golden Minute Of It.. Enjoy Budweiser .. Every Golden Drop Of It'

Next is the turn of the 1950's, a very important era in the celebration of no more war - we are now a peaceful and very 'typically british' country enjoying our victory with our parties and our women. This ad for John Smith's Magnet Pale Ale uses the recent explotation of women in order to sell the alen using the phrase 'a magnet for me'. This plays on the alcoholic tendency to make you more confident as well as socially successful.

And then onto the 1960's. Another Budweiser advert this time also playing up to the explotation of women in recent years. This ad uses the slogan 'Pick a pair' with a pretty young woman standing just behind a stack of beers that happen to go up to chest height. Co-incidence? I think not.

Medicine or Poison

Back to basics. For years and years alcohol has been a controversial substance for many. Be it seen as a brilliant, confidence building, fun having, strength inducing product seen as a gift from god or a killer and destroyer of peoples lives. Because of this controversy I have found it essential to look at both sides of the argument. There are many opportunities in life for people to abuse alcohol and advertising can persuade further with its glamorous outlook on the products. However, I have discovered that not all alcohol related advertising is positive. I found this clip on 'youtube' ..

This lead me to look further..

There are hundreds of videos on sites such as youtube with personal opinions and commercialised advertisements. Here are some of the interesting videos I have found.

This was a fairly recent advertisement focusing on teens knowing their limits with alcohol consumption. This is a powerful concept drawing on teenage girls particularly getting ready for their night and stereotypically spending hours preparing themselves. This powerful concept draws home how you want to look when you come home..

Although this is the female version, 'know your limits' created a male version as well.

Although following a very similar concept as the female version, this particular ad concentrates on the male tendency to become violent and irrational when drunk. This ad appears a little more hard hearted with more graphic scenes of ripping the piercing from the ear lobe and hitting himself in the face with the cupboard door.

Not all ads are aimed at the teen/child themselves however. Although this next campaign is not specific to alcohol abuse - it is still very relevant. This ad encourages parents to consider the effects of their actions on their children. Act responsibly is the real message..

So in conclusion to these videos - not everything is glamourous in alcohol advertising.

Today I decided to hit the search button on the negative side of alcohol advertising. This is a public shock tactic put out by the save a life campaign hoping to target particularly young drinkers. Upon seeing this campaign and being a young driver it hits home just a tad. Everyone knows about the risks of drink driving but how often do you think about those who have already been effected, those who are trying everyday to re-build broken lives. Its scary when you do. This has inspired me further into my research.

My End Goal

Hello I'm Holly! This is my media blog created for A level media. For my A level I have been asked to write critically about anything I like. As I have a keen interest in advertising - I have chosen to focus primarily on alcohol advertising. This allows me the freedom to study something I am interested in and hopefully create an interesting linked production piece later in the year.

My inspiration came for this idea came from a tiny part of a media lesson whereby my teacher showed us a photo from adbusters. The picture that particularly inspired me was this one:

This picture to me is a work of genius - providing a different angle on advertising. Although perhaps a negative outlook it has inspired me to do something similar.

Back To The Beginning

Before I can create my Production Piece which is the fun arty crafty bit - I must research my topic and have a critical mind into the subject of my choice (alcohol and the way it is advertised). This is the ASA website, an interesting and relevant website into rules and regulations on advertising. There is a specific link to alcohol advertising too. From this website I hope to have an understanding on what is legally acceptable and what is not. This should help me in finding a fine line to place my final piece on.