Busty Beer Ads: Sexist or Just Smart Selling?

NEW YORK – Beer "buzz" is typically associated with drinking too much, but this time the buzz that's brewing is over some controversial ads.

In Miller Lite's "Catfight" commercial, two buxom women get into the classic "less filling, tastes great" debate, tear each other's clothes off and end up wrestling in wet cement. In Coors Light's "Love Songs" ads, chesty blond twins gyrate and flash come-hither expressions.

Miller company spokeswoman Molly Reilly told Fox News that "Catfight," which turns out to be a fantasy ad imagined by two guys, is supposed to represent what men are thinking about.

"We're making a little bit of fun of it," she said.

But not everyone's amused.

"These blatant displays of sexism simply reinforce some of the attitudes that keep women from achieving equal treatment in pay and career opportunities," Lynn Osborne, chair of the Association for Women in Communications, said.

The brewing company has received approximately 4,000 e-mails and phone calls fairly evenly divided in opinion about the commercials, Miller spokesman Ron Acosta said.

The complaints, according to Acosta, break down into the three primary categories: It's inappropriate for children, degrading to women and, in reference to the version shown on late-night TV and cable, which ends with one woman saying "Let's make out," encourages lesbianism.

But generating feedback, positive or negative, is what most companies dream of.

"This has caused a lot of excitement and it's also caused a great debate between men and women," said Reilly.

Eric Piesco, 37, of New York City, said he finds the Miller commercial very entertaining. "The T&A is a little over the top which is precisely the point," he said. "[It] pokes fun at men's sexist views."

Of the Coors Light ad, however, Piesco was less enthusiastic. "I could understand where people would be offended by it because the use of the twins is gratuitous."

But the Coors' spot has been quite successful, said Advertising Age beverage industry reporter Hillary Chura. "Previously, the brand appealed to women and older men, and the problem with that is that they don't drink as much as twenty-something guys."

And not every woman is offended by the flesh-baring ads. "I'm 40. I'm a woman. And I thought it was funny," "Deanna" wrote on Realbeer.com, a Web site for beer lovers. "I knew it was meant to be a comedic take on the stereotypical guy fantasy before the scene cut to the guys in the bar."

Deanna might get it, but what about a child?

Over 70 percent of the audience watching the "Catfight" commercial is over 21, Reilly said. But that youthful 30 percent is what bothers some parents.

Jim Gogek, a writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune wrote that while watching the NFL playoffs with his kindergarten-age son, the Miller commercial aired and his son asked,  "What are those ladies doing?"

"The worst isn't that these beer ads are sexist, obnoxious and insulting to the intelligence," Gogek wrote. "The worst is that they're run on weekend afternoons and in prime time, and especially during sporting events, all when lots of kids are watching."

Reilly defended the commercials, pointing out that many things on TV need to be explained to kids. "There's Victoria's Secret ads. There's jock itch commercials. As a parent, I would think it's my job to help them navigate through this world of adult products," she said.

And using sex is a marketing technique that's "been used since basically God was a child," said Chura. "If it didn't work, marketers wouldn't keep using it."

Osborne said her organization doesn't dispute the companies' right to free speech but added, "that doesn't mean we agree companies should be so tacky."

But some feel the bodacious brouhaha has grown bigger than a D cup.

"Theses ads are selling beer to men," a posting from username "tjthresh" said on  Realbeer.com. "What's the quickest way to get to a man's attention. T and A!!!!! They sure have my attention every time the ad is on. If that make[s] me the lowest common denominator, then some of you should come down off of your high horses and join me. It's much more fun down here."