A Harmless Commercial or a Menacing Message?

Thank God for Beer commercials. They pay the networks big money who then pay Sports leagues to carry their games. We get to watch these sporting events “free”.

A series of beer commercials that is getting a lot of play, and therefore must be pretty successful, is the Miller Lite commercials depicting a young man declaring he has found his true love. The commercial goes on to depict the young man and a young lady having fun and clearly they are a happy couple.

Now, I do enjoy humorous beer commercials, Budweiser’s “Real men of genius” can be pretty humorous, Corona’s commercials set on the beach can also be cute. However, this Miller Light campaign taps into something I believe is destructive to the young man, the young woman, and society in general.  That is; drinking alcohol is more important than developing relationships, than developing intimacy.

This commercial speaks directly to young men who are having obvious problems with alcohol. They are probably having trouble with their relationships as well. This commercial gives the clear message ‘Drinking is more important than relationships’ and “Alcohol is your significant other”.

This commercial also speaks directly to society and to the young women involved with men who have an alcohol problem. The message is ‘Get off their back or you will lose out to the beer’.

I suspect my views on this commercial series are not shared by the majority of the public. However, after seeing the ravages of alcohol abuse on so many families, I am sensitive to the mindset of the alcoholic that they are looking for any message, from any medium, that tells them it is OK to drink heavily. It is OK to drink heavily, even at the cost of losing loving relationships.

Executive Home Detox works with the alcoholic, the drug user, and also the family. We know how difficult it can be living with or relating to a person suffering with an addiction. Our message to significant others is usually consistent “Find a way to take care of yourself”. In future blogs, I will speak more to the needs of the family members and significant others suffering with an alcoholic or drug dependent person.

The punch line comes when the young man declares his true love is … lo and behold… Miller Light. The young man usually has a mocking smirk for the young lady, and the young lady looks either shocked, angry, or surprised.