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Pop Culture Artifact: Bacardi's Ugly Friend Ad Campaign
Alcohol ads are noted for their misogyny, from simple objectification to actively implying violence toward women. However, these ads are generally targeted at male audiences, designed to engage the male gaze. The Bacardi Breezers "Ugly Friend" ad campaign targeted women, specifically women's insecurities about their physical appearance, using stereotypes of behavior to sell product. Published on the web in 2009, the ad campaign featured an interactive website that allowed women to choose their "ugly friend" for various situations, read stats about the friend, and even comment on Facebook pages created for them. It was located through searching for alcohol advertisements, due to the highly sexist and frequently controversial nature of alcohol ads. Given the prevalence of alcohol use in American culture, the way in which it is sold is highly telling as to the ways in which advertisements target their markets. This ad campaign is a very clear example of the ways in which sexism and gender role are reinforced in everyday life.
Encouraging women to get an "ugly friend" operates on the idea that women are inherently insecure about their looks. It emphasizes the fact that women continually need and want to improve n themselves, to look better, thinner, and more stylish. The "friends" each play on a specific insecurity, some major, some incredibly minor from Lucy, who is overweight, to Daisy, who has bad eyebrows. No flaw is too small to be commented on,...
Women are told they should be insecure. In addition, there is the unspoken implication that if a woman is not physically perfect, she will become the ugly friend. Women who have physical flaws are being more than critiqued, they are being humiliated.
The ad also plays into stereotypes, specifically the idea that women are continually in competition with one another. The implication in these ads is that women will use one another for their own gain, and will betray other women for their own benefit. This is a clearly misogynistic, and highly gendered assumption. An ad target at men would not encourage men to get a less virile friend, because men, in advertising at least, are all friends. A similar ad targeted at men might play on the "wing man" concept, of men seducing women with the help of their friends. On the other hand, female friendships are devalued, turned into ones of expedience without depth or actual affection.
In addition, these ads show women as only useful in regards to their looks. Oddly, it is the lack of beauty in the "friends" that most strongly emphasizes that worth equals appearance. Women deemed ugly are being used for their looks, even though their looks are lacking. In their descriptions in the ads, they are described only in terms of looks, with no mention of personality. They are reduced to physical form, broken down into their appearance only. The "ugly" girl is valuable only because of her…
This ad campaign uses stereotypes, objectification of women, and misogyny to sell a product. It plays on perceived female insecurity, using the male gaze as the ultimate purveyor of the value of a woman. Further, it clearly states that women are all in competition with one another, and more, in competition for men. Women are told they only have value for their looks, even "ugly" women are only important for their ugliness. They are treated as objects, discussed as accessories, and overall dismissed. More, however, women are asked to participate in their own oppression by taking on the role of the user. These ads present a sexist, limited view of the world and what will sell product to women.
Advertisements can be found here:
http://media.onsugar.com/files/2010/02/08/5/301/3019466/53bf998b3155df51_Picture_1.preview.jpg http://media.onsugar.com/files/2010/02/08/5/301/3019466/Picture_2.preview.jpg http://media.onsugar.com/files/2010/02/08/5/301/3019466/Picture_3.preview.jpg
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