Beer Ads and Sports Shows

Apart from critics that link beer commercials (mainly dominated by the male gender) and sexuality, there has been a widespread critique about beer advertisements and televised sports. With the intended nature of sports being to promote healthy and active lives, it is damaging that such activity is paired with beer advertisements.
These ads therefor present detrimental effects, especially for young men, as they introduce and connect the act of drinking an addictive substance with sporting events.

Alcoholic drinks such as beer are promoted by various forms of media through advertisements. This is an action taken by beer producers in an attempt to enlarge their market and achieve great sales, and gain high profits. It is a controversial form of marketing and in some nations, it is either banned or highly regulated. Research has established that 71% of adults are against these commercials and actually encourage a ban on beer commercials while televised collegiate sports are in process. Whereas, 84% demand that counter-ads warning youth of the risks of drinking alcohol should be shown as well (Wenner 2009).

Health experts and researchers from higher learning institutions through research have established a relation between beer advertisements and its consumption. However, these ideas have only remained as critiques as it has not been clearly established that advertising these alcoholic drinks leads to higher consumption. It is in the interest of different producers of alcoholic drinks to promote their products for a greater market share and to demonstrate their brand loyalty.

The most prevalent issue in this debacle is target marketing. Beer producers have targeted specific audiences, mainly seeking youth (especially younger men), which represents the prime of labor and productivity, and this has drawn the strongest criticism. They have produced the alcoholic drinks with names, bottle shapes, advertisements, colors, and slogans that appeal to youth. Sadly, many ruling bodies have failed in properly addressing such allegations.

Alcoholic drink producers have utilized the area of sports to promote beer sales among youth who are believed to possess a great taste and preference to sports. Most of the commercials that are aired during sport shows do their best to attract the attention of young adults. Young women are also linked to these advertisements, as the commercials display attractive young men who are obviously involved in sports consuming alcohol as a lifestyle.

Well-known sports organizations like FIFA, the NBA and the NFL are usually sponsored by the beer industry. Bud Light sponsored the NFL in 2011 throughout and made numerous TV commercials known as “Dear Football”. This clearly portrays the negative relationship that has developed between football shows and beer commercials. Men are deeply attached to a personal belief or meaning of being a fan of sports (Nylund 2007). So they are even targeted when engaged in an activity through the radio where the listeners can easily multi-task.

Sport is an activity invented by humankind with an intention to entertain and promote overall health. However, in today’s popular sports culture, beer contradicts sports’ intended nature and meaning. Beer is an addictive substance that has little to do with improving well-being. Today, it is a tradition to indulge in drinking beer while watching football games, for example, or to consume alcohol after participating in sports activities. Beer commercials and sports have created a dangerous framework for cultural conditioning of substance abuse for young men in our society. The ruling bodies and the elderly in communities need to come together as one force to curb and finish this dangerous tradition.

References

Nylund, D. (2007). Beer, babes, and balls: Masculinity and sports talk radio. Albany: State Univ. of New York Press.

Stainback, R. D. (1997). Alcohol and sport. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Wenner, L. A., & Jackson, S. J. (2009).Sport, beer, and gender: Promotional culture and contemporary social life. New York: Peter Lang.