I passed by two Trophy ad billboards placed side by side yesterday and I hissed. One was for their stout, the other for their beer. The one for stout read "NO NEED FOR DNA, NATURALLY BLACK" with a picture of a heavily muscled man. The one for beer read "AWON HONOURABLE ALATILEYIN MI" with pictures of Femi Adebayo and two other men.
These two billboards made me think back to all lager ads I've ever seen, in whatever format they're in, and how they only seem to target men. I wondered if they really believed that only men purchase their products. I decided that I would check more ads when I got home for some gender inclusivity and the results were not shockingly disappointing.
Almost all the lager ads I saw had male characters. The ones that had women in them had them playing patriarchal roles like this one by Goldberg:
There are a few exceptions in Star's ads where women are active consumers like this one here:
But that is not enough representation. I mean, it's 2022. Why can't we just do away with gender stereotypes? Why does an ad that portrays women as properties like this one exist?
Apart from their ridiculous portrayals of women, these ads encourage toxic masculinity. For instance, this Tiger ad here.
Honestly, I am tired of the gender binary and gender role narratives that get thrown at us from different angles in this country. Fuck these lagers.
I remember one that focuses on August meeting of eastern women.
it was pretty good.
Fact still remains, those ads are shitty….