Marxist approach to Miller High Life commercial
Whereas Budweiser assures the nation’s television viewers that “This Bud’s for you,” Miller High Life chooses to tell the nation through witty commercials that High life is for, to use a Marxist term, the proletariat. In the following commercial, everyone’s favorite beer regulator crashes a bourgeois version of a “baseball game” to confiscate their beer and inform them that Miller High Life was not made for snobs the likes of them. A bit snobbish in itself, but I support it.
As the commercial begins we see three working class High Life employees speed walking into a baseball stadium clearly on a mission. The leader directs them to the skybox, “Right up here in section la de da,” suggesting his predisposed distaste for the people inside. He then asks the very well-dressed patrons if any of them know what inning it is. Confused—practically unaware that they are at a baseball game—they look at each other, each their cheese cubes, and continue to talk on their cell phones. These people represent the bourgeois who are more interested in their own worlds of business talk than the baseball game that they supposedly came to watch. Recognizing their ignorance, the proletariat High Life employee commands his fellow High Life employees to remove the “working class” Miller High Lifes from the bouge premises. While in the skybox, the proletariat leader attempts to yell out his opinion on the game, but it unable to since the skybox is enclosed in glass, a representation of class separation: “Man, they (my fellow working-class baseball fans) can’t even hear me through this glass!” He then expresses, “I need to smell a hotdog (working-class American cuisine) or something. Just to know that I am alive!”
The proletariat High Life employee leaves with his fellow employees and the confiscated Miller High Lifes and enters the bleachers where he is among the rowdy working-class fans. Once their he passes out Miller High Lifes to everyone, just like a true Maxist.
Questions for classroom discussion (of course I probably wouldn’t use a beer commercial with my students”
-Who do the High Life employees represent?
-Who do the skybox patrons represent?
-What does this commercial tell you about Miller High Life’s intended consumers?
-What other products do you know of that are aimed at this consumer pool?
-What is the significance of the setting of the commercial?
Historical approach to Miller High Life commercial
The setting of the commercial is an outdoor baseball game. Baseball is called America’s pastime. Long before the multimillion dollar contracts of recent history, baseball player made meager wages and most often had to hold additional jobs just to survive financially. Baseball was classic Americana.
Miller High Life wants to remind its target consumers that it is an American beer. It intends to instill some good ol’ fashioned American pride in its consumers. In our current political and economical situation, the upper class is blamed for many of our nation’s problems. This elite class is often viewed as too good to associate with the likes of the middle and lower classes, the true fans of baseball. Think of the historical pictures of young boys playing pick-up games in some American city alley. Think of movies such as The Sandlot and The Natural. Working class kids and the dashing farmboy: classic Americana. Outdoor baseball brings these memories to the minds of many Americans, and High Life wants to be associated with those memories.
Questions for class:
-What does baseball represent for you?
-What does High Life intend to say about its product being popular at a baseball game?
I actually wrote about a similar theme in my blog post, namely, the idea of multimillion-dollar companies associating themselves with the average Joe. (I analyzed a Wrangler Jeans commercial with Brett Favre). Miller High Life's campaign is interesting because it tries to redefine what most people think of as the "high life." It goes against wealth and showiness and claims that the real "high life" involves living your life in the cheap seats, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think there's a reason why baseball was chosen for this commercial, and why football was chosen for my commercial. Those are classic "all-American" sports, and the image of men that goes along with them (rugged, tough, competitive, middle or lower class) is still live and well today.
Miller High Life is a terrible beer, but they have a good advertising campaign. If these cheap beer companies put as much effort and money into the beer as the advertising and innovative packaging, they might convince me to buy it :)