Guest
AfterEllen: If any single advertisement embodies the way in which lesbians have been most (stereo)typically portrayed in commercials, it would be Miller Lite’s 2003 “Catfight” commercial, in which a group of men dream up the perfect beer commercial. Their vision is of two women fighting over whether or not Miller Lite is “less-filling” or “tastes great.” What starts as verbal combat quickly devolves into clothes-shredding violence in a fountain, mud, and, finally, a vat of wet cement. The men determine that there’s only one way to end this amazing video... “Catfight” tries to have it both ways by simultaneously exploiting “lesbian” sexuality (everyone knows that real lesbians prefer lube wrestling), then cutting to the annoyed reaction of two female viewers who find the spectacle ridiculous. It’s as if Miller is telling us, “We know this is lame, but we’re doing it anyway, just for fun. We don’t really mean it, and, seriously, we get why we shouldn’t be doing it. But it’s still funny, right?” Women wrestling in mud or water as a metaphor for lesbian sex is not uncommon, but not ideal when it’s the only representation of queer women in TV ads. Fortunately, we’ve seen some definite progress in the number and diversity of commercials referencing or including queer women since the “Catfight” ad originally aired. Parodies were made, like this one: Even though they were nominated for a GLAAD Media Award in Advertising in 2010 for a series of print ads, Miller put out some LGBT-disrespectful clips before: in 2002: Live Responsibly, in 2005: Sally, in 2006: Man Law - Clinking Tops. in 2010: Skirt, in 2010: Carry-all, in 2011: Man Up,
