Funny, but Not That Effective

I was wasting some time on you tube when I came across the “Real Men of Genius” advertisements from Budweiser. You might recall these being somewhat comical songs about the less intelligent average Joe, with titles such as Mr. 80SPF Sun block Wearer, Mr. All You Can Eat Buffet Inventor, and so on. At the time these advertisements were created I thought they were great because of the humor involved. However, after being in Technical Writing for a few weeks, I can see some real flaws with this method of advertising. Yes the songs may bring a smile to your face, but Budweiser really did a poor job reaching their entire audience. They supported and the average Joe, but what about Jane? Budweiser’s campaign might have been more effective if they had included a Ms. Tone-deaf Karaoke Singer. It is feasible to think that by mentioning women in their advertising, the company might have gotten the attention of more women thus increasing sales to females. In addition, and it might be stereotypical on my part to say so, but the men described by the Budweiser commercials all seem Caucasian. I believe it would have been a much wiser decision on the company’s part to create an advertising campaign that did not imply any race or gender affiliation. If you are going to spend millions of dollars in advertising wouldn’t you want to reach the largest audience possible?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHNt9rXSsTM