MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN: Miller Lite is facing a major backlash after the brand apologized for its history of advertisements featuring women in bikinis with a woke commercial. Featuring comedian Ilana Glazer, the one-minute and 30-second spot posted online said, "It's time beer made it up for women," while touting the role women have played in the brewing process since early civilization.
Glazer revealed in the commercial that the beermaker had launched a campaign for Women's History Month in March to buy up old marketing materials to turn them into compost so it could be used to make fertilizer that would then be donated to female hops farmers. The hops grown from such recycled materials would subsequently be sent to female brewers.
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Another woke disaster?
It's worth noting that Miller's 'Bad $#!T to Good $#!T' campaign came ahead of its competitor Bud Light's controversial Dylan Mulvaney partnership, which included promotions with the trans star dining out of a beer can with her face on it. The parent company Anheuser-Busch subsequently lost more than $6 million in market capitalization and the brand was accused of losing touch with its audience. It seems Miller Lite is facing a similar pushback.
The March 7 commercial saw Glazer ridicule the company for its history of ad campaigns featuring bikini models. "Here's a little-known fact, women were among the very first to brew beer ever," she says. "Centuries later, how did the industry pay homage to the founding mothers of beer? They put us in bikinis."
Glazer displayed some of Miller Lite's old posters and cardboard cutouts, with the models' faces blurred. "It's time beer made it up to women," the comedian continued. "So today, Miller Lite is on a mission to clean up not just their s*** but the whole beer industry's s***." The 'Broad City' star then reveals that the company has been buying up some of its old marketing materials to convert them into compost for female hops farmers so they can grow 1,000 pounds of hops that would be forwarded to female brewers. "There's definitely more s*** out there, in your attic, in your garage, in your parents' basement. Send any s*** you have to Miller Lite and they'll turn that into good s*** too," Glazer insisted, adding, "So here's to women, because without us, there would be no beer."
Miller Lite's advertising history
According to the Daily Mail, Miller Lite shot to prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s after releasing a series of commercials featuring scantily-clad women. One of the campaigns featured the voluptuous actress and model Sofia Vergara.
Perhaps the most famous ad came in 2003, featuring Playboy models Tanya Ballinger and Kitana Baker who start fighting by the poolside over whether Miller Lite "tastes great" or is "less filling." At one point, Baker pushes Ballinger into a hotel room, where Pamela Anderson is sitting in a cropped shirt. "Mind if I join in?" she asks, before a pillow fight ensues and she takes off her shirt to reveal a bikini underneath.
In 2006, however, then-vice president for marketing at Miller Brewing, Erv Frederick, declared that the company "wanted to move beyond that stereotype of men as sophomoric" or as "the lowest common denominator." The commercials that followed, including one with Meghan Markle, no longer featured women in bikinis. The future Duchess of Sussex was instead seen in a tight tank top as she sold a man a beer at a bar and poked fun at his tight jeans.
Growing backlash
Having said that, Miller Lite is now facing quite the backlash for its March ad campaign featuring Glazer. "So Miller Lite is body shaming women? Just because you like a nice granola gal, doesn’t mean we all do. I prefer a little t&a with my beer," one tweeted.
"What a terrible commercial. Makes me hate @MillerLite," another wrote. "So pay tribute to women by cursing nearly every 5 seconds while trashing women that helped make the company billions by essentially downgrading these women to cheap bikini models," a comment read.
"Who do these companies think their market is?" someone else wondered.
"Does Miller Lite really think those who buy and drink its beer find women cursing like men appealing, and pretty women wearing bikinis bad $#!T? No. It's just another example of a corporation turning on its consumer base to promote woke culture by 'reimagining' its target market," another chimed in.