Sex

These two ads that are displayed are ones that are both found in men's magazines and both have a very strong sexual feel. They aren't undertones because they are blatantly referring to sex while advertising the beverage. Some people may not see the sexual references that the Bud Light ad displays but it is quite obvious once you pay more attention. Firstly, the text is very sexual and uses the mortise, a picture of the actual object being advertised, as a stand in for people. The picture of the actual bottle is lying on its side and is taking the place of words that are not there. The text states, "Are we having (the bottle) yet?" I believe that this is a double meaning. It may mean that the people in the ad are asking if they are drinking the Bud Light yet, but I believe that the bottle can also represent the word sex. I don't believe that if the bottle were there just to represent the beer that it would have been placed on its side. I think that it would be upright as to not give any inclination to sex. The three people in the middle, the two girls and one guy, are both smiling very big with their mouths open so any of them could be saying it.

The layout of the ad is also of importance and adds to the sexuality that is being displayed. The top half of the advertisement is four women squeezed in around one man, and they all seem to be surrounding just him and nobody else. On the bottom of the page it is meant to look like it is underneath the table where they are sitting which is dark, so it leaves a black background. The text is small and gives the caloric information as well as saying that their beer is "the choice for light, refreshing, thirst quenching fun." Kress and Van Leeuwen state that the top half of the page is considered the "ideal" as the bottom half is the "real." (Jewitt and Oyama; 148) The ideal at the top of the page is what most men would hope would be the ideal situation. The advertisers want men to think that if they drink Bud Light this will be the ideal situation for them and the beer will help. On the other hand, by providing the caloric content at the bottom of the page this advertisement proves that the more real information is at the bottom half. Since the top of the page is more lively, light, and colorful, the reader's attention will most likely be focused at the top and not reading the real, "down to earth" information. This also leads males to have a fantasy about this advertisement because this could be them. Rose called fantasies a particular form of a daydream, which I believe this ad spawns. They could fantasize about having women flocking to them and surrounding them if they were to drink this beer. The advertisement does a good job at instilling this fantasy. All in all this advertisement appeals to men and makes them focus on the sexual pleasure that they may receive from drinking Bud Light.

The Michelob advertisement also makes it obvious that the focus of their advertisement is sex, but in a much more blatant way. The first thing that catches the viewer's attention is the reflection in the rearview mirror. It is a man passionately kissing a girls neck, and it is only shown from the neck up leaving the imagination to wander and figure out what may be going on. The mirror that catches the attention is located on the top half of the page which is what Kress and Van Leeuwen say is the ideal. The bottom half of the page makes it easy to tell that this is inside a taxi. We can see the lights of the road so they aren't parked anywhere and there is a meter with an amount on it.

On the bottom right corner of the page is a fairly large mortise of the actual bottle with text next to it that reads "nice finish." The text is fairly small and may be missed if the bottle weren't so big to catch the viewer's attention. Kress and Van Leeuwen call the bottom of the ad the "real," which in this case follows that because instead of being a fantasy that the male in the ad is having, they are really in a cab. The text can also mean a variety of things that can be read as very sexual. The man and woman making out in the back of the taxi could be a nice finish to a date or the nice finish could simply mean drinking the beer at the end of the date. Again, there's a double meaning within the text of the advertisement. The woman in the ad is being used as fetishistic scopophilia, which is "when the female figure is represented simply as a beautiful object of display" (Rose; 118) as well because it is her face that is shown with a pleasurable expression. The man's face is being hidden behind hers so the focus is on how she looks which also gives a hint as to what they might be doing. Men may think that the facial expression she is making is very attractive or even a turn on which puts the woman in a position to be viewed as a sexual object and not much more.