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“Ho White” Brings Beer Ads To A New, Strange Low
16 Comments | Posted by Maria-Mercedes in Jamieson Brewery, Snow White, The Foundry, advertising, ho white
Jamieson Brewery in Australia found an innovative new way to advertise beer: slutty women! Well, not just any women, fictional Disney characters to be exact. The brewery teamed up with Australian advertising agency The Foundry to create new ads for its raspberry-flavored beer. The ad centered around “Ho White,” a Snow White-esque character who is pictured lying nude in a post-coital haze with her seven dwarfs, (from left to right) Judgey, Cry Baby, Creepy, Pervy, Loony, Sleepy and Mad-He-Couldn’t-Get-It-Up-y. In the lower right a product shot of the Raspberry Ale is set next to the tag line, “Anything But Sweet.”
Sure, the ad is pretty offensive, especially considering they crowned their sexually promiscuous spoke woman with the title of “ho.” The use of a sexy (cartoon) woman and jokes at her expense are anything but new in the male-dominated advertising industry but they are usually evidence of laziness, not intentional misogyny. Sex is the easiest thing to sell in the world and making fun of or punishing women for enjoying sex is a practice that is as old as sex itself. Drawing the line between sex (fun!) with alcohol (fun!) is an easy and common one, but it can be done better than by calling a woman a slut and showing a glimpse of cartoon cleavage.
Not only is the subject of the ad lazy, but it also just doesn’t make any sense. What does a woman having an orgy with little people say about Jamieson Brewery’s Raspberry Ale? That if you drink this beer (if you’re a man) you will be able to gather six of your closest friends to have sex with a woman or (if you’re a woman) you will engage in group sex with seven tiny old men wearing similar hats? Doesn’t that sound enticing? And why does Disney have to come into the mix, aren’t there other examples of sweet things that could be turned “naughty” without the confusing use of storybook characters and little people? The thought of my childhood heroes having sex with multiple undesirable men doesn’t really make me want to drink flavored beer, or anything for that matter. It is just sorta…gross. Not Marge Simpson nude in Playboy-level of gross, but pretty close up there. Disney must find it pretty gross as well since they got pissed about the ad and (most likely) contributed to having the campaign’s website taken down and the ads removed from The Foundry’s website.
Perhaps the most confusing aspect of this campaign is that I can’t really figure out who they are trying to market towards. Flavored beer has long been a stereotypically favored drink of women. From a woman’s perspective, the ad isn’t that appealing: who wasn’t to drink beer, be called a whore and get with seven little old men who keep their hats on during sex? Maybe the company was trying to expand their market to men, but marketing berry-flavored beer to men is sort of akin to marketing Alizé to men. You just shouldn’t do it.
Whoever is in charge of their advertising department should be fired. This fails on so many levels.
I think it says not to dismiss the product as merely sweet?
Hang on now. Think about Snow White:
A sweet little princess terrorized by her witchy stepmother, she does not fight back, but instead runs through the forest and finds a job cooking and cleaning for seven old men who are apparently incapable of cooking and cleaning for themselves. Not wanting to offend the Wicked Witch who shows up at the door, because nice girls are always polite, she takes a bite of the Poisoned Apple and ends up almost dead; she would in fact die if a Handsome Prince did not fall in love with her due to her beauty in death (her personality doesn’t matter), kiss her, save her, and take her off into the sunset. The whole fairy tale is about Snow White being sweet and obedient ALL THE TIME and all the crap that happens to her because of it.
But what if, in secret, this sweet young maiden has a predilection for orgies and group sex? That isn’t sweet. That’s kind of awesome. Probably what they were trying to say about the beer.
Unfortunately, unconventional sexual practices usually do give a woman the label of “slut”. But personally, I like it.
I will admit that “Ho White” is in poor taste. But does it actually say that anywhere in the ad?
I agree. They’re saying that it’s not as sweet as you might expect from just looking at the label. Yeah they’re making snow white look slutty but so what? Does anyone really believe that the single girl living with 7 miners wasn’t getting some? I’m sure they asked and she was just pathetic and grateful enough to give it up.
I know a lot of guys who drink fruity beers, there’s a very popular blueberry beer around these parts right now. It’s a local brew from a great brewery and I’ve seen a lot of guys drinking it but I can’t recall seeing a single women drinking it. Maybe it’s because it’s draft, I don’t know. Come to think of it, I actually don’t recall the last time I saw a woman drinking beer other than my mother-in-law having a half glass when her hubby wants to split a bottle with lunch.
I totally agree jkate, after all the submissiveness, cleaning, baking, and singing snow white did in the movie, I think that being involved in orgies with the seven dwarfs is pretty awesome, because she isn’t having sex the “lady like” way of laying back and thinking of England. Go Snow white!
that’s hilarious! tea…carnations…wellies….masterpiece theatre..
I think it’s fucking awesome. Why do feminist women try to ruin everything fun? Snow White is the ideal woman. Also how did they get away with using the likeness of Disney characters? Haven’t they ever heard of copyright?
ummmm Disney, Snow White was a fairytale long before you were just a glint in your parents eyes.
She was, but the ad campaign is pretty clearly using Disney’s character designs for Snow White and the seven dwarves, which does bring it into copyright infringement and trademark/brand territory. They also named the seven dwarves, which is, again, a purely Disney convention, as they didn’t have individual names in the original stories.
Had they not gone with Disney’s character and set design, they probably wouldn’t have had to take the images down, but then it wouldn’t be such an iconic and easily recognizable promo ad either. They were pretty clearly going for brand recognition by copying Disney’s specific Snow White, cottage, and dwarf designs. It was a conscious decision, and from a marketing standpoint it makes sense since Disney’s known for taking fairy tales and making them overly sweet and watered down (something you’d want to distance your beer from), but someone should’ve realized that Disney’s lawyers would be on them like a pack of starving hyenas on a dying gazelle within hours of the campaign launch.
True, true….I can see why they would have chosen to go with those images. But I still think it’s a itty bitty hypocritical for them to have released the dogs (lawyers) seeing as they used/copied a fable, which the original author cannot complain about being plagiarized or used….just an itty bitty bit though.
wow…imagining snow white and the dwarves doing the nasty. that’s original.
yeah, the ad is insulting, but I just think they create the controversy in order to get around the cheap way
for the medium guys sense of humour, this ad is great
the good thing about this ad that makes me happy is F*CK DISNEY jaja
Ok, I think this post is kind of overreacted. I’m sure that this kind of ad is not polite at all, but do you think the ads are made to be polite? Do you think the way you think about men and women is the only one which deserves respect? Are you so jerk to think that ads manipulate people?
Come on!! someone who thinks that an ad have something to do with the way man and woman think about each other is the same kind of person who watches an ad an then run to buy, and the same that thinks all the men are the same, and the same that think everything that doesn’t like her/him is patriarchal.
Sorry for my english, I’m from Colombia.
P.D. F*ck Disney too.
By the way, I don’t like the ad, I think is stupid and i’m sure there’s a lot of smartes ways to buy a beer, even if it’s flavored, jajajajja…
great advertising, funny lighten up everyone what happen to good aussie humour