Nothing screams “bro” or “frat daddy” more than beer commercials and advertisements, and both of those terms scream, “white dudes with blonde babes.” This has been the tradition when it comes to advertising beer even though that wasn’t necessarily who was buying the majority of it. Everyone drinks beer, all over the world, and, as a beverage, beer consumption trails only water, tea, milk, and juice. Basically, a lot of us love beer, but only a few of us are shown drinking it in the mainstream media. This lack of representation includes stock images. So, Anheuser-Busch has set out to change our perception of the “typical beer drinker” by introducing two brand new, free collections of stock photography that include modern beer drinkers, servers, and taproom settings.
As a part of their Elevate initiative, Anheuser-Busch is attempting to improve the beer-drinking experience as a whole by flexing its muscles (as the beer giant it is) by changing the way beer is represented in mainstream culture. Ashley Knotek, digital marketing manager at the Anheuser-Busch-owned 10 Barrel Brewing, told The Takeout, “You might think ‘Oh, its just stock photos, they’re generic,’ but people see these so often on Twitter, Instagram, blogs, even magazines…it’s an opportunity to just make the industry standard for beer photo quality higher; there’s room for that to happen.”
Of course, there are naysayers who believe the new stock imagery is just a way for the brewing company to further infiltrate the independent brewing business (adding insult to injury after the company’s The High End division bought out several formerly independent craft brands). But if being more inclusive is the smartest advertising strategy for a huge corporation, we have to hope that’s a sign that culture is shifting. And if Anheuser-Busch is choosing to be more diverse because the beer brands they own are more inclusive, good for them. Perhaps their competitors will follow suit, and more of us can see ourselves reflected in the products that we buy.
