The Great Question of Our Time (At Least in the Realm of Advertising)
Posted 7 April 2008 in Television by Catriona
When did iced coffee suddenly become macho?
All the iced coffee ads these days seem to emphasise that this is an inherently blokey drink.
I remember that there was a macho emphasis on some brand of milk-based drinks a few years ago—I can’t remember the name, now—but it seems to be endemic, these days.
I personally blame the Ice Break ads that suggested you weren’t worthy of incredibly sugary iced coffee made with skim milk unless you were also proficient at such extreme physical activities as jumping out of a plane in order to land on and enter another plane, or driving backwards very fast down a freeway and then clambering onto a semi-trailer with the help of some Dalek eye stalks. (Or, possibly, plungers.)
True, the last one did, I believe, have a woman in it. But the overwhelming emphasis is on hyper-masculine men drinking cold coffee from bottles, and I find this slightly odd.
I don’t have any answers, mind.
And they’re still a vast improvement over Lynx ads.
Share your thoughts [4]
1
Tim wrote at Apr 10, 01:32 am
Flavoured milk drinks have been at least moderately popular with blue collar 18-30yo males for decades. I think the ads we’ve been seeing over the last decade relate to this and two other factors: deregulation of the dairy industry (allowing new products to enter the marketplace and encouraging more competition between existing products), and the decline in dominance of soft drinks (due partly to consumers’ health concerns).
2
Catriona wrote at Apr 10, 04:54 am
The decline in soft-drink dominance is a good point—I hadn’t really considered it, but the Ice Break ads are strongly reminiscent of the Solo ads, with the incredibly macho men slamming down drinks.
3
Tim wrote at Apr 10, 05:30 am
And those Solo ads go back at least to the early 80s. I remember them from when I was in primary school.
4
Catriona wrote at Apr 10, 05:49 am
Oh, yes. It wouldn’t surprise me if they went back even further. And they’re still exactly the same now. It always makes me giggle when I see a can of Solo labelled “Man Size.”