Wes Anderson, Manvertiser?

Maybe you did a double take at the title of this post. Most of the material I look at on this blog is, seemingly, light years away from the twee sensibility and corduroy jackets of Wes Anderson, with his quirky perspective and melancholy humor.

Perhaps you’re saying, how can Wes Anderson be here, alongside the angry Dodge Charger guy, the Mike’s Hard Lemonade homophobia, the never-ending light beer commercials with the confused, resentful men, and the parade of men’s grooming products? The answer is in the new Stella Artois commercial that Anderson co-directed with Roman Coppola.

Don’t let the obvious Anderson-isms get in the way. Yes, it’s set in Anderson’s universe, where life exists in wide-angle, with perfect lighting, everyone’s clothes are perfectly slimming, and technology all seems stuck in the 1960s while still somehow appropriate for now. Life in an Anderson project is always accompanied by amazing music, and the general tone is one of romantic despondency. These tropes might annoy you or delight you, but it’s inarguable that they are present.

Given all that, it might be tempting to smile at the whimsy, the retro aesthetic, and the feeling that Bill Murray might pop up in the corner at any moment.

But this is also classic, archetypal manvertising.

It’s fascinating to see it filtered through Anderson’s sensibility, but it’s unquestionably here. It might be loaded up with retro gadgets and hip design, but this is a man cave. It’s breached by a woman, who then fails utterly to operate the technology as soon as the male master of the space leaves (to go to his OTHER man cave, no less). In fact, her ineptitude is so severe that his technology literally makes her disappear.

As soon as he returrns, presumably for a sexual encounter, the punch line is offered: he’s in love with his Stella Artois beer, not her. She was unnecessary all along.

I can’t help but see other manvertising campaigns echoed here, despite all the Andersonian detachment and coolness. First, recall the Smirnoff campaign from a couple years ago where a guy stands at a table at a party operating various gadgets and gizmos. “Think of everything” was the tagline, referring not only to the technologies but also to the brand. Here’s a few spots:

Then there’s the very obvious man cave imagery happening, which continues to be a staple of manvertising. Women’s mere presence, in these sorts of ads, causes anxiety. The entire PURPOSE, after all, of a “man cave” is to keep women out. It’s nothing more than the “boys only” treehouse updated for adults. There are myriad examples of this, but here’s one I haven’t put up before, for Carlton beer.

The entire premise of the man cave is built around the anxiety caused by women. It exists because of their presence. Lest you think Wes Anderson hasn’t hinted around at these themes before, take another look at his films: boys’ clubs populate his narratives, and man caves abound, though they are rarely as explicit as those in beer commercials. In this way his work seems to conform to what David Greven notes about these tensions: men want to be safely with each other and away from women, but still need them to prove their heterosexuality, thus necessitating occasional allowed visits into the male spaces.

Exactly what’s happening in Anderson’s Stella Artois commercial.

Finally, and most importantly, there’s the punch line. Take a look at this Miller Lite commercial, one of many in a campaign with this same theme:

I’ve always found the very premise of these ads to be absurd. The joke is that men love their beer more than their partners? But that’s manvertising: exaggerated sexist humor that displaces all the tension and anxiety simmering under the surface into laughter that can be easily dismissed. In other words, you can’t take it seriously because it’s already so ridiculous.

But it most definitely can be taken seriously. The “me or your beer” theme is really just a variation on the man cave. The beer represents something that’s threatened by women’s presence, an anxiety literalized in the Miller Lite commercial. It’s not just about beer, it’s about some indescribable male “right” to an autonomous masculinity, untouched by the controlling forces of femininity. That Miller Lite commercial is a prototype for why this blog exists at all.

Ultimately, just how different is Anderson’s Stella Artois commercial? It might be dressed up in his trademark imagery, music, and sensibility, but at it’s core it’s really just another beer commercial marketing “autonomy” to men threatened by femininity. Don’t be fooled.

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