Media Analysis Essay #1 Final

Amelia Matzke

Section 303

Word Count: 1,491

In today’s world, it is almost impossible to go a day without seeing some sort of advertisement.

According to a Yankelovich (2007), a marketing firm, the average person sees about 5,000

advertisements per day. About half of the roughly 4,000 people surveyed thought marketing

today was out of control. With so many advertisements seen each day, how can marketers ensure

not only that their ads are seen, but remembered? The best ads have effective communication

strategies. According to Christopher Wells (2017), a Journalism professor at UW Madison, the

best communication is designed to effect a change in belief, attitude or behavior. In this essay I

will analyze a Coors Light advertisement, that is part of their “Climb On” campaign. The “Climb

On” campaign began in the early months of 2016, and has continued through present day. The

Coors Light advertisement was effective because it succeeded in defining its purpose,

strategically placing the advertisement in an appropriate context, used content that complimented

its purpose and accomplished targeting its designated market.

The purpose of a successful advertisement will answer these two questions: Who do you

want to reach? And what do you want them to do? If either of these are lost or unclear to the

consumer, communication between the marketer and the consumer will not be successful.

Advertisers want to make the consumer aware of their product or service. The purpose of this

Coors Light Ad was not only to sell beer, but to sell beer to women. According to MillerCoors

Chief Marketing Officer David Kroll (Story, 2016), the “Climb On” campaign is an effort to

encourage not only men, but women to celebrate the mountains they climb with a cold,

refreshing Coors Light." Beer, which is stereotypically a drink for men, has been slightly down

in sales the past few years. In Sex, Lies, and Advertising by Gloria Steinem (1990), she discusses

how advertising, specifically in women’s magazines, has been viewed as more as a “catalog”, as

she describes it, rather than a valuable source of journalistic information. She argues women

should not be discredited and taken seriously in advertising. I feel this Coors Light ad, which

advertises beer – a stereotypical male drink– keeps Steinem’s argument in mind by showing that

beer is not only a drink for men, but also for women. The ad features two younger women,

probably between the ages of 25-40, lifting a wall presumably for a new house that is being built.

By putting two women at the forefront of the ad, Coors Light in implicitly saying to its

consumers that not only do men drink beer, but women as well. The women are not drinking

beer, in fact the picture really doesn’t have anything to do with the brands beer at all. It appears

the women are contributing to a volunteer project. By showcasing women doing volunteer work,

it suggests to consumers that Coors Light is possibly more than just a beer brand, and that they

care about other issues.

The context of an advertisement can play a huge role in its effectiveness. Context

includes where the ad was placed and its place in the greater campaign it is a part of. This

particular Coors Light ad I found was in an HGTV magazine. This makes a lot of sense knowing

the purpose of this advertisement. One of the purposes of this Coors Light advertisement was

to attract women consumers. According to HGTV magazine media kit (2017), 73% of its readers

are women. Of those women, the median age is 45.5. The median readership age for HGTV

magazine makes sense because that age bracket is probably looking at furniture or ideas for the

home. It goes without saying that that age bracket is of eligible drinking age, so it is fully

appropriate to place a beer advertisement in the magazine. The advertisement, as mentioned

before, is a part of Coors Light’s “Climb On” campaign. The brand’s website features quotes

saying “Whatever your mountain, climb on” and “Our mountains build resilience. Where others

see obstacles we see opportunity”. A video for the campaign says “Our mountains make us. Your

mountains make you.” The video showcases both men and women doing various physical

activities, clearly pushing themselves to their limits. The “mountains” people are experiencing

are all things people are tackling in their lives. Things ranging from sporting events to things like

volunteer work, as showcased in the HGTV magazine ad. The “Climb On” campaign is well

done in that consumers can tell the ads are all linked to each other. Similar color schemes and

copy writing help tie it all together. The overall campaign’s goal is to acknowledge that people

come from all walks of life, some “mountains” taller than others, but at the end of the day

everyone can enjoy a nice, cold, refreshing beer.

The content of an advertisement includes the scene, characters, brand name, copy

writing, and additional information deemed important to include in the ad. In this particular ad,

two plainly dressed women wearing shirts that read “volunteer” are lifting a wall for a house

being built. The two women are not looking at each other, but are what appears to be working

hard in their labor. In the upper left hand corner, a quote reading “Some mountains make us

better. Some make the world better. Climb on.” is spelled out in red writing. The red writing

matches the Coors logo that is spelled out largely along the right hand side of the advertisement.

In the bottom right hand corner is a can of Coors Light. The picture is used in the ad is in all

black and white, a stark contrast to the bright red reading of “Coors”. In the left hand corner in

small, barely recognizable print reads “Great Beer. Great Responsibility.”

A marketer’s target market is the “who” is “who do you want to reach?” Usually brands

advertise to those who already buy their product. Target markets are decided using a process

called market segmentation. This means dividing the market based on demographics to create a

more effective appeal (Wells, 2017). I believe from this particular Coors Light ad in the HGTV

magazine their primary target market is middle-aged women. According to a study done by an

Alcoholic Beverage DemandTracker survey (Cowell, 2013), 26 percent of women stated beer as

their favorite alcoholic drink in September of 2013, as slight increase from the previous year (24

percent). In comparison, in September of 2013 51 percent of men stated beer as their favorite

alcoholic beverage, a decrease from the 54 percent noted the previous year. As stated by s the

Beverage Media Group website (2016), women represent a fourth of all United States beer

consumption by volume. Not only are women a hot demographic for marketers, but the

millennial age bracket is also a market segment marketers are targeting. Thirty-seven percent of

Millennials, who now age roughly between the ages of 19 and 35, say beer is their drink of

choice (Who is the New Beer Consumer?, 2012). According to an article posted on Brewer’s

Association written by Julia Herz (2016), millennials make up 41 percent of weekly beer

drinkers. With this information in mind, it makes sense that Coors Light would choose to have

two women, roughly between the ages of 25 and 40, to be the face of this particular

advertisement.

The primary purpose of this advertisement was to target millennial/middle-aged women,

and entice them to buy Coors Light beer. The advertisement was effective in its

purpose because it used its target audience at the forefront of its ad. By placing the ad in the

HGTV magazine, a magazine with a high female readership (73%), it was proactive in

strategically placing it in an appropriate context. Its content supported its purpose by using

females as the main characters of the ad. By using copy that coincides with similar messages in

other parts of the greater campaign, it brings it together and helps consumers know and recognize

the campaign on its various media platforms. Its target market was emphasized in its choice of

characters, both in their gender choice (female) and relative age bracket (roughly 25-40). In

conclusion, I believe the Coors Light “Climb On” advertisement was effective in its

communication skills and fulfilled its intended function.

References

Cowell, C. (2013, November 11). Survey: Women drinking more beer, men drinking less? Retrieved from Craft Brewing Business website: https://www.craftbrewingbusiness.com

Herz, J. (2016, August 15). TODAY’S CRAFT BEER LOVERS: MILLENNIALS, WOMEN AND HISPANICS. Retrieved from Brewers Association website: https://www.brewersassociation.org

Our Reader. (2017). HGTV Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.hgtvmagmediakit.com

Steinem, G. (1990). Sex, Lies, and Advertising. In R. W. McChesney & B. Scott (Eds.), Our Unfree Press (pp. 160-176).

Story, L. (2007, January 15). Anywhere the Eye Can See, It’s Likely to See an Ad. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com

Wells, C. (Presenter). (2017, March 6). Mass Communication. Lecture presented at J201 Lecture, UW Madison, Madison, WI.

Who is The New Beer Consumer? (2012, May 1). Retrieved from Beverage Media Group website: https://www.beveragemedia.com