Bud Light's Paper, Rock, Scissors, Ouch!

Bud Light had seven ads that aired during Super Bowl 2007. Among them were some of the best of the night, in terms of creativity and humor. The "Paper, Rock, Scissors" ad was not one of the best. Check it below and see if you agree.

The 2007 Super Bowl ads, as a whole, were fraught with superfluous violence. Body organs were getting jumped on the street and beaten, beer drinkers were replacing fist bumping with face slapping, robots committing suicide, and men ripping out their own chest hair.

In this Bud Light ad, two men begin a round of civilized conflict resolution by playing a game of paper, rock, and scissors to decide who gets the last Bud Light. When one man plays "rock" he actually throws a rock, hitting his opponent in the head, knocking him down. He then takes the beer and walks away.

This is obviously meant to be slapstick violence. In the real world, it's obvious that no one would throw a rock at another person over a beer. And in the real world, there would have been at least one or two people who would have rushed to the assistance of the person who'd been attacked. Most people who watched this ad will understand that.

However, violent advertising, often geared towards men, does have an impact. Violence is often used in advertising when young men are the target audience. According to Media Awareness Network, "The message of these "attitude" ads links the flaunting of authority to being a rebel - with "attitude" packaged as a cool, desirable male trait." Additionally, "Even though these advertisements don't necessarily promote violent activities, they encourage "in-your-face" behavior in teenagers that can easily escalate into real-life violence."

Bud Light certainly isn't advocating violence with their ads on a conscious level, but subconsciously, there is a message that using aggressive means to get what you want is cool and even funny. It also implies that being aggressive will make you popular and have no negative consequences.

Bud Light's "Paper, Rock, Scissors" ad does not seem to have taken much imagination or creativity to develop. Anyone with a few episodes of the 3 Stooges on a DVD could have come up with the same thing. Bud Light took the easy way out with this ad.