Does Miller High Life get to claim that, just like Foster’s, its beer ad is only poking fun at homophobia, rather than endorsing it? In the clip above, from a national TV ad campaign reader Jack alerts us to, we see a Miller rep going door-to-door to sponsor regular people. All is well until he encounters some weirdo shaving his chest, which you could interpret as a representation of a gay man, or simply just somebody who doesn’t fit Miller’s definition of masculinity. Either way, it’s yet another example of a giant corporation throwing what it perceives as feminine guys under the bus to sell some more booze. Did we mention Miller High Life’s manufacturer, the Miller Brewing Company, has been nominated for a GLAAD Media Advertising Award this year for its Miller Lite brand? Shake our right hand, while stepping on our left.
advertising
GLAAD Award Nominee Miller Beer’s Wonderfully Stereotypical Television Ad Spits On Fem Guys
Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...
We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?
Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated
Stanley
Fem, sissy guys are kind of annoying, to be honest. Whenever they open their mouth and a purse falls out, I feel like running away. A lot of them are really self-centered and into catty gossip. Some of them are so feminine, it’s like they’re androgynous — I’m like, are you a male or a female?
I know I’m a total bottom and have no desire to ever top. But even then, almost everyone tells me that I can pass for a straight guy in public.
I guess I’m just traditional, but boys are supposed to grow up to be masculine men, and girls are supposed to grow up to be feminine women. While it is somewhat acceptable for a girl to be a “tomboy”, nobody wants to see a boy grow up to become a prissy sissy…..
John
Shut up, Stanley. The biggest queens – the ones who protest the most about their supposed butch cred – tend to be the most ‘obvious.’
Something tells me you’re most likely an insecure, soft and pudgy nancy boy. You dislike fems because you see yourself reflected… and you hate it.
SteamPunk
@Stanley: “…open their mouth and a purse falls out…”
It’s worth noting that, while you were stating how annoying you find feminine guys, you managed to quote Kurt from “Glee”, a very feminine (and awesome) gay guy.
😉
~PR~
@Stanley: Dude, you aren’t traditional, you are a conformist. Society sets those guidelines in place and not everyone can live up to thos ideals. Those that can’t are labeled as deviant or deffective.
I, being a gay male who slightly effeminate (really effeminate when I drink… hey) chose to buck “tradition” for a more encompassing view of men and women. When we keep abiding by this “tradition” you follow, we continue to enforce the notion that it is actually ok to treat gay people differently because, no matter how close we are to that ideal, because we have sex with the same sex we will NEVER reach it. Your tradition clearly sucks. Teach yourself new tricks.
Kev C
So the richest guy in the neighborhood is fem and doesn’t swill cheap beer. Not a problem.
rhen
fuck growing up the way we’re “supposed” to. fuck stereotypes and fuck tradition. be yourself and never let anyone tell you who you are supposed to be.
averageguy40
I don’t see a problem. I think it’s kind of funny. You know there’s nothing wrong with laughing at ourselves every once in a while. Lighten up, it’ll do you good.
divkid
stanley says: “I know I’m a total bottom and have no desire to ever top.”
can someone clear this up for me. this is my one sticking point (no pun intended) with the gay male thing. is this a fixed identity/role thats meant to connote submissive (fem) v active (masc). isn’t that a bit 1950s
or is it merely an expectation that the schlong-meister is expected to to get in the driving seat.
enquiring minds want to know!
ps notwithstanding the above remark, stanley, your masculine virile pheromones are so so strong it’s sending my cat into oestrous. and im sprouting back hair just thinking about you!
grrrrr u da maaaan!!!
:)
@SteamPunk: The expression is older than the actor.
Matt
@Kev C: Exactly.
Dominic
Don’t you love it when there are more comments on the comments than there are on the post?
Francis
Yeah, it’s pretty offensive. Although it isn’t homophobic in itself, it’s misogynistic. Which, quite frankly, is one of the top 2 or 3 reasons for homophobia. All of this stupid “men should be men” bullshit needs to end but it won’t because of people like Stanley who have no self-esteem and extremely fragile ego’s.
Mark from Queensland
I don’t know about many things up there, but don’t a lot of the straight guys shave their chests up there? Either the yanks are having a problem with testosterone and chest hair growing up there or else there’s a lot of blokes shaving, waxing and whatever else they do to get a smooth set of pecs…which I find very unattractive – give me a furry chest any day!
Shannon1981
Ok yup, definitely call homophobia on this one. There’s no way around it. Totally different vibe from the Foster’s ad. Queerty, will you send this to GLAAD??
Lindsay
Stanley is part of the problem.
Robbie K
I don’t mind the commercial what is more hilarious is Stanley’s comments, turning this topic into some sort of trainwreck craigslist advertisement for himself with the sash as Miss Total Bottom 1984
GetBalance
Damn where to start. I thought it was a chick who just had a masectomy! But then im watching it on a cell phone which doesn’t bode well for a tiny razor.
I don’t mind fem guys, but i dont like in your face faggots with an attack mode always on the go. Yeh think A-list NY. I dont think of them as fem, i think of them as faggoteers. I get they are over-rot w issues but they are Truly Fucking annoying. Hey we all have our limits. This commercial had neither.
The commercial was just plain wierd, and after rethinking it, i don’t think it was discriminating at all. I think the Miller guy was just taken off guard. Miller doesn’t discriminate from what I can tell but like to show shock value. Were the higher ups trying to be vicious? Nah. That’s an insecure stretch from my viewpoint.
Jeffree
Ignore the sad vapid troll Stanley. It feeds on attention and it is insatiable. It’s just here to keep us off topic.
Miller’s ad is just unfunny & misogynistic. At least the Fosters’ ad had a hawt tamale in it !
jcknck
@averageguy40: I agree that we should try to take ourselves less seriously more often. But, there is a difference when a large corporation is “poking fun” at us and when we are doing it ourselves, right? I’m guessing a high-powered queer at Miller is definitely not behind this. It seems like it is more of an attempt to make the stereotypical man feel like he’s part of an in-crowd, while pushing away effeminate men (and also completely ignoring women).
@GetBalance: I agree that it isn’t as blatantly discriminating as the Foster’s ads, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a discriminating message in it. As youth, more often than not, we feel ostrasized because we are told that we are not fitting into the box of a straight kid. Again, Miller wants the stereotypical manly man. And hey, even though I don’t shave my chest, have a yappy dog, or listen to techno music, I still feel like I identify with that fem guy in the commercial than with the other guys. And Miller is saying, “Hey, you are manly enough to drink Miller High Life,” and then hands us a bottle of Miller Lite. Its infuriating!
JAW
Funny ad… not homophobic… If I rang the doorbell of a person not known to me… and he opened the door with shave cream on his chest and a razor in hand… I would go running also.
Remember we create the stereotypes… the straight people just use what we create
MissGina
Nobody noticed that the big, burly delivery man had the nelliest, most plucked eyebrows?
GetBalance
Jcknck
I know where ur coming from. I see the guy as a hot metro-sexual but didn’t see gay or fem perse, but different, Yeh for sure. I may be a bit biased as i thought the guy was way hot and didn’t fit a neg stereotype. But i could see how it could be a slam on metrosexuals, a term pretty much lost by now but it’s the only “group” i can think of. I guess all this discrimination jettesons us into hypergear to own ourselves which is our best offense and defense.
Kev C
@GetBalance: I do think it was negative. If Buffalo Bill answers the door sashaying to loud dance music, run away!
Steve
I think only homophobes would automatically equate “effiminate man” with “gay man.” So Queerty, way to go.
jonjon1968
I wouldn’t mind this commercial so much if it weren’t for the fact that they keep using the same anti-sissy theme in this series of ads. Miller is saying that less than macho men are not good enough for their product. Isn’t it also Miller Lite ads that ridicule the guy with the “man purse” and the one with the tramp stamp? Seems to me that Miller Brewing has been on one note with their advertising for awhile now and frankly, I find it offensive.
Shannon
START boycotting the damn product then..
Harbo
I don’t think its homophobic. It’s just dumb. The ad agency seems to have run out of ideas.
Jeff
Since “Miller Beer” is little more than an oxymoron, its easy to think you can write this ad off. Its obvious from the ad that Miller would like people who believe they meet the John Wayne myth/stereotype to identify with Miller. The stereotype is so stupid that the only way they can define the stereotype is by rejecting people who would be rejected by the people that believe they meet the stereotype.
That GLAAD gave Miller an award for a beer doesn’t surprise me. I don’t think GLAAD has been doing a lot for anyone but themselves of late. I’ve been donating to them for years and i think its time i stop, don’t you?
Russ
@JAW:
What Stereotype is being created here? When did shaving your chest become such a feminine thing to do. All through out high school I shaved my body when I was on the swim team. Bicyclists shave their legs, I know a tonne of guys that trim their pubic hair. What plant does this corporation live on?
Jeffree
Why would any guy in the middle of shaving his chest hair OPEN the door?
His problem isn’t being fem/ metrosexual
but being a moh-ron.
The commercial is all around lame. I think it’s more about guys doing lady stuff than actual stuff that just gay guys supposedly do.
[Some older guys DYE their chest hair too. Seen it at the gym.] What’s the world coming to, eh what ?
Jeff
@Russ: Your point about shaving to swim faster is fair enough, however, my remark was concerning what i believed their intention to be and how i believe the group at whom they are aiming this ad will receive it.
Michael
Miller is simply illustrating the obvious. Gay men do not drink Miller beer, even in the privacy of their homes whilst shaving their chests.
onehundredeight
The dance house music. The small dog yapping. The long, shiny hair. The chest shaving. The perfectly groomed lawn. Come on, it’s obviously a gay stereotype, and I think it is very offensive, and I don’t appreciate it. GLAAD should forget rewarding them for anything.
James P.
why is it that woman can have tons of commercials about making them feel/look/behave more feminine, but guys can’t have something APPROACHING celebrating masculinity without someone drawing the asinine conclusion that promoting masculinity is synonymous with hating pussy boy fags?
this connection is only drawn in one’s own head… it’s not actually THERE.
and yet, on Grindr, Adam4Adam, Manhunt, etc., it’s perfectly acceptable to say “I’m a MAN and I like MEN. Not into fem’s or fatties. Hairy +++”
Fosters? i am ASHAMED at anyone with such little brain activity as to not see how it was making fun of homophobia. I feel sorry for anyone who has to go through life that stupid.
Let people and businesses just BE. Until they come out with flat out anti-gay sentiment, all this ‘assuming’ is pointless. the difference between this, Foster’s, Snickers, etc. and companies like Chick-fa-la and Target is voluminous. why don’t we stay focused on companies that actually hate us rather then bother those who we just perceive who hate us?
nsomniac
To the author of this article .. REALLY ?? REALLY ?? You need to pick another career
glasshouses
There’s another stereotype pretty clearly at play: Real men are not just butch, they’re slobs with crappy houses! Oh, isn’t that funny!
Case in point: Look back at the background in the three shots: Scene one: dim room, shabby furniture, worse artwork, nothing matches.
Scene two: sitting in driveway, taking apart (you guessed it) a truck, and the lawn looks like crap.
Scene three: Ethan Allen fest.
sweetbrandigirl2004
Fem boys make me sick…either be a man or have a sex change and be a women but quit trying to be both.
Jeffree
@SweatyBrandiGrrl:
Wow, for someone who used to be a guy, you still have a lack of appreciation for the gender continuum. As evidenced by calling yrself a “girl” when in fact you’re a woman. You make me sick, not because youre Trans but because you’re so caught up in cultural trappings of gender. Blechhhh.
Jasun Mark
There’s nothing more tired than a guy who blathers on about how manly he is and crabs about the fembots who, I might add, are usually the biggest men once the pants hit the floor.
I’ve had a lot of supposed “straight acting” Guys wuss out while the softer-spoken guys start swearing like sailors and yell for more.
So there.
And Miller still sucks.
~PR~
@sweetbrandigirl2004: That’s on you, petunia. I find it unlikely that many will allow your opinion to carry much weight because with just a few silly words, you manage to insult (laughably) two different branches of queer culture. Great job. I for one think it is obvious that you are in need of a good shag. This bitterness only comes from the lack of it. Too many fem guys getting your potential man-meat? pity.
TheInsider
The biggest nellies are the muscle queens, who play macho and act so tough in the gym, though can’t throw a football to save their lives and are cattier than Joan Rivers.
So there.
roger
what a stupid ad.
asa1973
I think Stanley just said all that shit to get the reactions he got. His comments are laced with more caricature than sincerity. You fell for it.
The ad: stupid. Homophobic. Duh, LOSING.
JAW
@Russ:
I do not see an issues with it at all… only point I was trying to make was that; Many on here are the ones whining that it is homophobic and only gays shave.
as an FYI… if you ever need help with a shavedown, give a shout… did you do pubes etc to swim… or did not go that far?
mark snyder proud sissy
@Stanley: I’m a femmme top. A blouse. I hope that blows your little mind.
QuestionAll
Aside from debating this ad, does anybody care what GLAAD thinks or says anyway? It’s an irrelevant group.
Joe
yeah… pretty homophobic commercial, but then again, most of them are geared toward sexist douchebags
Shannon1981
@QuestionAll: GLAAD is irrelevant? Since when? It is one of the most easily recognized gay rights groups in the country. Even straight people know what GLAAD is.
jack
The ad is racist because it depicts the black beer spokesperson as an ignorant coward.
sweetbrandigirl2004
@Jeffree: Well to begin with Jeffree I was never a guy…I was born with a birth defect known as Gender Identity Dysphoria a condition that has now been corrected secondly I am not Trans in any way shape or form. My birth certificate doesn’t say trans female it simple says “female” as for me being caught up in the cultural trappings of gender on that point your right I thinks there’s men and there’s women and nothing else.
@ PR To answer your question ”
Too many fem guys getting your potential man-meat?” UH that be a NO since I’m a lesbian and not into men… as for me insulting two parts of LGBT culture your wrong just voicing my opinion.
Jim Hlavac
For those who don’t like the fem gays — it was raving sissies, drag queens and fems that rioted on a hot June night in 1969. The fem gays were the ones who said the hell with one more raid. Stonewall wasn’t any leather-levi or sports bar that’s for sure.
And weirdly, fem gays are an asset to gay folks that’s under appreciated: They are perceived as the least threatening by heteros, that’s why when heteros do the stereotype joke it’s a very fem gay they imitate. And because they are so visible, like say any hair-cutter at a shopping center haircut place, they show straight folks that we’re just pretty natural. Intuitively straight folks realize that fem gays are not faking it, and thus the idea lingers in their minds that it really is natural. It’s “str8 acting” gays that make straights nervous.
So, all you butch sissies, don’t pick on sissy sissies. We got enough problems without turning on each other.
Shannon1981
@sweetbrandigirl2004: Whether you like it or not, you are a transexxual. You are a woman who was born in a man’s body, and you had that situation corrected. That is the definition of transexxual. And there are some states where you are gasp! male. And yes, what you were saying is insulting to femme gay men and transexxuals. You effectively insult yourself every time you come here, and it is worse coming from you than it is coming from the homophobes and transphobes because you should know better.
Russ
@JAW:
LOL, JAW you’ll be the first guy I call when it’s time to get my shave on.
Eric Holder
And why must Miller promote the “African-Americans are all homophobic” stereotype?
Francis
This is way more misogynist that homophobic. The whole “gay=flaming” thing is offensive, almost as much as the fem bashing. Gay men who bash fems, and straight men who are “accepting” of the gays outside of fems, are only doing it because of insecurity, and because you’re so obsessed with following this make-believe man code, instead of being yourselves and living and let live.
Kenny
@Stanley:
You need to get a life what you are doing right now is the same thing as the BIGOTS do: judging others.There are not just one specific type of gay guy and I love that our community is multicultural unique and interesting artistic creative and full of energy love and life.
Your comments are ridiculous and the same thing as BULLYING someone else from being different then you are and its wrong.Whether gay straight bi lesbian or transgendered judging your LGBT brothers and sisters is wrong period.Otherwise….we are no better then those who persecute put us down and try to make us feel like second class citizens in this country.Embrace the differences and embrace love thats what this community is SUPPOSED to be about and this petty childish arrogant bullying of different types of gay guys and even bisexuals and transgendereds within the gay community really saddens me.
Kenny
@rhen:
Fantastic comment couldnt agree more. 😀
Jeff
@Shannon1981: I agree that it is recognized, but to be honest i don’t think they are doing much more of late than holding events to gather donations. I’ve been giving to them a little each month for many years and i’m beginning to believe that its time to give that money to some other organization that will take action on our behalf. I just checked Charity Navigator (http://tinyurl.com/4grnuv9) and it appears GLAAD is still a 3 out of 4 rated organization. The Charity Navigator rating is based on tax reporting, so it doesn’t really evaluate what, specifically, they have done for the LGBT community. Complicated isn’t it?
Nick T
@MissGina: a lot of black guys have really clean eyebrows. straight ones too. people swear that i get mine arched and cleaned, but I’ve never touched them. BTW, this ad is dumb and Im tired of people harping on fems.
Bobby
@Stanley:
I never understand people saying they pass for a straight guy. So you are that embarrassed of being gay you want to play a roll of an idea of who you are? WHAT is straight acting anyway? Really what is it? I have many straight male friends who people think are gay all the time and gay male friends who people don’t think are gay. Funny thing is the only time it is important is if you want to date or have sex with them. Other then that who cares. Get out of your closet. So you are butch. Many find that hot and some find feminine hot. I happen to like butch but I will not condemn “prissey” guys. I really don’t care I would rather stand proud with them as their friend. I don’t care how they act as I am secure with my own sexuality. Are you? You boast of being though of as straight. Wow. Who cares other then you?
TheRealAdam
@Bobby: Well, YOU would care, since you’ve made it more than obvious that you want some big butch daddy to tap that ass.
Soupy
You must understand that Stanley lives in shame and a state of disgrace. He is quite open about it.
Jackson
@sweetbrandigirl2004: Gender identiy dysphoria? Oh please. You wanted to fit in, and saw a shrienk who wanted to get paid and funded your sick fixation with gender norms. And there’s far more acceptance for fem gays than there are for perverts like yourself who went from male to female to female to lesbian to whatever the heck you are. YOU- a circus show who had to have body parts removed- are the last person to judge others for how they behave. How many rebirths has your poor body had to go through just so your twisted mind could “fit in” with societal norms? A post opt lesbian identity disorder individual commenting on how others should act…..man, there are some effed up people in this society.
Shannon1981
@Jeff: it is complicated. I admit to writing to them and urging others to do so when I see homophobic defamation in the media…but you’re right, IDK what they are doing ATM. But, I don’t think they are irrelevant.
fredo777
Yeah, I wasn’t sure if it was all that offensive just going by the comments/article I read before actually viewing the commercial. Though I’m not a hyper-sensitive person when it comes to matters of gay humor/good-natured ribbing, this is absolutely out of line. I mean, at the end of the day, the Miller rep happily informed the first two “real guys” that they were sponsored, but the idea of sponsoring this “not normal” guy as “real folk” was out of the question? Bottom-line, it’s like saying “people like you aren’t real folks”. Bullshit.
fredo777
@Jackson: “Gender identiy dysphoria? Oh please…”
While I might not agree with sweetbrandigirl’s comments, your response was way out of order, not to mention offensive to those in her situation who haven’t even participated in this conversation.
Dynex
This commercial is inappropriate because it perpetuates the notion that fem men in generally deserve to be belittled or ridiculed in a society that is already intolerant of difference. Our country, more so than any other, has this unhealthy fixation of how a MAN is supposed to act (slob, fat, kill, burp, smell, and have absolutely no emotions) and any man who dares defy that deserved a scolding…and this commercial, on top of not being funny, or original or selling the brand just further promotes that prejudice. I showed it to my two very hetero brothers and both said “this doesnt make me want to go out and drink that beer. it didn’t even make me laugh”
It’s simply an ad to offend for the sake of offending, and that to me is not what humor or advertising is about. Must be a weak crew working for Miller. Played out theme for a played out ad.
Rupert
you guys are SO GAY!
olen
@Stanley: That’s just your cultural misogyny sneaking in. It’ll wear off one day.
Taylor Siluwé
I wish I was a Miller drinker so I could stop.
Just saw this ad on TV for the first time; immediately came here because I knew it was being talked about – and rightly so.
MILLER to Gays: Man up before you touch our product.
But what’s unbelievable to me is the many voices who just don’t see that.
On another note: I guess any gay man who wasn’t already embarrassed to drink Miller in public might as well keep doing it. *sigh*
The sane Francis
Misogyny/gender stereotyping is extremely real, and this very forum shows the extreme pressure that many feel in fitting in with what you are “supposed” to act like as a man or woman. If you are proud in being straight acting, which is a term that in itself is impossible, then you are a weak person who has been damaged. Why people define themselves by their private parts I have no idea, but it’s a sick mentality to have.