Postmodern beer advertising from Molson?

This is kind of hard to believe, but also quite remarkable.

After years of serving up ads that insinuiate that drinking their brand of beer will make you attractive to the opposite sex, Molson has decided to go meta.

The above ad, according to Sociological Images, appeared in Cosmopolitan. Just look at that sensitive, but ruggedly manly, dude with the adorable puppies and matching sweater and cap. A fine catch for any heterosexual woman! And look here! He's drinking a Molson!

While not very credible in its forced cuddliness, this ad probably went unnoticed between all the photoshopped boobs and bums that make up most of the ads in a women's mag.

But then someone caught wind of the other side of the campaign, that ran in FHM and Playboy:

Copy:

HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF WOMEN.
PRE-PROGRAMMED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE. 

As you read this, women across America are reading something very different: an advertisement (fig. 1) scientifically formulated to enhance their perception of men who drink Molson. The ad shown below, currently running in Cosmopolitan magazine, is a perfectly tuned combination of words and images designed by trained professionals.  Women who are exposed to it experience a very positive feeling.  A feeling which they will later project directly onto you. Triggering the process is as simple as ordering a Molson Canadian (fig. 2).
…
Extravagent dinners.  Subtitled movies. Floral arrangements tied together with little pieces of hay. It gets old.  And it gets expensive, depleting funds that could go to a new set of of 20-inch rims. But thanks to the miracle of Twin Advertising Technology, you can achieve success without putting in any time or effort. So drop the bouquet and pick up a Molson Canadian…

Sociological Images editor Lisa Wade (a respected blogging ally, I should disclose) was offended by the ruse, writing "The second ad, then, portrays men as lazy, shallow jerks who are just trying to get laid (not soft and sensitive at all). And it portrays women as stupid and manipulable."

But I think Molson was on to something here. And it has to do with the nature of the trick.

There is no way any male reader of those magazines would take the "Male" ad seriously. It is a parody of the many "how to pick up girls" ads that have been gracing those kinds of publications since the '60s.

It also needs to be seen in context of the culture of pranking Millennials have grown up with. While some women might be offended by the goofy trick, others may get as much of a laugh out of it as the men.

What do you think?

UPDATE: Åsk, from Adland, tells me this campaign is old. Like, real old. (It's always good to know the internet's longest-running ad blogger!)

Playboy energy drink ads almost as stupid as the brand extension

I guess with the failure of the Playboy Club show, and the increasing die-off of old men who still like their softcore pornography in print form, Playboy needs to find ways to be relevant. And so they extend the brand to the breaking point by trying to associate sugary caffeine pops with male sexual mastery. "Energy to play?" These read like bad student work, except that the cultural references are more suitable for men in their 50s. I wonder if they contain viagra?

Via AOTW

The women of Mad Men as vintage Playboy covers

Fan art is such a weird part of internet culture. Thinking about the amount of time it must take to create something that will make the viral rounds for a few days and be promptly forgotten baffles me.

Case-in-point:

Joan in Playboy. Via Tauntr. It's astute, creative and brilliantly executed. After all, Christina Hendricks gets all the credit for bringing Marilyn-style voluptuousness back to the popular definition of beauty. This in itself is a cool piece of pop art that says all kinds of things about that era, as well as how far we really haven't come. Christina Hendricks continues to complain that all people ever talk about is her body, while also working it on the red carpet at every opportunity. This cover, and the look on her face, seem to sum up the conflict in real life, as well as on the show — where she often regrets the way she has used sex to be taken seriously by men. (Later addition: She also simultaneously reminds me of the Virgin Mary and a vampire.)

And then the artist messes up everything by bringing Betty and Trudy into it, just because they're attractive:

And why the hell isn't she "Miss January"?

Totally wrecked it, because now it's just about being hot in a '60s way. And where's Peggy? I guess she doesn't cut it.

And then, the artist throws a joke one in there:

Seriously, anonymous fan artist. You could have quit while you were ahead, instead of showing everyone that your masterpiece of artistic social commentary was just a fluke.

F'd Ad Fridays: Brazilian Playboy turns men's nethers into puddles of goo

Kramer? That you?

 Not a mental image I want to associate with guys looking at skin mags. At least they weren't wearing white pants.

This is the first time anyone's held a centrefold with both hands.

Via Copyranter