The stereotype that gender consumption of beer and alcoholic seltzer kickstarted this research project. In the quantitative coding, all six counts of “seltzers” had women at the forefront of the commercial and in fourteen of the beer commercials men spearheaded the advertisement. For example, in the 2019 Bon and Viv Spiked Seltzer commercial titled “The Pitch”, two women are the only characters in the commercial. They explain that the beverage has “zero grams of sugar”, implying that women should be more interested in a lower sugar, potentially lower calorie, and healthy drink. In the Michelob Ultra commercial titled “Caddy” (2022). In this commercial, two men can be seen at a bar, one of which is acting as the other’s golf “caddy.” The man asks his caddy what he should order to drink and the caddy points out a woman at the other end of the bar drinking a Michelob Ultra Organic Seltzer. The caddy tells him that the drink has “zero sugar and zero carbs” and reiterates it’s healthiness by stating “did I mention it’s organic?” The emphasis on the healthiness of the alcoholic drink is embodied by the woman drinking it; the man has a hard time believing that such a drink exists.
Beer is often aligned with men and masculinity. In the 2005 Heineken “Walk in Fridge” commercial, men are forced on beer and want to drink it all. In the commercial, a group of four women walk into a closet filled with nice clothing and accessories and they begin to scream in excitement and awe. Soon after, the women’s screams are cut off by the men’s screams; when four men are shown the inside of a walk-in fridge that stores nothing but Heineken beer. Through stereotypes about women and men displayed within these commercials; women are portrayed as drinking lighter, healthier seltzers. While men are portrayed as avid and excited beer drinkers.