Ways we could have known it was coming

Just popping in to record something. We’ve had discussions about voter identity formation and the ways in which it depends on non-policy intangibles like trust and relatability. We’ve also had discussions about the ways in which the job of POTUS has been demystified to the point where voters might think vision and force of will are all that are needed. Early signs that Trump could build a movement and squeak out an electoral win.

Today, someone told me to “go back to [my] latte” when I questioned whether the pack of billionaires Trump is appointing constitutes draining the swamp. The latte reference, combined with “jagoff” gave me high school flashbacks of being mocked for books, playing the trumpet, D&D, and generally being a ‘fag’. “Fag” was acceptable then and is useful today to describe the ways in which people can have contempt for your manhood without suggesting you’re gay, or even caring that you’re gay. (Watch Denis Leary’s Rescue Me episodes where they come to terms with someone who is gay in their firehouse. They do the commendable work of showing how men can be OK with homosexuality as well as their queasiness about it, but still get to use fag, fairy, and gay to question someone’s underlying masculinity.) Still it’s hard to use “fag” without the needed disclaimers, so I’ll do it sparingly- when I think it’s the clear subtext. Looking back over various interactions with friends and acquaintances since Trump’s ‘win’, I’ve seen the us verus them undertones: about the nature of my professional work, references to my hands being soft or used at all, and my consumption choices – all in the service of calling me a fag in some way.

Which brought me back to two Budweiser Super Bowl Ads. If I were man enough to watch the Super Bowl (I treat it as a day off to do my own shit and wander the world free of crowds while people huddle in front of their TVs), I might have been much less complacent about Trump.

The first was for the 2015 Super Bowl, mocking the craft beer world and its devotees:

I’ve spent some time in my career close to, some would force me to say actually in, advertising. I’ve learned that the best ads are lovingly crafted with an insane attention to detail. Advertising creatives are masters at loading every frame of a spot with cultural meaning. Ads like this, which carry such powerful cultural force, should be Zaprudered with every frame under the microscope. But I don’t have that kind of time, so I will share some quick observations:

the people drinking Bud are in the presence of hot women in tight t-shirts, the fags drinking craft beer only hang out with their equally wussy guy friends
the hot women who bring the men beers have strong arms and tattoos (probably from yoga, but the illusion is clear)
the guys do faggy things with their beers like sniff them and hold them up to the light like they were drinking fucking wine or something
not only do they require glasses for their sipping and tasting, they even have fancy boards to serve their sips
they don’t have ‘facial hair’ per se as men do, they have ironic mustaches and side burns cut and waxed into shapes with names and which require “product”
and they are soft, doughy, fuss buttons
they are other, they are THEM

Within the industry, the 2015 spot got some static from craft beer makers, but it was generally considered a success. Interestingly, though, Budweiser’s 2016 spot was titled and themed #Notbackingdown. The static in 2015 was minor and registered at about 1,000,000th of the impact of a Super Bowl spot, but in 2016, the brand played the role of persecuted regular guy. This contrived persecution allowed Bud to stand defiantly against an enemy that didn’t really exist. Where have we seen that before?

The second spot didn’t go after fags as blatantly as the first one, but there’s a clear undercurrent of real men and the women who love them. (The link works as of this posting, ignore the 50s-era dead signal signal.)

“Not for everyone” – again with the note of us and them, but with the interesting Silent Majority inversion – even though we know we are everyone, we will not be made less so by THEM
hot women still dig the Bud drinker and are even charmed by the grumpy confused old man who wonders how the fuck this piece of fruit got in his beer
fruit cup, clever way of talking about beer problems while calling the drinkers fags
Not imported: is there a more powerful symbol of globalization and the new economy than container ships?
“Not soft” doesn’t need unpacking. But if you Zapruder this spot, you’ll see hard hands swinging kegs and cases, and men operating seriously big fucking equipment, not playing with their beer making kits from Whole Foods. No freaking way these guys use product!
Rock and Roll – cymbals, guitar chords, head-banging – no techno, synth, folk, girls with guitars, ecstasy raves, alt-rock wine-sipping, or turntablist shit here.