Contemporary Trends in Sport, Beer Advertising and Masculinity: New Zealand's Speight's ‘Southern Man’ 2.0

Abstract

Purpose – To explore the contested nature of masculinity through an examination of contemporary promotional culture associated with a predominantly masculine commodity – beer. More specifically, the analysis focuses on the representations of masculinity in two New Zealand beer advertisements spanning a 25-year period.

Design/methodology/approach – The chapter is divided into four sections: (1) a brief overview of the contemporary crisis of masculinity; (2) the role of the media and promotional culture in representing and reproducing crises of masculinity; (3) The Holy Trinity: Sport, Beer and Masculinity and (4) analysis of two promotional campaigns for New Zealand beer brand Speight's. Here, the original series ad from 1992 is compared and contrasted with the 2019 instalment using Strate's (1992) framework which conceptualizes beer advertisements as ‘manuals of masculinity’, in order to track potential changes over time.

Findings – The results highlight the enduring value of Strate's (1992) framework of beer advertisements as manuals of masculinity. In addition, the results reveal that while the representation of masculinity in Speight's beer advertising has changed over time, key themes related to exclusive male spaces, physical labour and the core value of ‘mateship’ remain.

Research limitations/implications – Within the context of globalization, promotional culture operating at both the global and local level can cultivate images of masculinity that represent and reproduce the existing gender order, but it can also confront and disrupt it.

Citation

Jackson, S.J. and Gee, S. (2020), "Contemporary Trends in Sport, Beer Advertising and Masculinity: New Zealand's Speight's ‘Southern Man’ 2.0", Gee, S. (Ed.) Sport, Alcohol and Social Inquiry (Research in the Sociology of Sport, Vol. 14), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 29-45. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1476-285420200000014003