Masculinity, Place, and Beer Advertising in New Zealand: The Southern Man Campaign

Abstract

The ‘Southern Man’ advertising campaign for Speight's beer mobilizes imagery of the South Island High Country to present a particular construction of masculine identity. The paper examines the background to the campaign and explores the meaning and impact of the advertisements.

Leisure corporations, beer brand culture, and the crisis of masculinity: the Speight’s ‘Southern Man’ advertising campaign

“…Within a New Zealand context, beer advertising frequently uses easily recognisable stereotypical representations of Kiwi masculine identity (Law, 1997(Law, , 2006. One such well-known beer-associated Kiwi bloke stereotype is located in the Speight's 'Southern Man' advertising campaign.…”

“…While previous advertisements in the 'Southern Man' campaign centred on certain anxieties specific to current issues in New Zealand (i.e. moving North for a girl in 'City Girl'; the drain of resources from the South to the North in 'Changing Tracks'), they remained successful because the ads were crafted with a gentle Southern Man humour to assuage the anxiety (Law, 1997). Both 'Nightmare' and 'Progress' continue in this fashion and, as we suggest, highlight anxieties about the possible effects of a modernising contemporary society on the archetypical Southern Man identity.…”

“…In this light, the nostalgic use of rural landscapes, sounds of the harmonica, and characters representative of the frontier region of southern New Zealand all serve to articulate the Speight's beer and brand with a timeless hegemonic P[ a m a c r ] keh[ a m a c r ] masculinity. The use of nature and landscapes in particular has been identified as a key strategy for drawing upon nostalgia (Law, 1997). As Law notes, 'although the ads are not explicitly set in the past, the depiction evokes nostalgia for simpler times and a poignant recognition that this way of life is threatened ' (1997, p. 25).…”

The Southern Man city as cultural place and Speight's Space: locating the masculinity-sport-beer ‘holy trinity’ in New Zealand

“…Loyalty to the [Otago] team among fans was easily transferred into loyalty to [Speight's] beer'. 27 Indeed, sports sponsorship was a vehicle through which Speight's could tactically advertise the Speight's brand, especially considering the alcohol advertising restrictions for radio and television at the time. 28 In 1995 -1996 rugby union in New Zealand went through a radical transformation from an amateur game to professional sport, offering new forms of sponsorship opportunities for Speight's.…”

Bitching about a billboard: Advertising, gender and canine (re)presentations

“…The foregoing examples will be familiar to many New Zealanders, given that advertising permeates our everyday lives, and through the presence of billboards, constitutes a discernable component of the built environment (Law 1997). To this extent, billboards literally take place and help create place .…”