COORS LIGHT VERSUS BUD: Or Coors Light versus Bud ads, anyhow. You notice these things watching football: the Bud ads appear to be targeted toward working people, the Coors Light ads toward idiot fratboys. Have you seen both these ads? The Bud ad goes through every aspect of a football game day at a personal level (I guess)--it shows people making foam hands, taking tickets, the players and the guys in the broadcast booth preparing for the game. The Coors Light has smirky lyrics and faux-rock about the blonde twins in the ad, played over rapid-fire images of young people IN ACTION. It's incredibly indistinct, and--I mean--I can't believe this works, even on fratboys.

The Bud ad has neat little moments--the foam hands coming off the assembly and examined by a worker. A group of refs come out of their ref-room, full of dorky swagger; one looks up at the camera with a goofy grin on his face. The cheerleaders are walking out and the one in front is blabbering something to the other one in front right before they walk outside into the lights and clamour--and then, when they do walk out, we see the transformation from woman to hottie-boom-bottie cheerleader. In the Coors Light ad, your cheerleader is a cheerleader and nothing more. In fact, nobody in that ad exists as anything other than an image, where the Bud manages to add character and depth within the space of thirty seconds--which is to say, within the limits of the form. So, thank you, Coors, for continuing to pour crap into the mediasphere, and thank you Bud for sprucing it up a little.