"Thing"

There's the problem right there.

Actually, this could have been an awesome ad. Maybe show her and the beer uniting at the end and her enjoying it and then a slogan about comparing their beauty that doesn't literally turn her into an object...

I believe its a play on the fact that "Stella" is a woman's name...which is why it says "She's" a thing of beauty.

I'm reminded of the Clorox commercial pushing the history of the product: "Your mother did laundry, your grandmother ... maybe even a man or two."

Every single time my boyfriend watches that commercial, he gets incredibly upset and vociferously offended by its abject sexism; his working mother never did the laundry in his household: he did laundry from the time he was old enough to.

The message truly, truly offends him. And that's just one of the many, many reasons I love him!!

Good Lord...that's so awful...

... Yeaaah. Love that objectification.

Rarely will you see a man compared to any kind of object, but it's common to do so with a woman in advertising (and other media). Even in the history of imperialism, we have ships, "discovered" lands, and landmarks named for women.

Perhaps there are ads comparing men to objects? I wouldn't doubt, say, the man as big truck metaphor, or the "steel" metaphor. But these types of comparisons aren't really part of our cultural symbolism. Women are commonly compared to or fantasized as objects, partially turned into objects, and/or otherwise depicted as inanimate, lacking agency, weak, sick and/or dead in our cultural symbolism.

I'm curious -where does this air?

The tagline is 'merely' objectionable, but what really pushes the ad over the edge for me is the combination with the song lyrics.

[Roughly: "but it's him that you want, and you'll forget me bit by bit, I know - that the day will come when you'll fall into his arms, no you can't resist, he knows that it's stronger than you, and since he wants you, some day he'll have you".]

Good! Last thing I want to think about when there's an ad for Oscar Meyer Salami is some dude in a speedo!

"Rarely will you see a man compared to any kind of object, but it's common to do so with a woman in advertising (and other media)."

Yes, absolutely. It bothers me even more when the object to which the woman is compared is food or drink. (And it usually is.) Because after all, beautiful woman are to be consumed.

I won't be buying Stella.

Unfortunately it's just another in a long line of advertisements that reinforces the concept that women are to be bought and consumed as a commodity; in the literal sense of purchasing and drinking a "beautiful" beer (although one wonders how a person could objectively - or even subjectively for that matter - apply a term like beautiful to a beverage that does not have a set of exacting societal standards) and in the figurative sense that a beautiful (tall, blonde etc) woman needs to be "coerced" or purchased with dates and dinners and other activities before a man can own her.

However the one thing that advertising companies never hint at is that in order to consume a woman (ie. with the eyes) all one needs to do is be a street gawker. But a person cannot appreciate the beauty of the beer, although they would be at a big loss if you could, without literally spending money to own it.

It makes women look like objects, but it harms men equally by making them look gullible, primitive, and stupid.

This is really interesting, in the UK Stella has a reputation for being an extra-potent beer for the 'lads'. To the extent that people refer to it as 'wife beater' - man drinks Stella, becomes thug, goes home and abuses his partner. It's disgusting. When I was a barmaid I used to refuse service to anyone who called it that but it didn't make much difference.

This advert has all kinds of ick, but I'm glad to see Stella are trying to step away from their reputation - I'd far rather people think of a glass of beer as being like a beautiful women than associate that beer with the normalisation of domestic violence. That said, I'm not sure if this advert even airs in the UK? In which case, just ick.

This is really interesting, in the UK Stella has a reputation for being an extra-potent beer for the 'lads'. To the extent that people refer to it as 'wife beater' - man drinks Stella, becomes thug, goes home and abuses his partner. It's disgusting. When I was a barmaid I used to refuse service to anyone who called it that but it didn't make much difference.

This advert has all kinds of ick, but I'm glad to see Stella are trying to step away from their reputation - I'd far rather people think of a glass of beer as being like a beautiful women than associate that beer with the normalisation of domestic violence. That said, I'm not sure if this advert even airs in the UK? In which case, just ick.