Andrea Francesca S.

Camago They Say, I Say Paper

B Public Administration English 13 (WFW1) Grp 2

Red Horse Commercial Synthesis Paper

After surveying four papers about the Red Horse commercial entitled “ID”, this brought light to
numerous controversies found in the commercial. These are mainly the following: masculinity issues, it
being a “rite of passage” to adulthood and strength, and objectification of women.

Starting with masculinity issues, the main character’s actions showed masculinity problems.
According to Bayud (2019), drinking Red Horse is a symbol for being manly, the more you drink, the
stronger you get physically and socially dominant, giving you a reputation of being masculine. Red Horse
wants to instill that by buying their product, you are buying masculinity for you to be socially accepted by
men. The commercial also creates gender norms about men that they should know how to drink, that
they are only considered real men if they can drink their hard liquor (Dolor, 2019). This unfortunately
stigmatized men and how they may be considered weak if they do not ingest Red Horse beer (hard liquor).
Sundiang (2019) also agreed with that statement, saying “If a person cannot consume and tolerate large
amounts of alcohol, then they are perceived as weak”.

The commercial depicts the voice-over asking the main character “kaya mo na ba?”, indicating
that Red Horse is asking males if they are ready for their own “rite of passage”. Bayud (2019) states that
by drinking Red Horse, you are being marked as mature and strong- the mark of an adult. This is related
to the first point, because of Red Horse claiming to be the strongest beer. By asking the main character if
“kaya mo na ba?”, he is asking if they are ready to drink something stronger. Hence, also agreeing to
Albano’s (2019) claim that drinking Red Horse is a definition of strength

Lastly, the commercial deals with plenty of objectification problems against women. According to
Albano (2019), “Women are also shown as rewards and indicators of achievements for men”. When
alcohol comes into the picture, usually women are seen with it. This type of commercials advocates for
misogyny against women.

In conclusion, I agree that the commercial has the issues that were pointed out above. However,
I think the company’s greed and desire for profit also affect why the commercial is made that way. Red
Horse’s main goal is to make a profit, so they used these subtle elements of being praised for drinking Red
Horse and women to entice the audience to purchase Red Horse. One factor why I believe the commercial
is effective, because of the amount of time the commercial was shown in the air. The audience gets used
to these elements that it slowly became the norm for them. At the end of the day, profit is their goal.