Kurt Jones
English 103
Visual Analysis
14 November 2011
T.V. Commercial
The writers of television commercials do their best to reach out to a certain audience.
Some have very specific audiences. A few examples could be older men, teenage girls, or even
parents who have young babies. The Miller High Life commercials have a very specific
audience as well. Many people of age like to enjoy alcoholic beverages. Also, many people like
to go drink beer at sporting events. So, Miller High Life commercials like to reach out to the
middle class that go to sporting events to be rude and ill-mannered. Also, they try and grab the
attention of people who like sports in general. The creators aim all of their commercials to show
that it is not a beer for the uptight, prissy people of the world. Instead, they have a target
audience of everyday, blue collar workers that enjoy a good beer while they watch their favorite
team play. This specific commercial shows the distinction between both the blue collar and
white collar people.
This "white collar" is shown
in one Miller High Life commercial
that aired in 2008. The commercial
starts with a High Life delivery
man arriving at a baseball game.
He says that they are going up to
the skyboxes in sections "la-di-
dah." This expresses his dislike for people who separate themselves from the general public. As
the delivery man walks in he asks if anybody could tell him what inning they were in. He gets
nothing but a bunch of blank stares. One image in particular that stuck out was of the lady in the
photo. She looks at him with a look of shock and confusion to the question. She has no idea
what is happening in the game. This sets tone of the commercial to say, “Why are the white
collar people even at the game if they aren’t going to pay attention to it?” The writers show her
holding a catered square of cheese. This is one of the last things you expect to be eating at a
baseball game. It is much too fancy for the feel of a baseball game. Also, she has her pinky
sticking out while eating, which is supposed to enhance how fancy she is. When thinking of a
baseball game, the first thing that jumps to mind is not fancy people acting civilized. Usually, it
is of an over-weight man, drinking beer, and shouting at the top of his lungs for his favorite
team. This image shows how out of sync the people in the skybox are with what a baseball game
is about.
After no one could answer, the delivery man, who represents the “blue collar” people,
says they are going to take back the High Life. While showing them packing up the beer, the
main delivery man tells what the High Life is about. Which is, “about sittin’ in the sun,
watching your favorite pitcher…Get lit
up? TAKE HIM OUT!” In his attempt
to explain, he gets wrapped up in the
game. This helps the audience relate to
him by showing he is an average guy,
just like the intended audience. It
emphasizes the point that Miller High
Life is for people who live a simple way of life. It differs from the people in the skybox because
they were just standing around talking to each other and not even watching the game. This
shows that they shouldn’t even be at the game if they aren’t there to enjoy it. This gets the target
audience on the track of disliking those kinds of people. By showing that the makers of Miller
High Life do not like them either, it helps their cause that much more to get the people with blue
collar jobs to buy their product. It is not for the stuck up business people in the skybox.
Furthermore, they do a great job of using clothing to distinguish between the two types of
people depicted in the ad. They have the main delivery man dressed in run of the mill clothes.
They are very informal and are used to do laborious work in. On the other hand, the people who
are in the sky box are dressed in suits and
ties. In other words, the people in the
skybox are trying to keep up a
“professional” image of etiquette and
proper dress. The dichotomy of the two is
that the delivery man is going to appeal to
your average Joe kind of person; while the
suited people are going to relate to people
like CEO’s and heads of companies with a lot of money. This is a very good split to put in the
commercial because Miller High Life is trying to sell to people who lead lives like the delivery
man. That is what makes him so relatable.
Finally for this commercial, the end of it is the main delivery man and a couple others
going down with the fans in the stands. He starts passing out the beer they just took back from
the skybox people to the real fans. You can see that everyone down there have their hands up
and cheering. You can even see the man in front pointing and yelling something. This is a very
big change of scenery from up in the
box. Down here, the people are
actually paying attention and finding
enjoyment in seeing the teams play.
Also, the way they are dressed shows
how different they are. The blue collar
people down here have jackets and hats
on. This is because there is no heat like there would be in the box, where the white collars will
be nice and comfortable no matter the weather. Along with the comfort of the closed room, the
difference in furniture is outstanding. In the skybox they have puffy, leather seats. So much so
that the one man is even sitting on the arm during their conversation. This is juxtaposed by the
plastic chairs the fans on the outside have to sit in. Notice that the fans on the outside are
cramped, with the person on their sides almost on top of each other. And the skybox they are
spaced out and have
plenty of room for
personal space. Also, in
the skybox they have
nice wooden table to
hold their drinks and
food, while the regular fans only get maybe a cup holder and have to hold their food in their laps.
In addition, in the regular seats, no one looks like they are ready for a business meeting, because
that is not what baseball is about. While walking out there, the delivery man says, “I need to
smell me a hotdog or something just to know that I’m alive.” This implies that you can only get
the real experience by being with everyone outside and going through the excitement of all
cheering for the same team. After he passes out some beer to the fans, he joins in with them. He
starts cheering with everyone around him. They use his facial expressions to show that drinking
it with the “real fans” makes him smile and feel happy.
Overall, Miller High Life commercials are intended to sell their brand of beer. They use
a target audience of blue collar people who like to watch sporting events. Throughout their
commercials they show high class people being revoked of their High Life privileges because
they are not “down to earth.” They are shown to be away from reality and not acting to protocols
of how you are expected to act at a sporting event. They also ad a sense of humor to their
commercials, which aids in making them memorable. These commercials are effective because
who mainly watches TV? Everyday people that is. Usually, people who lead normal lives with
families and average jobs watch a lot of TV. So, they can relate a lot easier. Finally, the
commercials are usually centered on a professional sport of some sort, which they can air in the
commercial times of professional sports games broadcasts. This helps their cause by showing if
you want to have a good time with your friends watching the game, you should buy Miller High
Life.