Tecate Campaign Critique

Campaign Critique #1

Brand: Tecate

Agency: Nomades

Country: Mexico

Synopsis

In Mexico, the machismo culture has been celebrated and allowed for quite some time. According to Merriam-Webster, machismo is defined as “strong or aggressive masculine pride.” The male entitlement has been depicted in telenovelas or Mexican soap operas, work environments, and romantic relationships. However, times are changing for the “machista.” Crime rates are at an all time high in Mexico and the growing women’s rights movement is forcing Mexicans to recognize how this concept has affected their country’s sexism and violence.

        Beer has been associated with masculinity for quite some time, but where did this come from? In ancient Egypt, Greece, and in medieval Britain women were the brewers and beer was only associated with women. It was really when beer became a capitalist venture where men took over the production. After Prohibition, men were the workers, mass-producing beer and women stayed home and took care of household duties. Beer advertisers then saw the men as the target market and then created this point-of-view that drinking beer was a man’s activity since they were the breadwinners (Matthews, 2015.) Advertisers then used women’s bodies to entice men to drink beer. It’s crazy to think that really most of the sexual assault cases involve alcohol.

        This is especially evident in Mexico where 2 out of 3 women have been a victim to a form of gender violence, and 70% of Mexico’s population considers this normal. This is why popular beer brand Tecate decided to put their foot down and stand up for women in their new campaign against gender violence. Tecate has been a brand built on stereotypes such as a man needing to be strong and tough, through this campaign Tecate really wanted not only to help build a better Mexico but a better man. To do this, the brand partnered up with an NGO, Red Nacional de Refugios focused on the attention and interruption of the cycle of violence, feminism, and the defense of the rights of women and their children called with their usual go-to advertising agency, Nómades.

        Mexico just recently passed Germany in world market share, now making Mexico the 4th biggest beer consumption country. This is huge since Germany is such a beer festival driven country. It made me wonder, will we know be seeing an Octubrefest Festival taking place?

Tecate comes from the subsidiary of Heineken International, Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma Brewery. In 2016, they were ranked number 2 behind Grupo Modelo, whose parent company is Anheuser-Busch, as the leading company of Mexican beer brands. Grupo Modelo had a total volume share of 57% and Heineken Mexico had a 40% volume share. (Euromonitor International, 2017) With the launch of this campaign, Tecate aims to become the biggest beer brand in Mexico, by volume. They also want to create awareness against the gender violence in their country and send a bold message to men: zero tolerance for those who don’t respect women.