Drinking And Driving In Jean Kilweiser's 'Friends Are Waiting'

Many commercials have messages based inside of them. They try to get the viewer to connect and/or relate to the product or company, and influence them to buy the product. Such is the case with Budweisers’ “Friends are Waiting” commercial from September 2014. It does a great job illustrating how selfish and irresponsible drunk driving is. It also shows how others are depending on you and you aren’t just hurting yourself but others as well. Drunk driving is a serious issue in this country and for a beer company to acknowledge it and discourage it, goes a long way in the eyes of the viewers. Jean Kilbourne addresses a lot of these messages in commercials in her literary work, “Can’t buy my love”. In the reading it talks about how advertisements make us want more of something. They make us a feel an attachment to a product, as if we have a relationship with it, and they always leaving us wanting more. In the Budweiser advertisement “Friends are Waiting”, it shows a dog waiting for his owner to come home after going out drinking. The dog starts to get worried and upset when a lot of time passes and he doesn’t come home and the

While she may find it unethical that a beer company would be the ones to point out how bad drinking and driving is, I would argue it speaks volumes that a beer company would openly acknowledge their product should be taken responsibly and encouraging viewers to not put others at risk. They also point out people aren’t just hurting themselves by driving under the influence, but others who rely on them as well. While Budweiser does seem to be taking advantage of viewers’ love for animals, it doesn’t mean it is unethical. Studies have shown many people are more empathetic towards dogs and animals than towards other humans. This is just the best way to get the viewers attention, get the message across, and to get them to understand how bad, selfish, and irresponsible drunk driving