Yo, Superbowl? Women are watching, too. NielsenWire reported that in 2008, women made up nearly half of all Super Bowl watchers. And–surpise surprise: 10 million more women watched the 2005 Super Bowl than the Academy Awards (Forbes ).

Plus, I would add, women definitely do more than their share of Super Bowl snack & beverage shopping. And yes, they do drink beer. According to drinkfocus.com,women account for 25% of beer consumption.

So will this be the year of the woman-centric Superbowl Beer Ad? Well, yes and no.

One of this year’s commercials features a man who skips his softball game to attend his wife’s book club because she’s serving Bud Light. Women can laugh at the irony (sort of like those “Porn for Wives” books, where buff husbands scrub the toilets in their boxers), but are the ads laughing with us, or at us?

And never fear–there’ll certainly be plenty of ads aimed at the hormonal teenager that advertisers believe lurks inside of all men–ads featuring big-bosomed beer-sipping babes.

But advertisers are getting smarter. The trend now is toward over-the-top ads. As Vanessa Richmond points out on AlterNet:

“Today’s ads are so over the top it’s clear they’re somewhat ironic. At the end of the cat fight ads, for example, the women, who are also drinking beer, roll their eyes. The ads create a knowing wink fantasy bubble that’s enhanced by the fact that everyone knows they’re getting away with something naughty…The fantasy is that men, in particular, can have it all. Because the ads wink at viewers, and because they’re so over the top, men can get away with enjoying the pleasures of a sexist fantasy world, while an equal number of women sit in the audience. They can have their beer and drink it too.”  

Or wine. This year, I’ll be making chili and if I drink at all, it’ll be wine, since my husband is allergic to beer. I wonder how many other women and men drink wine, or other cocktails, instead of beer. Do you drink during the Super Bowl? If so, what do you drink? Anyone else drinking wine instead of beer?

If you’re watching the Super Bowl tonight, be sure to check out the ads. Were any of them aimed at you? Did they make you laugh, or cringe? I’ll be watching, and I’ll keep you posted.

POSTSCRIPT: The Book Club ad was funny, but it was total frat-boy humor: i.e. “Did you like Little Women?” one of the book club members asks, and the dude (husband guy) says something along the lines of, “Yeah, I like ‘em little, big, whatever…” Funny, I have to admit, yes, in the way I can laugh along with the frat boys, but we’re still not in the driver’s seat in those commercials. We’re still not the beer buyer there. What do you think?

TVXQUN67SN8N