Selling Sex and Beer

It used to be that guys out camping, talking around a campfire about their day in the wild and drinking Stroh's Old Milwaukee beer, could say, "It doesn't get any better than this." But, say you parachute in a few gyrating, blonde, near-naked women known as the Swedish Bikini Team. "It did get better," the guys say now.

Maybe for them. But certainly not for women. And especially not for the women who work at the Stroh's Brewery Co. bottling plant in St. Paul, Minnesota.

On November 8, 1991, five female employees of Stroh's filed lawsuits against the company, charging that its "sexist, degrading" advertising campaigns--including the bikini team television commercial and promotional posters showing scantily clad women in provocative poses--foster a work environment that encourages sexual harassment.

Complaints detailed in the suits include repeated subjection to lewd comments and behavior, unwanted physical contact, and instances of intimidation. The women have been grabbed and touched, had lies spread about their personal lives, had their toolboxes sabotaged and air let out of their tires in the parking lot, been told to get "women's jobs," and been subjected to displays of condoms and obscene pictures, according to the suits. One poster hanging inside the bottling plant, according to the women, lists 13 reasons "Why Beer Is Better Than Women," including "After you have had a beer the bottle is still worth 10 cents" and "Beer doesn't demand equality."

The women allege that they were threatened with physical assault if they reported sexual comments to supervisors, and that, when they did report harassment, company officials offered little response. The suits name 25 male employees who the women charge have participated in acts of harassment or failed in their duties as supervisors to stop it.

The lawsuits represent the first attempt in legal history to link a company's advertising to the treatment of female employees in the workplace. "When the company as a whole is treating women as sexual objects, as body parts, it...sends a message to the employees," says Jean Keopple, one of the women bringing suit and the only female machinist at the plant, where about 50 of 300 employees are women. "What I want Stroh's to do is to take a look at that and understand that they're giving a big stamp of approval" to sexual harassment.

THE LAWSUITS ARE ALSO challenging a fundamental tenet of beer marketing. As Tom Pirko, a beverage-industry consultant, put it, "You still basically have one iron-clad attitude in the brewing industry, which is that you cannot sell beer effectively unless you sell it to young men, and you can't sell beer effectively to young men unless you use sex." When asked if beer could be sold without sex-heavy advertising, Pirko answered, "It's probably a moot question. No one's ever really tried."

Bill Hillsman, a leading Minneapolis advertising executive, calls the Swedish Bikini Team commercial "a real good parody" of the countless commercials that use sex to sell beer. He finds it "kind of fascinating" because it is "poking fun at all other beer advertising. It's kind of intelligent, although it looks on the surface like the other ads. I think some people missed the point. I think it's a pretty funny campaign."

But women aren't laughing. "You don't parody something this tragic," says Lori C. Peterson, attorney for the women bringing the lawsuits. "We don't take any other form of discrimination and say we are parodying it."

George E. Kuehn, general counsel for Stroh's, says that the company has had a firm policy against sexual harassment for about 10 years and that "corrective and disciplinary action" will be taken if any of the complaints in the lawsuits are found to be true. He added that a "sensitivity-training" course on sexual harassment will be given to all Stroh's employees nationwide. But can a company that claims to be interested in ending sexual discrimination and exploitation be taken seriously when it spends millions of dollars a year promoting it?

Stroh's has no plans at the moment to withdraw the bikini team television commercial. Diane Novotny-Young, a bottler at the plant, alleges in her suit that a Stroh's official told her that men would think the beer company had "caved in" to women if it stopped the ad.

Kuehn says that the advertising "is working," meaning that it is effectively targeting 21- to 35-year-old male beer drinkers, a segment of the population in which Old Milwaukee was losing ground to competitors. Kuehn added that if company officials "determine that the advertising is offending a significant consumer franchise, we will of course reconsider its use." Of course. The bottom line is clear.

The suits against Stroh's have brought out cries of censorship and claims of free speech. Lori Peterson points out the irony: "If one man in the workplace says women are T&A, the law says that's sexual harassment. If it's multiplied by a $19 million ad campaign, then it's considered a free-speech right."

Meanwhile, the five California actresses in blonde wigs who make up the "Swedish Bikini Team" have moved onto the cover of the January issue of Playboy. Five other women, whose charges have received scant attention in most of the media, are carrying the crusade against sexual harassment in the workplace another step farther. Let's hope--for their sake and ours--it does get better than this.

Joyce Hollyday was associate editor of Sojourners when this article appeared.