This is an ad by the beer company Budweiser, promoting one of their lagers. It depicts a skimpily-clad woman wearing nothing but a Budweiser-branded bathing suit laying on top of a bottle of Budweiser. In front of a blood-red background, the woman’s bare legs, exposed cleavage, and seductive facial expression dominate the frame, drawing attention to the Budweiser branding on her bathing suit, and subsequently, the eponymous bottle she rests upon. The composition of this ad is interesting in that it makes extensive use of negative space, and doesn’t employ a whole lot of decipherable text. What immediately stands out is the Budweiser logo that runs across the bottle, onto the woman’s stomach, and back onto the bottle. A cool blue on top of a neutral white, this piece of text catches the viewer’s attention through its juxtaposition against the fiery red of the negative space. Red is a colour that often symbolizes passion, love, and seduction, and this meaning is reinforced through the use of the woman as a sex symbol in order to sell the product. The typical male’s gaze would be captured by such a figure, and moving down her body eventually leads to the Budweiser branding and underneath that, the slogan, which plays into the machismo this ad tries to elucidate. The copy of the ad is indecipherable, which illustrates the confidence the designers have in the image; the image says everything, so no copy is needed. This ad could be considered a close-up, but it plays with proportions in order to give off a different meaning. The woman has been shrunk to a size smaller than that of the beer bottle, and as she lays down upon it, we get the impression that she isn’t really in control. She appears tiny, and her posture is one of subjection and submission. This is enunciated by the usage of a high angle shot, which draws the attention away from the woman but highlights the irregular proportions of the ad, thus shining light on the bottle and the brand. While undoubtedly objectifying women, this ad is also playing upon the male stereotype that all men want are women and beer, and through its representation of both its object and its target audience, is walking a fine line between publicity and controversy.