Beer and Sports and why Men love them; Saint Xavier University Professors analyze American “holy trinity”

Chicago (Jan. 26, 2009) Men like talking beer and sports. Even if they don’t, forces have been at work since the 1940s to convince them that they do. Saint Xavier University professors James R. Walker and Nelson Hathcock are helping to explain how. They co-authored a chapter in the recently released book, “Sport, Beer, and Gender: Promotional Culture and Contemporary Social Life.”

The book explores the “holy trinity” of men, sports and beer, and ways in which advertisers have targeted men with promotional strategies to ensure a “culture of consumption.”

Walker and Hathcock’s chapter, “Domesticating the Brew: Gender and Sport in Postwar Magazine Advertising for Beer,” recounts how beer advertisers adapted to the suburbanization of America after The Great Depression and World War II. One of the largest challenges facing advertisers was changing a frugal, self-sacrificing culture into mass consumers.

Advertisers began portraying people drinking in new ways. The image of the suburban family relaxing and socializing with neighbors, beers in hand, replaced neighborhood taverns or clubs.
“Mass-circulation magazines and sports publications clearly reflected a different world,” Walker said.

However, advertisers in the 1970s once more returned to focusing on males and traditionally male activities, such as sports and the outdoors.

“Although magazine advertising domesticated the brew … the ancient link between men, sport and beer would prove too strong for one lasting reconversion,” Walker said.

Walker recently co-authored the book, “Center Field Shot: A History of Baseball on Television,” which explores the effect of television on major league baseball.

For more information or to interview Walker or Hathcock, please contact (773) 298-3937 or (cell) (773) 298-3937 or e-mail at jmoore@sxu.edu.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Contact: Joe Moore
773-298-3937 or jmoore@sxu.edu

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