Context/Description Assignment: Corona Beer Commercial with Snoop Dogg and Bad Bunny

Introduction:

This paper is aimed towards establishing a solid contextual foundation for my selected research object for this project, the 2020 Corona Beer commercial featuring music superstars

Snoop Dogg and Bad Bunny. There is quite a bit of information and background to cover within this research object as there are a variety of factors at play that make the advertisement itself so interesting and, in turn, successful. This object of analysis is very rich in rhetorical materials and appeals as it involves culturally influential figures within an advertising medium that is typically not associated or found with them. The success and selection of the commercial has major implications of what is currently being sought out to portray and identify within the world of entertainment, making it intriguing for communication scholars studying public reception, construction and rhetorical appeal. This paper will outline important characteristics of the backgrounds of the main subjects within the commercial, Grupo Modelo (the creators of Corona

Beer) and their history/rise to international success, personal information on Snoop Dogg and

Bad Bunny as musical figures and symbols of their culture as well as similarities/difference between the two. I believe these factors are integral in understanding the foundation of what potentially links them together to create appeal on a cultural and rhetorical level.

Description and Context: Grupo Modelo

Corona Beer is only 1 of more than 17 national brands developed by the Mexican business conglomerate Grupo Modelo and was created in the year 1926 (Vargas-Hernandez,

2019). When Grupo Modelo’s name first appeared in the market during the late 1920s and early 1930s, their success was marginal at best. Given the rather sparse status of corporate-scale producers in the alcohol sector at the time, established beer vendors like Heineken were already beginning to saturate the market with their product, effectively slowing the potential growth of

Grupo Modelo for decades after the company’s official launch (Vargas-Hernandez, 2019).

Expectedly, Grupo Modelo began to witness steadily rising success during the next few decades as it began to acquire ownership of more distributors’ beer brands such as Estrella Jalisco and

Modelo in the mid to late 1950’s. However, the birth of the Corona brand itself is precisely what catapulted the company to international success, though even that path was a rocky one. In the

1970’s, Grupo Modelo tried to advertise their latest edition of Corona beer to Americans- it didn’t turn out well at all. Though the company was determined to expand their distribution network to American grounds, their initial pitch to the American market resulted in a mere

800,000 cases a year, one of their lowest sales percentages among their brand selection, for more than a decade (Vargas-Hernandez, 2019). However, everything changed in the 1980’s in a completely unintentional and unanticipated way for Grupo Modelo. During the mid to late

1980’s, there was an unprecedented growth in the amount of American students, primarily college students, beginning to consistently travel to Mexico to experience its great beaches, warm weather, and reputably chaotic parties. As it is known, when people travel to places outside their domain, they likely consume a surplus amount of local products and brands as part of the experience. If they enjoy these experiences, they are also likely to replicate it when they return home because it provides them with a brief sense of nostalgia and association with a particular location/experience. This is exactly what happened in the case of Corona beer. These trips taken to Mexico by American students were nothing short of excessive (behaviorally) and

Corona just so happened to be a cheap and local brand that served the partying purposes of American tourists very handsomely (Kumar, 2013). When the students would return home from these getaway trips, they would naturally seek out Corona beer to relive the good times they’d had in Mexico. Expectedly, Grupo Modelo capitalized on those feelings swiftly and without hesitation.

Description and Context: The Image of Corona Beer

Through the skyrocketed success of the Corona Beer brand in the 1980’s, Grupo Modelo knew its target audience and placement in the national market very well- they knew that

Americans were enjoying their beer because of their countless experiences on Mexican land, so they completely seized the opportunity and restructured their entire American distribution chain with a brand new slogan of “Cross the Border” and image of palm trees and blue waters (Kumar,

2013). This was previously unheard of for Grupo Modelo as they hardly had any symbology at all prior to the surge in popularity. Shortly after this period of rebranding, Corona Beer’s premium image was perfected even further with “Fun, Sun and Beach” becoming the guiding message behind everything Corona did in the United States. This market strategy further contributed to Grupo Modelo’s success on such a large scale that by 2012, Corona Extra and

Corona Light had sold more than 46 million cases in the United States alone and quickly became the country’s 5th largest beer brand by value, raking in more than $1.3 billion in sales (Kumar,

2013). Furthermore, Corona Beer’s success was not reinforced by low price routes that were typically adopted by similar companies: Corona’s price per case was 45% higher than that of market leader Budweiser. That year, Corona’s global brand value exceeded that of Heineken’s, and Corona was the only emerging-market product on Interbrand’s list of the top 100 most valuable global brands (Kumar, 2013). This progression of Grupo Modelo’s “come-up” in the international beer market effectively demonstrates the power of branding in our commercial world and highlights the majority of what consumers actually look for when selecting a product like beer: an association of feeling. This powerful marketing tool has only continued to diffuse into popular culture, especially in youth demographics due to their increased susceptibility for customer conversion (Morgenstern et al, 2015). Specifically, a 2019 study on beer advertisement conducted a comparative analysis looking for a correlation between the prevalence of beer ads in popular entertainment platforms and brand awareness and use by youths (7th-12th grade), from which it found an expectedly high positive correlation that led the researchers to conclude with an abundance of concern for the sheer reach and influence of our current advertisement domain

(Gentile et al, 2019). This is largely due to the fact that Grupo Modelo took complete advantage of the fact that alcoholic beverages in general, let alone beer, are not associated with responsibility and productivity. They were aware that their brand would appeal to even younger consumers than their initial American college student buyers, which only manifested youth culture through targeted appeals of “taking the load off”,”letting loose” and the lack of proper emphasis to drink responsibly (Matter, 2013). Taken altogether, Grupo Modelo simply capitalized on and reinforced the youth party subculture of recklessness and care-free behavior through their relentless advertisement campaigns and targeted branding efforts, which certainly explains Corona Beer’s status as the number 1 highest rated and most popular Mexican beer in the United States as of 2019 (Andrews, 2019).

Description and Context: Snoop Dogg:

The first of the two famous figures in the 2020 Corona commercial is probably one of the most famous individuals in the world, Snoop Dogg. Considered to be among the greatest rappers and hip-hop figures who ever lived, Snoop Dogg has had quite the mixed life, with fame and stardom coming after he was almost fully committed to the life of a gangbanger. Before his rise to the public spotlight, Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr. (Snoop Dogg) was involved in a plethora of illegal activities, including multiple involvements in murder and drug charges, and had spent chunks of his early life in prison (Biography.com). Once he started making music professionally, partnering with Dr. Dre in his iconic album The Chronic in 2002, he began to use it as an escape from his past life and was eventually reported to no longer be affiliated with gangs since he quickly shot to worldwide fame in a matter of 3 years from his official start (Diallo, 2007).

Currently, Snoop Dogg has been involved with a plethora of entertainment shows/programs

(including a cooking show through his comedic friendship with Martha Stewart), business ventures and ownerships, continued musical success through his iconic status in the hip-hop world, and copious, unfathomable amounts of marijuana. He is, again, one of the most famous people in the world, but his placement in this particular commercial really peaked my interest despite the obvious attention he brings to any medium.

Description and Context: Bad Bunny

The second of the two figures featured in the 2020 Corona commercial is the Latinx music sensation known as Bad Bunny. Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martinez

Ocasio, is quite an interesting individual himself. He is of Puerto Rican descent and came from humble beginnings. Considerably different from Snoop Dogg in terms of upbringing and early life, Bad Bunny took to music at an extremely early age. Though it took a good amount of time from when he started releasing music, Bad Bunny eventually broke into the scene of Latinx music, creating his own unique mix of Latin-trap, pop-rap, and reggaeton at the start of 2016 with his first hit single “Dile” (History-Biography.com). Since then, he has remained an icon in the Latin-American music scene and has even worked his way up to being a leading icon of the

American hip-hop world as well. Though he has an established position in the music industry today, Bad Bunny is also a businessman and philanthropist who seeks to “use [his] platform to create meaningful social change for generations to come” (History-Biography.com).

Description and Context: Cultural Differences/Similarities of Snoop Dogg and Bad Bunny

Though the two celebrities in the 2020 Corona commercial are considerably different from one another regarding culture, representation and upbringing, there are also crucial similarities between them. However, one must understand the individual cultures of Snoop Dogg and Bad Bunny in order to fully grasp how they uniquely but effectively work together to create a shared sense of representation. One one hand, Snoop Dogg as an artist is inherently linked to what is known as “gangsta rap culture” in the hip-hop world- the sense of belonging “to the streets” through what is additionally known as a “ghettocentric” perspective (Quinn, 2004). This sense of identity features many ideas that are heavily associated with hip-hop and rap culture, including shallow materialism, female domination, obsessions with money, drug abuse, shootouts and gun violence, all of which are widely prevalent in some way, shape or form in

Snoop Dogg’s lyrical content in general (Price, 2006). As an example, this sense of identity forged through culture was so influential in establishing Snoop Dogg’s persona and artist presence that he, along with fellow peers like Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy E, created and popularized the phrase “keepin’ it real” in current popular culture, a phrase whose true meaning is commonly unknown by the majority of people who use it religiously: keeping the performance and subject matter by “gangster definition” and “gangster terms” strictly (Quinn, 2004). While this phrase swiftly adapted new, less vulgar meanings as it began to be popularized in mainstream media and urban culture- now simply meaning “staying honest and true to one’s self”- it is deeply ingrained in Snoop Dogg’s personal and public identity in music and depicts the centrality of what Snoop Dogg is associated with and has authentically represented for most of his life- the classic 90’s gangster lifestyle. However, though he has indeed portrayed this background to the world in various regards, he has held a large amount of pride in being a successful African-American man in the music industry and has inspired many others to take pride in their culture in ways that break away from the mass stereotypization of the African-

American community. In addition, Snoop Dogg has been an incredibly influential figure in the current national fight for racial equality and social reform, actively speaking out against structural racism and spreading awareness of racial discrimination through his massive platforms

(Thomas et al, 2020).

In a slightly similar regard, Bad Bunny, since his early days as a musician, has identified with and represented the Latin-American community in the music industry, yet another disenfranchised and marginalized group. Similar to traditional rap and hip-hop music, Bad

Bunny’s preferred genres of music (reggaeton, Latin trap and rap) reflect similar cultural values to Snoop Dogg’s gangster culture, such as resisting the racialized status quo and the unrelenting sense of overcoming hardship and opposition to achieve personal success at all costs. This relation to Afrocentric culture has greatly contributed in essence to Bad Bunny’s rise in mainstream popularity through his ethnic appeals to historic marginalization and discrimination, a term which was coined as the “Afro-Latin fusion of experience” (Wood et al, 2010). In addition to this cultural similarity, Bad Bunny reported in an interview that he is a staunch supporter of the “Latinx” term as a more authentic label for who and what he stands for, which is extensive to say the least. This is also what makes Bad Bunny slightly different from Snoop

Dogg in the sense of what exactly he is actively trying to resist on a cultural level; the Latinx movement is catered to address patriarchal gender inequalities as well as racial ones.

Specifically, not only does it seek to abolish racial division and unite minority groups as a proud community, the growing mobilization of embracing Latinx principles highlights how it dispenses with the problem of prioritizing male or female by negating that binary as well as the stigmas that come with it (Morales, 2019). Interestingly, Bad Bunny is one of the few influential figures in his genre that has directly engaged and confronted these problematic tendencies of patriarchal culture and gender stereotypes. Perhaps the most pristine example of this was through the performance in his music video for his song “Yo Perreo Sola” (I dance alone), in which Bad

Bunny cross-dressed as a woman with a substantial amount of female attire featured on him throughout. Though the rationale behind this has been debated, Bad Bunny himself claimed in a post-video interview, “I think as a Reggaeton artist especially, I have a fan base that really needs to hear this message and this type of education. I’m not sure [if] others have realized how necessary it is to talk about issues affecting the LGBTQ community...so I address these issues myself, they’re that important” (Calvario, 2020). So, we can see here that not only does Bad

Bunny stand for racial equality, inclusion and diversity in a similar sense to Afrocentric culture, he also directly aligns himself with confronting controversial issues in the current state of political and civil division, something that many of his fans seem to profoundly respect from a figure like himself.

Description and Context: Racial Authenticity Without having gone and assigned meaning to this in the context of my analysis yet, there is one aspect that I know is extremely pertinent to my argument and is effective in a shared sense, the practice/performance of “racial authenticity” within Snoop Dogg and Bad Bunny’s personas. Keeping in mind that this will likely make up a large portion of my actual argument, I have observed that as a commonality between the two figures - the inclination to authentically represent one’s own culture in ways that are associated with it in the entertainment industry.

When viewing Bad Bunny and Snoop Dogg for the first time, I certainly remember getting this feeling of interest solely because I had never been exposed to or seen their performance and musical style- they stood out from the majority of the Eurocentric domain I and many others grew so used to seeing in the industry. Both figures represent authentically represent their cultures in different ways, from using dialectical slang to flashing their cultural “colors” to the public in music videos and concerts. In the case of Snoop Dogg and rap music, his performative racial authenticity has been noted as one of the leading factors that led to his widespread

“credibility” when he was first rising in the West coast hip-hop scene. In the context of hip-hop and rap music in general, racial authenticity is conceptually linked to what has been termed as

“realness” and “the colored experience”, typically associated with, as previously mentioned, poor upbringings, racial discrimination, illegal activities, gang affiliations, etc (Harrison, 2008). The fact that Snoop Dogg as a rapper has been known to be involved in every single one of these associated lifestyle factors has only served to solidify his position in the scene to these definitional standards of “authenticity” and “being real” (Harrison, 2008), something I find very interesting about what is deemed attractive and valuable in modern entertainment culture.

Similarly, Bad Bunny frequently utilizes the term “Chicano” in his music (perhaps the most powerful linguistic term for “proud Latino/a) and encourages his large fan base to stay true to their cultures and take pride in being different. Additionally, he often hints at his early life in the slums of Puerto Rico and growing up poor- experiences that he claims allow his true self to remain humble through his popularity and success. These experiences between the two figures are intertwined in their musical sounds and styles, which I believe all greatly contribute on a culturally appealing level to their mainstream success.

Initial Conclusions:

Understanding the historical and cultural backgrounds of every subject in the 2020

Corona commercial is crucial to making connections between them. Considering every characteristic discussed in this paper, my research object has become even more appealing to me as things are beginning to make a lot more sense in terms of what led the commercial in its particular direction. Knowing the histories and contexts of the commercial’s subjects, I now see a much larger amount of rhetorical and cultural mechanisms at play, which leads me to now ask the questions of how and why. I currently have shown the what, who, and where, but now I seek to discover potential reasons as to why this commercial was designed the way it was, particularly how effective or ineffective it is to bring Snoop Dogg and Bad Bunny together in this particular medium? What effect does their unison or lack thereof have on the audience perceiving it and what does this mean for Grupo Modelo as a brand in the eye of popular culture? How do their personas outside the commercial enhance their performances in the commercial? These questions point to further direction on conducting forms of reception and cultural analyses that have the potential to illuminate intrinsic forces that drive our world of entertainment, glamour and surface attraction; hopefully I will be able to provide some valuable perspectives through my analysis in this particular context. Works Cited

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