The Gambrinus Co., Pete Goes Clubbing

In red flannel and a beard, the unfamous and uncool middle-aged namesake of the beer, Pete, cannot get into various clubs. Usually, the doors to the club are barred by tough doormen. Text announces the brand and Pete are "Not yet world famous."

Toward the end, he encounters a gothic drag queen, wearing all black and a zipper over her lip. In the last example, another drag queen guarding the door in a pink boa and red sequins looks at him and lisps, "You can't get in here dressed like that."

Beer companies are well represented in The Commercial Closet, largely due to an effort in the mid-1990s to pull away from the industry's longterm sexist advertising themes that objectified women. Such commercials were summed up by the Swedish Bikini Team. Looking for new material to mine, brewers began extensively playing with gay and transgender themes in their advertising. However, because beer drinkers are stereotypically macho, the tone of many of the ads were more often negative.