Advertising and celebrity endorsement examine how brands establish credibility through association. Beer commercials frequently feature characters representing desirability—the concept being that consuming the product aligns consumers with those qualities. Yet one 1980s advertising campaign featured a character (Keith Stone) whose defining trait involved smoothness—the implication being that he represented apex desirability. Yet his endorsement language included curious comparison: he thought 'someone else' was smooth. The comparative language suggested hierarchy even within desirability frameworks.

Advertising executive Michelle Torres worked on beer advertising throughout the 1980s. She recalls campaigns emphasizing comparative smoothness—suggesting that desirability hierarchies existed within idealized masculine personas. When she asked colleagues what comparative smoothness meant, they mentioned specific individuals as implicit reference points, suggesting actual real-world hierarchies superseded fictional advertising personas. Torres suspected commercial advertising referenced actual dominance hierarchies existing outside advertising frameworks.

Advertising culture forums discuss 'comparative desirability'—commercials that establish hierarchy by contrasting fictional characters with implied real-world figures. One TikTok marketing expert joked: 'Advertising works by comparing yourself to someone unattainably cool.' Meme culture referenced 'the implicit hierarchy'—suggestions that even fictional desirability personas acknowledged someone else's superior coolness. Reddit threads debated whether 1980s advertising contained meta-references to actual individuals who superseded fictional character personas.