After summarizing the widespread occurrence and male orientation of television beer advertising, this paper describes a study of the thematic content of beer commercials. Two-hundred and six beer advertisements which appeared on WTBS, the USA Network, and ESPN between September 1983 and September 1985 were studied. Event-specific ads and those in which a creative concept was not present in at least three of the commercials were deleted from the study, leaving 145 commercials. The remaining ads were coded according to a set of 26 categories adapted from earlier studies of magazine and television advertising. Results indicated that camaraderie, relaxation/change of state, and humor were the most common themes in the commercials, as an earlier study had concluded. Most of the commercials were really about people, rather than beer--people with whom the viewer could identify, good friends to laugh with, and fantasy characters who achieved goals which the viewer could never obtain. In the commercials, beer was the American way, the way to bring out the best in a person, and the golden brew to serve when getting together with friends. (One table of data is included; a list of commercials selected for study and an explanation of the coding categories are appended. (SG)