For those of you who haven't seen it yet there is a new Genny Ad campaign that I just love. You can write your own tag line for a vintage Genny Advertisement and they will put it on on the site. Then you can vote on your favorite. If you win they will use your tag for the national campaign! You also have the option of making a T-shirt once it's on the site. It usually take about 24hrs. for it to show up (if it's approved). So get out there and tag Jenny! I'd love to see more vintage advertising campaigns like this. I love that vintage Jenny!

http://itaggedjenny.com/

I was committed to never writing one of those 'sorry I haven't been blogging' posts, but here I am, doing exactly that :)

I think I have the flu, or something very much like it, with all the fun stuff that goes with it: weakness, chills, and aches all over. It's one of the perks of working in an office with poor ventilation and co-workers with young bug-ridden kids. I don't get sick easily, but I've never been sick more often than since I started working at my current office. Not even when I was a primary school teacher, with 30 of those aforementioned bug-ridden kids hanging around me all day.

Anyway, I'm working on a post at the moment which I promise will be much more interesting than this one. It should be up sometime tomorrow, so please check back then and hopefully you will be so highly entertained and informed that you'll forget all about this 'sorry I haven't been blogging' transgression. It won't happen again.

In the meantime, please enjoy a sampling of some of my favourite beer commercials. Why, you ask? Well, why not? There's more to beer ads than the simple act of selling beer.

So much creativity goes into making beer commercials.

The people who write and produce beer commercials are the cream of the advertising industry. I've seen too many cars zooming effortlessly through curvy mountain roads and too many girls skipping along beaches during their periods to be impressed anymore (although this Australian ad is a new and slightly cheeky take on the old menstruation/tampon issue). The writers of these commercials know pretty much what will be expected of them. But those who write beer commercials (the good ones anyway) have to think at a higher level. They are expected to be different to what has come before.

It's not all beer and roses in beer advertising, however. There is still an obvious gender imbalance in beer ads - it is unfortunate that the beer industry hasn't seen fit to cater as lavishly and humourously to its female customers as to its male ones. Women drink beer too!

As an aside, I wonder if all the cleverness actually pays off? I wonder how many people start drinking a new brand of beer because of the quality of its advertising? Anyone have any data about this they'd care to share?

Here, for your viewing pleasure, are some of my favourite beer ads from the last few years:

A brilliant look at evolution, from Guinness. I wonder what Ben Stein would have to say about this:

The Carlton Draught 'big ad', set to the tune of O Fortuna! from Carmina Burana. Speak to any Aussie you know about this ad, and watch their eyes light up:

Molson Canadian ads are always amusing, with their angsty explorations of mainstream Canadian identity:

Ah. I feel better already. 'Til tomorrow, my friends.

The Budweiser brand accounts for one out of every three beers served in the United States. First produced in Budweis, Czech Republic in 1895, Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser is a globally-sold pale lager. The St. Louise-based Anheuser-Busch owns 50.9% of the beer market share.

The Budweiser line consists of 14 types of beers:

Bud – The original, brewed with rice, barley, malt, water, hops, and yeast.

Bud Light – Introduced nationwide in 1982, But Light has 110 calories per bottle.

Budweiser Select – 99 calories per bottle and a lower carbohydrate count.

Bud Ice – This beer has a higher alcohol percentage at 5.5% alcohol by volume.

Budweiser Brew Masters Private Reserve – An all-malt lager with a honey color and a robust taste. Each year Budweiser releases a different Brew Masters style.

Bud Dry – Introduced nationwide in 1990, Bud Dry is falling in popularity in recent years.

Bud Silver – A beer produced to appeal to the taste palate of beer drinkers in the United Kingdom.

Bud Extra – A beer that is infused with ginseng, guarana and caffeine, and marketed as a caffeinated malt beverage with a 6.6% alcohol by volume.

Budweiser/Bud Light Chelda – Introduced nationally in 2007, this is a beer that blends Budweiser or Bud Light with Clamato Juice.

Bud Light Lime – Introduced nationwide in May 2008, Bud Light with a natural lime juice twist is targeting consumers a little different than the typical Bud Light drinker – specifically, consumers who drink during backyard barbeques or at outdoor activities, who are looking to try something unique and out of the ordinary.

Budweiser NA – Non-Alcoholic Budweiser was developed for the Middle East and is also available with a hint of Green Apple flavor.

From the beginning, the Budweiser brand has been very sports oriented in its advertising and through its sponsorships. Budweiser has sponsored top NASCAR teams and was the official beer of NASCAR until 2007. Budweiser is also the official sponsor and partner of Major League Soccer.

Budweiser’s advertising focuses heavily on humor. The brand’s target audience are loyal, younger men (typically). Account Planning for Budweiser has determined that consumers drink the brand primarily while at home, watching sports. Budweiser positions itself as a buddy to watch the game with.

Best known for their Clydesdales image, Budweiser has produced numerous memorable ads, characters and slogans, such as the Bud-Wei-Ser frogs and the “Whassup?” campaign.

Budweiser’s recent ads follow the Account Planning discoveries discussed earlier. The campaigns target laid back men and men who enjoy sports. One of the recent campaigns is the television series revolving around the word “Dude.” The vernacular of these ads show who the target is – the 21st century American male – who uses the term “Dude” in numerous situations – whether when upset, or when excited, and anywhere in-between.

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The important part of Budweiser’s recent advertising is their move towards online projects. The first Dude commercial had 2 million views on YouTube alone, and the campaign, consisting of 4 commercials, has had over 13.5 million views on sites including YouTube, Break.com, MSN.com, and MySpace. Online advertising is booming, not only because of increased users, but also because users are able to watch ads like the Budweiser campaign at their own discretion.

The other recent ads are the Semi Pro movie tie in commercials that feature Will Ferrell. Premiering during the Super Bowl, the first ad in the series was originally intended strictly for online. The last minute decision by Anheuser-Busch, ad agency DDB and Ferrell’s team, turned out extremely profitable because the commercial was just the humor viewers needed during the fourth quarter of the game.

It is interesting to note the eclectic array of Super Bowl commercials that Budweiser produced this year. From the Semi Pro ads to Clydesdales and Dalmatians, the Budweiser ads, as always, hit their target audience on an emotional level which is, in essence, the clear definition of Americana Persona.

So, Sleeman's hits the glass tonight.  Sleeman's Cream Ale 64* to be exact, which happens to be Canada's Premium Beer... according to their site and this radio spot, at least.  The same site has some decent advertising, as well... example:

Overall, this beer was not what I would call premium but it was ok.  Nothing memorable... a dark-ish color with light undertones.  It is pretty easy to drink but doesn't leave me with a refreshed feeling, a satisfied feeling, or anything close to a 'wow' feeling.  Nothing wrong, nothing write.  Very middle of the road.

JBB6 Rating: Middle of the Road

The video shows a chavvy lager-drinker wearing a Burberry baseball cap and slumped at a table, Suddenly a goblin runs up and, rather than attempt to convert the lagerboy by force of argument, boots him hard up the aris, making him soar over the bar of some nearby rugby goalposts, in a "conversion" Jonny Wilkinson would be delighted with.

However, Rupert Thompson, Wychwood's MD, confessed last might that he bottled out of releasing the video on the net, fearing that it might be misinterpreted – and certainly some beer bloggers would not have been impressed.

Thompson was talking at a presentation in the Hobgoblin pub near Marylebone station in London to launch the "new" 4.5 per cent abv cask version of Hobgoblin. This is not to be mistaken for the "old" 4.5 per cent version of Hobgoblin, which was boosted to 5 per cent in 2004. At the same time the bottled version was dropped from 5.5 per cent to 5.2 per cent, and the recipe was tweaked, with some crystal malt joining the chocolate malt to add a little sweetness to the dryness, and Fuggles hops replacing Progress alongside the late-added Styrian Goldings.

The "new" 4.5 per cent version has had another small tweak, Jeremy Moss, Wychwood's head brewer, said last night, with three "secret" hops being added in small quantities. He refused to reveal what these were, on the grounds that they might well be change in future, but I'd bet at least one is an American variety, giving a hint of citrusness.

The need to earn a living means I'm not normally free for beery events like last night's, but I was glad to have a rare chance to go out and join fellow beer hacks, since Wychwood was also showcasing two other versions of Hobgoblin, the 3.5 per cent abv version that is the only one legally allowed to be sold in Swedish supermarkets, and the 4.5 per cent American keg version.

Hobgoblin is about taste rather than strength, Thompson said last night, and the Swedes certainly get a beer with plenty of flavour, but it's inevitably a thinner, less rounded beer. The surprise hit was the keg version, which had a very pleasant smooth rotundity and perfectly acceptable carbonation. Dark beers generally seem to survive kegging better than pale ones, and in my distant youth, if there was nothing in a strange pub that looked acceptable, I'd go for the keg dark mild, since it would almost always be drinkable. (Alas, even keg dark mild is rara cervisia today.)

Wychwood is quite open that it has dropped the strength of cask Hobgoblin back down to 4.5 per cent to sell more beer, even though sales are already up 24 per cent year-on-year at the moment. It surprised itself, I suspect, with the success of its positioning as the "unofficial beer of Hallowe'en", when it managed to get into some 4,500 accounts at the end of last October, against 600 to 700 normally. If the beer can have that sort of success as a one-off, Thompson and his crew clearly decided, then it should be able to do it all the time.

The aim now, Thompson said last night, is to make Hobgoblin a top 10 cask beer by 2010 at the latest. The drop in gravity is part of the strategy to achieve this, making the beer more "sessionable", and meaning that drinkers who might have had one at five per cent abv will have two or more at the lower gravity.

Wychwood's take on the changes that are taking place in pubs since the smoking ban is that older drinkers are coming back and replacing younger smokers: and what the oldies want are beers that deliver flavour, that go with food, but that aren't too strong. Hobgoblin in its new iteration fills that slot, Thompson feels.

The brewery is also pushing the idea of cool Hobgoblin, with a promotion to win a fridge full of the beer in bottles. It will be continuing with the lagerboy campaign, despite the critics – outside a small though vociferous group, "people love it", Thompson insists. People who object, he said, are suffering from "a sense of humour failure", and while some seem to think lager drinkers ought to be offended, no one actually is: the Advertising Standards Authority has received just one complaint about the campaign, from Hampshire, and told the complainant to "get stuffed".

However, Wychwood is stopping referring to Hobgoblin as "strong" and "dark", preferring now to call it "ruby" and "legendary" – presumably regarding the new descriptors as less frightening to potential new recruits.

Thompson is confident that at its new strength the beer can attract new drinkers, which is "what every cask ale should be doing". Wychwood is proud that out of 34 colleges in Oxford, a short distance from its home, Hobgoblin is on the bar of 30, and being "actively drunk" by 19 and 20-year-olds. Applause all round, I think. And thanks for the lagerboy T-shirt …

Creativity is what sets us apart and, though sometimes showing the product and its benefit, or even just a gigantic product shot is all that is called for...

...marketers should do better. Because the success of an ad isn't just measured in what it does for sales. Really, it isn't. It's also, and in some cases primarily, about building your brand.

At some time your unique point of difference is going to be gone, and you will live or die based on the strength of your brand. And you are not building your brand with annoying commercials. You are shooting for short-term growth only.

Heineken may have more of an argument for what they are doing, since it is a new product launch and there is a halo around the Heineken name from the base brand advertising. Head On, however, has no excuse.

Don't tell me that your ad is effective and only measure it by sales. If you do, I will smack you with a hot, juicy shank of turkey and turn you out.

The Chiswick brewer created a poster based on its "Wallaby" ad for London Pride at the time of the 2003 World Cup, this time featuring a picture of a Springbok and the words "frequently found stuffed". Rather than pay for a campaign featuring the ad, however, Fuller's decided to use the "viral" method and send an email out to 13,000 people with the poster as an attachment.

The nice PR person at Fuller's, whom I've known for years, sent me and about 20 other journalists a copy, and as I was working for the City section of the Daily Telegraph yesterday, where the deputy news editor is ex-South African Army, I forwarded it to a few reporters there I knew would be amused (it's a rugby sort of place ...).

As it happened, even the ex-South African news editor loved it, and they decided to run the poster as one of the illustrations to a news story about how much money was being spent in England around the World Cup, from train tickets to Paris to extra beer supplies for tomorrow night.

Fuller's, naturally, loved this free advertising, and me, and when I got home last night there was an email from Georgina the PR saying three cases of this year's Vintage Ale would be on their way to me in thanks. So - what a score. Sadly, they won't be here in time for the match, and I feel I ought to share at least one case with the lads from the Torygraph. And I supose it's really bribery. But I didn't know the chaps were going to run the poster in the paper when I sent it to them . . .