The seven ages of Carlton Draught’s Made From Beer
Today sees the launch of “Slow Mo”, the latest instalment of Carlton Draught’s irreverent Made From Beer series.
It’s been quite a run – from the highly awarded Big Ad, to the comedy of Flash Beer, to the debacle of the abortive banned Tingle campaign. These are the seven ages of Made From Beer…
1. More Horses/ Metal Thing.
This marked the first use of the Made From Beer positioning which featured the brand poking fun at itself and at typical beer ads,
2. Men with Canoes. 2004. George Patterson & Partners.
This time the target was alpha males and office politics.
3. Big Ad. 2005 George Patterson & Partners.
Possibly the most celebrated Australian beer ad of all time and certainly the most awarded. In another reference to other ads, it drew inspiration from the celebrated british Airways face on the hill, only this time with bumbling blokes running about.
4. Flash Beer. 2006. George Patterson Y&R
A reference this time to the movie Flash Dance and the aspirations of would-be brewer Kevin Cavendish.
5. Sky Troop. 2008. Clemenger BBDO Melbourne.
The target this time was bad half time entertainment at sporting events.
6a. Tingle. February 2010. Clemenger BBDO Melbourne.
In a major disaster for the marketing team and agency, senior management pulled the ad because it was mildly smutty before putting it online, then pulling it for a second time.
6b. Slow Mo. August 2010. Clemenger BBDO Melbourne.
After the Tingle debacle, the marketing team and creatives at Clemenger BBDO went back to the drawing board and created this effort, celebrating everyday beer drinking characters, complete with all their faults.
Tim Burrowes
topics
ad
Advertising
beer
Big Ad
Carlton Draught
Clemenger BBDO
George Patterson Y&R
Made From Beer
tingle
Epic Beer Ad Fail
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It’ll fit right in on 7mate
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Great insights, very funny
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Like it
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This ad is an insult to beer drinkers everywhere! Seriously, who do they think this ad is going to appeal to, beer drinking opera lovers who have a penchant for crappy cheesy ads?
If any of this series of ads deserves to be banned “Slo Mo” was it. Sure they may have stepped a little over the line with “Tingle” but they could have redone that ad so that it could have been put to air.
It would have been much better on a bad day than “Slo Mo” on it best.
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Nuthin special here… Standards have really dropped since the Canoes Ad, with the exception of FlashBeer!
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I think I have worked out the insight – Clem’s must have purchased a Phantom Slo-Mo camera and couldn’t wait to use it.
It’s on par with Shamantis’ “800% slower” version of Justin Bieber’s U Smile on Soundcloud – using a piece of technology because you can but with no real reason for doing so.
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Oops … Photron not Phantom. I must put that comic book away.
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I think it’s brilliant.
What’s even more brilliant is everything in this ad shows pissed behaviour, and it still got past the ASB/ABAC.
Let’s go through them in glorious slow motion.
Scene 1 – guy throwing a dart, misses the board and hits the wall, suggesting he’s pissed.
Scene 2 – guy dancing like an ostrich trying to impress a member of the opposite sex, to which she’s smiling suggesting drinking leads to sexual conquest.
Scene 3 – fat guy jumping / dancing, suggesting alcohol has altered his mood as he’s too fat to be allowed to smile.
Scene 4 – guy shoots pool ball which hits mates finger, suggesting he’s pissed and missed his shot.
Scene 5 – closeup on two glasses doing a cheers while the beer spills, suggesting they’re pissed.
Scene 6 – guys ass crack showing, suggesting an inebriated state which leads to lack of care for self.
Scene 7 – crowd jumping in the air, spilling beer all over themselves, suggesting they’re pissed.
Scene 8 – bird shit dropping into a guys beer while he looks at a guy in a suggestive manner, linking the beer / ‘good luck sign’ to potential sexual conquest
Scene 9 – guy dancing even more like an ostrich with girl laughing even more, suggesting he’s even closer to picking up
Scene 10 – guy spitting on his friends face while talking, suggesting he’s has a few too many and can’t control his fleck
Scene 11 – guy spilling tray of beer all over three gorgeous ladies, suggesting he’s pissed, and a douche.
Scene 12 – guy air running suggesting even more inebriation, while the girl is even more impressed with him, suggesting sexual conquest. At the end, his fat friend that shouldn’t be allowed to smile (clearly pissed) rewards his behaviour with a satan sign.
Scene 13 – pack shot.
Well done getting this through lads, how beer ads should be – guys getting so pissed they’d be thrown out of most pubs.
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Perhaps if they made the beer taste better (or even taste of something, anything!) they wouldn’t need to spend so much effort on ads.
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What an unholy lump of pink pigeon crap. PC finally hits the last bastion of fun in TV ads. Bring back the Tingle or at least something funny and stop worrying about what non beer drinkers think. They have destroyed the feeling of drinking VB and now they are going after Carlton Draught. Don’t see anyone doing this to Nuns piss Corona.
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All you peanuts bagging the new Carlton Draught ad, get a sense of humour fellas. Clearly a piss take of the super slow mo cameras at the footy/cricket/tennis. I think it’s a great ad and if any of you nerds got out of the house, found some mates and met them at the pub for a good drink, you’d see the funny side of the ad!
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And the music Pat? Get a real life and some real world mates, an understanding of when and when not to put a mirror up to the target audience and most of all an understanding of anthropological research on male group behaviour and the drivers behind it. These are the people you and you mates laugh at, not aspire to be or emotionally engage with.
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I think its funny and I drink beer!
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The utterly frustrating thing about your article is that it describes the Tingle campaign as an “aborted debacle” – it should be called “an utter tragedy” of a great campaign being killed by an unqualified client.
The campaign is great And if you watch all the previous Carlton ads is bang on tone.
This new one is boring shit. Slo mo is just not interesting anymore. Great comedic writing is interesting and that’s what the tingle is.
Signed,
Heart Broken Fan of the brand.
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Nice overview, thanks Tim. So what happens when Asahi or SAB take over CUB as mooted in the financial pages? Will we lose the Aussie edge to beer ads? Will Dick Smith produce a new Aussie beer with an accompanying big ad?
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A beer ad that looks like it’s made by cocktail drinkers…..
I hope the fun loving South Africans will save CD from their sad Melbourne crreative irony.
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I think you’ll find, Simon, that this is the intention of the slow motion camera and the opera music – to make it look as though it’s a classy affair. If you listen carefully, the lyrics say “Men look better in slow motion.” I believe it’s intended as a piss-take on the ‘classier’ micro-brewed and ‘imported’ beers so popular at the moment: they’re announcing, in the classiest way possible (sham opera music, classy-looking pub, slow motion making everything look rather elegant, until you look a little harder), that you don’t have to be perfect to drink Carlton Draught. For this reason, I also don’t believe they are overtly suggesting inebriation, either. I quite enjoyed the ad, and as far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t hold a negative “mirror” to the audience – the beauty of being Australians is that we’re able to laugh at ourselves (the actors are intentionally average-looking so that the audience can relate better to them) – keep reading your social research and you will discover that people feel more comfortable when having a laugh together, and for Australians, this is often at each others’ expense (people wouldn’t watch the ad and think ‘that’s me’, but rather project it onto a friend: eg. “hey, that’s you Patto/Fitzy/Gav/Howie/Johnno, ya big oaf. Can’t throw darts for sh**” ) As a side note to Anonymous (August 19, 9:51pm), the lady in scene 3,9 and 12 is most likely actually laughing at the dancing guy, and in scene 8, the guy with the goofy look on his face has said look on his face because he’s just tapped his pot on the top of his mate’s pot when he wasn’t looking, causing it to froth up. Hence your perception of a connection between drinking and sexual prowess in the ad is misguided. Whether or not the market will read all of this into the ad is another thing entirely…
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Spot on Courtney….. and Anonymous (so far as it being brilliant) although your take on the whole thing is a bit misguided. It’s certainly not about being drunk. Does it put a negative spin on beer drinkers..I don’t think so. The ad is funny and is meant to be so..as Courtney said.. Aussies love to take the piss, even at our own expense..let’s just leave it at that.
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Russel Howcroft made a comment on the Gruen Transfer last week in response to whether The Big Ad had impacted sales… pretty much suggesting that it was “all about the idea” and that sales impact of this kind of advertising was not important.
Looking at the podcast from the ABC website this comment seems to have been excised… perhaps due to nervousness that GPY&R’s clients would find this disregard for sales results a little concerning?
Does anyone have a recording of the programme (25 August) to check this?
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Re: @ A beer ad that looks like it’s made by cocktail drinkers…..
I hope the fun loving South Africans will save CD from their sad Melbourne crreative irony.
Haha! I Couldn’t agree more! the marketing message is tailored to the wrong demographic.
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