scottlava:

“There are many strange legends in the Amazon. Even I, Lucas, have heard the legend of a man-fish.”

The Beaver (2011)

I can’t tell you why, but it’s my favourite poster I’ve seen in a while.

The Rocketeer (1991)

Name: Sean

Occupation: Media Monitoring

Beer: Carlton Draught (4.6%)

Brewery: Carlton and United Brewing

Location: Victoria, Australia

Type: Lager

Sean and I share a common element in our respective jobs. We are both required to watch excessive amounts of Australian commercial television. A natural byproduct of this is seeing an incredible amount of Australian advertising for alcohol, which makes Calrton draught, Australia’s most prominently advertised beer, a very suitable choice for Sean, more so as he’s Victorian based.

Carlton and United Brewing, the modern name spawned from the brewing cartel originally known as the society of Melbourne brewers has been the most prominent brewery in Australia’s history, keeping a monopoly on the home grown and pub industry for most of the last century. Carlton Draught ranks as Australia fourth best selling beer.

One thing to note is that originally the beer was 5% but in 2003, was lowered to 4.6% due to heavier alcohol taxes the Australian government imposed.

Everyone knows what Carlton Draught is and its reputation in Australia so given that and Sean, our subjects penchant for looking constructively at Australian advertising,  I’m going to focus solely on a few pieces of Carlton Draught’s commercial history, because regardless of what you think of the beer, you cannot deny their success in advertising.

The obvious one, the one everyone has seen is the ‘Big Ad’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY6uJlI-t14

The first thing to note is the scale of the ad. One would say it was ‘epic’, which is fitting, given that the director of photography was the Oscar winning Andrew Lesnie, of Lord of the Ring’s fame as well as boasting visual effects by the Australian production house ‘Animal Logic’, one of Australia’s leading VFX houses, probably most notable for the animation in ‘Happy Feet’ and ‘Legends of the Guardian’.  The ad walked away with over 30 internationally recognised awards.  If you’re interested in how they did it, here’s a short video on the making of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeNyW00mjCU

But let’s go back. Right back.

The 1960’s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lonOaKcJhA

Two things. This isn’t an ‘Aussie’ ad. It Australian sure, but where are the Australian stereotypes? This is a mid to upper class targeted ad located in central Melbourne. It’s a little surreal for an Australian beer ad and I don’t think it’s one you’ll find many similar to. Note the ‘VB’ theme used at the end of the commercial. WHO is this targeting!? We have classy looking businessmen, a gentleman’s club, boxing, ‘dancers’ and a brief mention of how terrific the town’s ‘cultural’ centre will be….

Here’s one from the 1970’s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cixpz9UfAyM

Oh here it is! It’s a classic ‘Aussie’ early beer commercial, focusing on the stereotypes of cheesy, country Australia and the wind down after a long days work. It’s something you wouldn’t see in its exact form today though the aesthetics of the ‘bloke’ walking into the heavenly pub is an image that is still repeated (see the ‘woman whisperer’ campaign). One thing to note and correct me if I’m wrong, but they’re drinking pots. Where it might have been normal in country New South Wales and Victoria to drink pots in the 70’s, it works against a 2011 perception of ‘men’ who drink beer.

Jump to the 1980’s,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcoebOqFsTs&feature=related

More of the same. Except with pub ghosts! I imagine these commercials died when Carlton were bought out in 1983.

Then we move into the 90’s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHKWJNxFs1U

This is such a typical 90’s Australian beer commercial, on the cusp of government alcohol commercial regulation. It’s less about the reward of alcohol and more of the miracle of being in its presence. You might see a funny version of this commercial these days but what I truly love about this is the sincerity in which they use the theme from ‘Chariots of Fire’. This ad come froma beer drinkers heart.

In the last decade, Carlton changed tactics in the face of strict alcohol advertising regulation. To combat, they developed a sense of humour.

You’ve seen them, you know them, but just in case you’ve forgotten, here’s the magic.

Canoes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-zIeJ01oJU&feature=related

The Flashdance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esrNyIg_SMI&feature=related

The Skytroops

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvIwsLty9Fo

As an interesting note to send this out, last year Carlton had prepared a series of seven commercials to be released in February based around the concept of a folk band singing about men getting an itch to drink. The company pulled them close to launch date. ABC’s the Gruen Transfer have a great chat about the ads and show a couple of them here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-SWfFbCiM0