No Bollocks: Newcastle Brown Ale launches new US advertising campaign via Droga5 New York
Newcastle Brown Ale today launched a new US advertising campaign titled ‘No Bollocks’.
The campaign marks the first time Newcastle has invested in national TV ads, created by the brand’s new agency of record, majority Aussie-owned Droga5 New York. Shot on location in Newcastle, England, the ads examine the brand’s story, including its history, the glassware and the brewmaster.
The “No Bollocks” campaign launches with national TV spots beginning on April 2. The media mix includes digital and in-bar advertising, and the campaign will also influence on-premise elements, events, social media and PR activities.
“With this campaign we are going to be very honest with our consumers. Our guys know it when they are marketed to, so we believe it’s time for a beer brand to give it to them straight, just like their best mates would do,” said Charles van Es, brand director, Newcastle Brown Ale.
“The people of Newcastle, England – Geordies – don’t take themselves too seriously, love a good joke, and most importantly, they tell it like it is. Our ads celebrate these traits by using a no-nonsense approach, where we are not over promising anything.”
“Newcastle Brown Ale speaks for itself with these spots, by communicating authentically about the brand’s heritage. We’re also giving our drinkers more credit – and we believe they can handle the truth,” said Aussie expat David Droga, founder and creative chairman of Droga5.
Agency: Droga5 New York
Creative Chairman: David Droga
Executive Creative Directors: Ted Royer / Nik Studzinski
Group Creative Director: Kevin Brady
Associate Creative Director: Scott Bell
Senior Art Director: Dan Treichel
Head of Integrated Production: Sally-Ann Dale
Executive Producer: Ben Davies
Strategy Director: Tom Naughton
Group Account Director: Nick Phelps
Account Manager: Lauren Solomon
Production Company: Smuggler
Director: Ivan Zacharias
DOP: Jan Velicky
Partners: Patrick Milling Smith, Brian Carmody
Executive Producer: Allison Kunzman
Producer: Nick Landon
Editorial:Robota
Editor: Filip Malasek
Post Production: The Mill NY
Executive Producer: Sean Costelloe
Producer: Rachel Stones
Colorist: Fergus Mccall
Flame: Gavin Wellsman
Music: Sonofind Music
Sound: Nylone
Mixer: Dave Robertson
Client: Newcastle Brown Ale VP Marketing, Dos Equis, Newcastle, Amstel: Colin Westcott-Pitt
Brand Director, Newcastle Brown Ale: Charles Van Es
Brand Manager, Newcastle Brown Ale: Gwendolyn Boyce
35 Comments
I like it, but it does remind me an awful lot of ‘no nonsense’ from years ago
Brown is Beautiful
Bondi Junction Pepsi v Coke circa mid 80’s?
existential advertising
lazy
boring
indulgent
Yep. All feels a bit familiar.
Step up droga5! No nonsense
This is good. Why would you not like it?
disappointing
this kind of approach walks a fine line and this just doesn’t work
For me it just undersells the product
Great campaign would like it in my book for sure
A true Geordie wouldn’t have a clue what you’re on about if you asked for a Geordie Schooner.
It’s a Heineken invention for the US market.
feels a bit ‘award’ school to me.
The ads are very refreshing.
Just what over critical, over hyped lifestyle beer floggers have been thirsting for.
L.A.M.E.
Carlton Draught.
Um…who uses the word ‘bollocks’?
FAIL.
oh, and both ads are pretty shit. My kids can do better stuff than this. True.
It’s a very brown idea.
“No nonsense” comparisons aside this doesn’t work from a colloquial point of view. “No bollocks” means “no testicles” or it’s implication that you have “no balls” – you’re gutless. It’s derogatory.
For this to have the desired effect you’d have to say “we don’t talk bollocks”. Admittedly that’s not as catchy but it’s better than saying Newcastle Brown is a drink for pussies.
Trust me, if you told someone from Newcastle that they were a pussy or had “no bollocks” you’d be drinking through a straw for the foreseeable.
No, it’s used figuratively here.
No bollocks.
No nonsense.
That’s where the comparison is coming from.
Yep. Rip off of the long-running John Smith’s ‘No Nonsense’ campaign. And $50 says the advertising watchdogs will can the use of the word ‘Bollocks’ for being offensive.
D5 are much like the Newcastle football team, so much promise but they frequently under-deliver.
I think that’s ‘eating through a straw’, 12:43. Get the difference?
Queen’s English is right. No English person would ever use the word ‘bollocks’ in that way.
FFS ‘No bollocks’ in this context just means no bullshit. Anyone who says otherwise is talking bollocks.
‘no bollocks’ is fine. but when you’re ads are done to death bollocks… well then… we have a problem.
It might be because I’ve just finished writing my third brochure for the day, but that billboard made me laugh out loud. Of course it’s been done before but sometimes the trash-talk pissing contest is all it needs.
i’m not here to pan it, but it did remind me of John Smith. No Nonsense rather than No Bollocks and a ‘regional’ British pint. And these ads were gold- ‘ave it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFSLUJ8SIbc
All these comments are irrelevant because you are in Australia and they are Droga5 New York.
I hear ‘no bollocks’ all the time. No bollocks.
Pretty well worn territory. ‘Non pretentious drinking’ brief, seen it a lot, in my opinion been done much better. At least Carlton Draught managed to hide their briefs by using a well crafted line, ‘made from beer’.
Some of the executions are ok tho, but I would have expected better for a challenger brand and a top agency.
Campaign Brief. Where dried up, jaded old Ad men come to bring everyone else down to their level.
That friggin company that bougt Scottish and Newcastle Breweries needs to get a clue and stop screwing up everything. I looked forward to drinking McEwans Best Scotch for 10 years (The One You’ve Got To Come Back For) to find out Hiney has stopped making it. Bastards.How about this Ad- Heineken,Dutch for “Piss Off”.
It’s 5.21pm, on tthe day before Easter long weekend.
I’ve had two G&T’s.
This rocks.
Fuck off.
Look Im from Newcastle so I’ll give my opinion:
1. No one calls it Brown Ale or Brown, it’s local name is ‘Dog’ ie ‘ Can I have a pint of Dog’
2. No Bollocks would be said as Nee Bollocks up here, which is actually quite common unlike in other forms of English, so people saying ‘No one says that’ don’t know what they’re on about.
Tbf Its a risky stratergy advertising wise but it certainly makes it stand out and people will take notice of it.
Finally, I love Broon Ale, it tastes fucking lovely so go out there and try it, no matter what other ads say, it is a lovely drink.
Mate .No one asks for a pint of Dog only a bottle. Draught Brown ale is wrong.
Up here the term is used more to describe a ‘No Nonsense’ attitude rather than any attribute to bravery or the lack of it. We say ‘You’re talking bollocks’ which means like some comments here you’re talking nonsense or garbage! it sums up the beer the region and it’s people perfectly and that’s No Bollocks.
Just seen the TV advert whilst on holiday in the US and nearly fell off my chair! Not just because you could never get away with that language at home, but because the advert was voiced over by a Mancunian. Presumably, it doesn’t need a proper Geordie accent because the Newcastle Brewery was shut and production was transferred to the Fed Brewery in Gateshead (home of LCL Pils, or Lose Control Lager), which was shut and so is now brewed in some Mickey Mouse town in Yorkshire. Might as well as had a Dutch voice over. Double Maxim was nicer anyway.