Tooheys brings back iconic Aussie “I Feel Like a Tooheys” jingle for new campaign via Thinkerbell
Leading brewer Lion has released new Tooheys masterbrand work developed in partnership with Thinkerbell. The work will roll out across television, OOH, digital, radio and social. A key element of the campaign will be bringing back the iconic ‘How do you feel? I feel like a Tooheys’ jingle which will also be released as a track to Spotify.
In bringing back the iconic ‘I feel like a Tooheys’ tune, Tooheys will be resurrecting the most distinctive of all brand assets, a jingle written by MoJo. The campaign is off the back of a bold new look for Tooheys, with an overhaul of the brand’s packaging, designed by creative agency Weave. This packaging revitalisation has given the beer brand a fresh, modern look, while simultaneously reflecting its rich history and enduring commitment to brewing great, refreshing beer.
Says Chris Allan, head of marketing – core beer of Lion Australia: “Tooheys is a brand that has been celebrating having a beer with mates for over a century and a half. There’s so much to love about Tooheys, including its iconic jingle, which we feel will resonate with existing Tooheys fans plus a new generation of beer drinkers.”
Lion and Thinkerbell worked collaboratively on the new Tooheys work with its original custodian, advertising royalty, Allan ‘Jo’ Johnston, who first developed, sang and launched “I feel like a Tooheys” with business partner, Alan Morris, to Aussie viewers in 1979. Johnston also makes a cameo appearance in one of the new TV commercials, as a cheering onlooker.
Says Johnston: “It’s rewarding to see ‘I feel like a Tooheys’ enduring the test of time and making a comeback in 2023.”
A range of Tooheys workers, from sales to brewery staff, also lended their vocals for the new jingle.
Says Jim ingram, national chief creative, Thinkerbell: “We’re proud to have had a hand in creating a contemporary remake of this classic brand platform that so many Australians have grown up with and loved, while also reflecting the heritage of the Tooheys brand. We’ve had a bit of fun with this and you’ll hear the iconic jingle, and its evocative question ‘How do you feel?’ come to life in lots of different ways.”
For more information, visit www.tooheys.com.au.
View the original “How do you feel?” famous beer ads HERE
Client: Lion
Creative Agency: Thinkerbell
Media Agency: UM
Production: Good Oil, ARC EDIT, Sonar Music
Director: Tom Campbell
Editor: Phoebe Taylor
Musical Director: Cameron Bruce
55 Comments
A tooheys! Excellent work – certainly a sticky idea isn’t it?!
So interesting, it makes me feel like a Toohey’s, yet i don’t love the ads. Will work well I think.
Beautifully directed.
As much as ad folk like to think otherwise, people don’t change much. We still want to get together with friends, to kick a ball, to fall in love – to just do the things everyone’s always done. And being Australian, that means being a ‘smart arse’ – which some beer advertising is guilty of. ‘I Feel Like. Toohey’s’ is the right campaign, for the right beer, for the right audience, at the right time. Congrats to Tooheys for being smart enough to not try and reinvent the wheel and recognise a little lick of paint was all that was needed. [Love Jo’s cameo appearance].
VB ressurected their brand really well a few years back, it was a current take on something iconic. This one just misses the mark I’m afraid, nothing new to say/show?
it lacks a lot of the charm of the original MoJo work. Glad that the jingle is back, but it’s a bit of a missed opportunity.
Anyone seen my phone?
I caught this over the weekend. Absolutely no emotion what so ever.
Big miss for me.
Solid idea (god knows they need to try something to get the brand out of icu), however don’t love the execution v mojo nostalgic original
Nostalgia only works if your core audience remembers the work in its original incarnation. I wonder whether Toohey’s challenge as a brand is to drive appeal amongst older drinkers or whether it’s to attract younger drinkers to the brand?
Looks like a big budget to make something that has absolutely no creativity or emotion to me.
I don’t think this looks like big budget?
Looks like content work, shoot the shit of it doco style? Which is why it may lack emotion, creativity and engagement?
Probably needs a better edit.
Love that Jo is in there.
Wonderful Easter egg.
Nicely done.
Love the jingle, don’t know how I know it, but I know it well. It’s one of those things that part of culture. Like the ads.
Nice ‘Stan Lee’ cameo of Jo in the footy spot.
Surely if you’re going to bring back an iconic campaign you need to add something to justify doing so.
Thanks for sharing the manifesto you presented
I’m not that poster but why be snarky? They offered a reasonable and considered point of view, on the creative which is more than your contribution.
The problem with this beer isn’t the branding.
Time to come up with a newer New
Not sure what the point of difference is and why anyone would watch these?
Because they are ads. Ads get watched as they are put in front of people. The more the ad is put in front of people the more it builds brand awareness and therefore the more products they sell. These are good ads.
That logic sounds like what you would say to defend subpar work. Imagine how much more awareness you would earn the brand if the work was half decent?
Wondering if you are from the 90’s or 2000’s era of captive audience advertising?
If so, your logic is sound, but obviously a captive audience, as in ‘ads get watched as they are put in front of people’ is really a thing of the past.
Ads need to stand out quickly and grab attention if anyone is going to be bothered to sit through them now. These ads don’t do this. Nobody cares for the footy blokes or the drummers tiny struggles. Not enough to engage in the whole ad anyway. This is partly the fault of the script (not that there is much script) and partly the fault of the direction which fails to engage in the characters or lead the audience on a more dynamic or emotional journey from the perspective of the characters. Relying on the nostalgia of the song isn’t enough.
Alan Johnson AND Bobby freakin Cannavale in the one ad!!!
I like the music one. Unexpected.
The originals were heaps better. Just re run them….
Now here I thought Lion prides themselves on being the evangelist for not only men but women’s sport.
This could have been so good.
Anyone who thinks jingoistic jingles for alcohol brands were part of their childhood didn’t really have a childhood.
I understand the benefit of bringing back the jingle. But this is hardly a contemporary take on it. Could have been great, feels lazy.
Every limpet here having a sook about this ad just needs to remember that beer ads aren’t made for pretentious, Carhartt wearing knobs in advertising. They’re made for people from Glen Rowan who like beer, a current affair and catchy jingles. Great stuff Thinkerbell, real Australians will froth on this.
It’s incredibly arrogant and naive to think that the majority of the population, not in your inner ad bloke circle, are all stupid and will ‘froth’ on basic stuff. Naive to think the average 20 to 30 something bloke playing footy or drums in a contemporary pub band only has free to air tv, doesn’t know what the internet is and has never been to the whizz bang spectacle of say a marvel movie.
It’s wildly naive to say that because punters have the internet that they’re cosmopolitan, too. The shift isn’t in sophistication, it’s in taste. And it is a massive shift between the tastes of the avg punter and your common ad folk. Your description of the stereotype as ‘basic’ is that shift manifest. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re in touch because of the internet. I’m not seeing any creative directors at Carl Barron shows, despite his selling out Australia wide.
You’re missing the point (maybe on purpose?).
It isn’t about taste, or the footy bloke or the pub drummer vs ‘cosmopolitans’. It’s about the fact that ads are skippable and avoidable. There isn’t a captive audience. Your average person definitely knows how to skip an ad or avoid them altogether. These ads aren’t immediately interesting enough in idea or execution to attract or sustain attention. They can still be about the footy guy or the pub drummer, they can still be basic for basic people, but they still need a better script and more engaging execution to get through the smorgasbord of everything else bombarding everyone’s senses constantly. You have 30sec to 1min. It’s not a feature film or documentary that people are sitting down to engage in purposely.
This isn’t engaging enough even for the average footy player bloke or pub band drummer from small towns.
You’re right and wrong.
It’s not about a shift in taste it’s about the psychology of what attracts attention in the era of skippable, avoidable ads and everyone in the country no matter where they are from or what they do mostly watching streaming platforms.
An ad relying on sucking people into the drawn out subtleties of stereotyped characters or the nostalgia of a song may completely miss the mark. I’d even say the cosmopolitan carhartt wearing ad bloke is going to have more time for this than your average punter will. The average punter’s attention span for ads or anything is even less than yours.
👏
Plus a bonus 👏 for the use of ‘limpet’
Watch sales spike, no creative award enteries needed though – but very good advertising
I think MoJo should’ve had the agency credit here, what did Thinkerbell actually do?
I like it. It stands out.
Ah, the old ‘punters will love it’ defence.
Cheers.
Me loves a can crunch at the end. Or Animal going mad all over the drums. It’s got a certain head-nodding quality. Up there Cazaly with this bad boy.
The punters love it
The new song is fantastic: rousing.
Agreed – Nice pictures but the edit is lacklustre. A much better film is in those rushes.
I’m an ECD and I am going to Carl Barron.But only because my husband bought the tickets.
Big ups to the agency for convincing the client to resurrect this Aussie icon. On the other hand, the lyrics are hard to hear and they don’t rhyme so good.
The drummer one feels a bit fresher – like theres something extra added compared to Mojo days. Maybe just because you dont see it coming.
For the punters to froth it, there has to be something to like. In most cases they’ll either not even take notice of it, or love it.
In this case, it’s definitely the former.
Can’t see this standing out in an already talented market of alcohol ads.
song was a client mandate
Advertising will eat itself.
Found the wokie.
… sadly
Uptick in sales amongst Gen Xers who had drifted away to other beers. WTF from millennials who won’t see a reason to switch. I don’t mind the work though – being an Xer myself.
Waking up with a dry mouth at 2am and a shocking hangover the next day?
It’s not beer.
I can’t get the bloody song out of my head already! I would be amazed if this doesn’t work. Age 32.
Having worked both at Mojo and at numerous other agencies over the years on Tooheys briefs to either improve on the original, replace the original, pay homage to the original, make people forget the original, pretend the original never existed and umpteen other permutations to improve their fortunes, my hat is off to Thinkerbell.
It takes an enormous amount of courage and confidence to admit your finest minds can’t beat said original.
And an extra hat tip to the client for the same reason.
Most great campaigns aren’t replaced because they’ve reached their use-by date, but because the client is bored and just want the business.
As for those who say such campaigns are old-fashioned and won’t work in this modern media landscape, that’s nonsense.
Fewer people may see the spots at launch than the days of 4 TV channels. But TV (live or streamed) is still the massest media. NRL, AFL and cricket viewership has never been higher. Youtube FB etc are just channels. What works on ‘TV’ works on them. And clever media folk can find the eyeballs if they are good.
I’m curious what they’ll do next.
Despite what I said above it was possible to improve on the original. I think Garry Sleeman’s wonderful radio campaign took everything that was great about the original campaign and made it better, and that it would have worked on TV just as well.
I’d love to see Thinkerbell adapt those.
No-one else has come close.