Canning: VB’s ‘Cry’ spot smacks of the real thing
September 6 2010, 7:24 am | | 41 Comments
After caning Clemenger BBDO, Melbourne’s Carlton Draught ‘Slow Mo’ spot two weeks prior, in today’s Media section of The Australian, marketing writer Simon Canning is full of praise for Droga5 Sydney’s ‘Cry’ spot for VB.
Says Canning: “Carlton’s Slo Mo commercial was beautifully shot and engrossing in a fashion, but the reliance on a device rather than an idea left me wondering if, in the race to live up to the extraordinary success of the Big Ad, Carlton’s keg had run empty.
“Surprisingly, it has fallen to Carlton’s amber stablemate, VB, to demonstrate exactly why I was right….”
41 Comments
Couldn’t agree less. He’s got the two campaigns the wrong way around.
away from the forum (and the comments of SImon Canning), I’ve never heard anything but major praise for the latest Draught spot.
I’m not so keen on the VB spot. I’m sure it’ll go ok out there in the pubs.
but the story is Canning – WTF?…”It’s fallen to Carlton’s amber stablemate to demonstrate exactly why I was right”.
Simon, there’s no need to ingratiate yourself with the ad industry by overcompensating with praise for this new VB work. Of course it’s all a matter of opinion, but my two bob’s worth is this: There are 99 beers on the shelf (or on tap, if you prefer) but there was only one you had to earn. Advertising properties are hard enough to come by, and it seems to me it’s wreckless in the extreme to abandon that unique position. You could swap the branding on this new VB spot for just about any beer. That’s the test. It’s just a beer ad, and not a very good one at that. And as for longevity of the strategy, as in how do you make the idea work for years to come, what’s the next one in the campaign?
Is this guy serious? Is he really saying that he doesn’t understand the Carlton Draught idea? I always thought it was pretty simple. Isn’t it saying it is “just beer” and taking the piss out of people (marketers and advertisers) that take it all too seriously?
Seems pretty logical to me. In fact, in many ways it is taking the piss out of VB for having a position.That is Carlton Draught’s position…the anti position.
Old CD guy has a point. It seems the client has struggled with the whole ‘hard earned thirst’ proposition. It started when it got the parody treatment a few years back, and it’s gotten steadily worse. I think it could be a case of playing the man, as VB seems to be overly concerned with what Carlton Draught is doing/has done, hence the silly tag lines and derivative ads.
All I have heard from agency people and punters alike is how much they love the Carlton Draught Slo Mo Spot. In fact, I heard one account of a bunch of bikies going off about how much they loved the ad… one commenting that it was “The Best Ad ever!”
Now Simon Canning is entitled to his opinion, and free to express it. I just think that the majority of people will disagree with him. He comes across as arrogant that he states his opinion as fact. I think it is even more ridiculous that he claims the VB ads prove beyond any doubt his comments. I think all he has proven is that his ego is substantial and that I wouldn’t bother to take his opinion as anything worthwhile to read.
By the way, I think the VB spots are excellent and well executed, but I still prefer slo mo.
Slo Mo has an idea. The idea is that by ironically depicting blokes in the pub with the slow motion gravitas of sports ads (and yes, ads like the Schweppes one), Carlton Draught sets itself apart as grounded and funny in a world full of wankers. This isn’t a complex take out – people get this, which is why they laugh when they see it.
The VB ads are good too, but they’d never be what the are without the history of the Made from Beer campaign. Same for Slow Mo, but at least that was made for the product which started Made From Beer.
VB script didn’t need Slo-Mo. They could have shot it at 25 fps. Or 30 if Middleditch was doing it. CD script was observations about drinkers and humour written for super slo mo.
Was at the local pub poker night in rural victoria. Slo Mo came on during the AFL Geelong v St Kilda match. Pretty much the entire pub turned to watch with a rumbling of laughter throughout.
Then turned back as I pushed all in on a nut flush.
Happy event all round. Well except for the other 3 who were all in….
The only people who see ‘Slo mo’ as taking the piss out of ‘burst’ are those who spend too much time writing about ads instead of making them.
I love Simon Canning’s logic: I think I was right so therefore I was right.
Can’t argue with that. Genius.
a modicum of input from outside the industry and everyone becomes ultra defensive.
why is that?
Both ads have most likely came from the easiest briefs in Australia, so I really don’t know why the industry insists on bumlicking all concerned.
Beer. Blokes.
A couple of crap jokes about big cocktails.
They’re not the fucking second coming.
Canning misses the point.
Yes, the VB ad has an idea. But the idea has nothing to do with the brand. It’s an out out of thin air idea that could have the logo of just about any no-name beer on the end of it. But not VB.
12.31pm not “everyone” becoming ultra defensive – just Clems.
I’ve been surprised at peoples reactions, and defence for Slo Mo.
I thought Slo Mo was just ok, I was bored pretty early on in the ad.
Thought VB was slightly better than Slo Mo, it grabbed me a bit.
VB strategy is very lame though. Lazy.
Both pretty average for me.
Big beer advertising in this country is looking a little flat. Psst, this is your chance boutique beers bands, while the other guys are making the same ads you can do something good.
The VB ad is the first beer ad in a long time based on an ownable brand idea. What other beer than the beer BLOKES worked up a hard earned thirts for (Old CD guy), could tell blokes to keep it real? It’s very funny because it is actually based on a truth out there in skinny jean u/25 metrosexual publand. VB is building on its heritage and saying something about itself that not many other beer brands could, because quite simply they don’t have the history that VB does. and before you ask – no I don’t work for Droga – i just recognise a bloody great ad when i see it.
What, you mean like Budeweiser’s ‘TRUE’ campaign?
It spawned one of the most famous ads ever ‘Wasssssap!’ and was based around the simple truths of manhood, as opposed to the crap ads set in bars that everyone else was doing.
But we’re not good enough to escape the pub.
So shit they still are.
Oh, and when I see a brickie walking across a bar holding two cocktails in any place other than an ad, I’ll believe the strategy is ‘real.’
It’s about as real as a shit nineties sketch show.
And unfortunately, Aussie humour hasn’t advanced much from there.
really ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaPcBwmCtiM&feature=related
boags was better than both of these
Old CD Guy is right. (He usually is.)
This VB ad deserts the greatest beer positioning on the planet. And what for? An ad that has nowhere to go – a one off, and not a very special one off.
Paul (2.59) is wrong. The ad doesn’t build on the brand at all. It’s a classic brand feeder – it only gets noticed because it is an ad for Australia’s greatest beer brand (put any other logo on it and we wouldn’t look at it twice) but rather than building the brand, it eats away at the brand’s foundations. A few more ads like this, and the brand will crumble into a heap.
Slow Mo is true to the irreverent Carlton Draught brand that has been developed in recent year. The problem is, it’s incredibly boring and not very fun
1.54. Are you an idiot? Boags pure water won a gold in every single show it was entered in around the world. And the regulars won the only gold in the beer category at Cannes this year. Not to mention the fact that Our beer ads kicked the Poms butts at d&ad. Less than a decade ago beer Ads in this country were absolute trite. We’ve come a long way. And to the guys that say that beer is easy, think again. It’s the most awarded category in advertising the world over. To outdo ‘every’ beer ad that has been done before is not an easy ask. That’s why a good beer ad is respected.
It’s an interesting job, writing ads.
95% of what you write gets rejected.
And the other 5% generally gets ridiculed.
Still, the pay is good and it’s more fun than digging ditches.
I was in my local the other night, and it is a real local – Still got the traditional front bar and all that shit.
Anyway, I was amazed to see a bunch of drinkers mimicking the Draught ad! They were doing all sorts of whack shit in faux slow maux.
Actually, I just made that up. But it would be cool if a bunch of punters did that.
God you rule – that is usually the astro-turfers key technique….you are so right to bring that gimmick down!!
Lynchy, why on earth do you keep giving Simon Canning so much exposure on this blog?
Do you enjoy your petty torments that much?
Stop feeding him to the wolves.
No one gives a XXXX what you think, Simon.
Don’t shoot the messenger, 6:12 & 7:45. CB is simply drawing your attention to commentary on issues of interest & relevance to the advertising community. By all means debate the points Canning raises, if indeed you have the mental capacity, but from where I’m sitting, you don’t seem to. Instead of abusing Canning, why not counter his arguments. Or is that beyond you?
Actually, the surprising thing about the article is that it’s not very well written. Forget the content, but the argument is lazy and haphazard, and the sentence structure is poor. Not what you’d expect from an experienced journo.
To everyone who keeps banging on about Carlton being so funny because it’s taking the piss out of slo-mo ads, can you please tell me what these famous slo-mo ads are? I can’t think of many. It’s not like there’s a wealth of these ads on tv. How long ago was ‘Burst’, two, maybe three years ago?
The only over used genre I can think of is people running down the fucking street or gathering in large crowds for no apparent reason.
I’m sorry, but I just don’t get it if that truly is the strategy, which I’m not sure it is.
This is what the PR said on the blog:
‘Directed by Paul Middleditch via Plaza Films, it stays true to the great Carlton Draught tradition of ‘taking the piss’, bringing slow motion camera technology into the pub to showcase men in all their ‘Slow Mo’ glory.’
No mention of taking the piss out of slo-mo ads. Therefore it could be anything. Nature documentaries maybe? Or sporting moments replayed in slo-mo? Not necessarily ads. Or is it saying that men are stupid, dumb animals? Or piss heads?
Maybe you’re all loving it for the wrong reason. Perhaps someone from Clems could clarify what the strategy actually is.
If the masculinity of any Aussie male depends upon what beer he drinks, then it’s a fragile proposition indeed.
Are Australian beer drinkers really so thick as to buy into these marketing strategies that try to position them all, however comedically, as working-class guys, regular guys, macho guys, not very sophisticated guys, with the real subtext of cultural homophobia at worst, and a deep-seated fear of being effeminate at best?
Is drinking a more expensive, and probably better tasting beer from Europe really a sign that you’re gay or maybe just in the closet? . . . and if you are gay, or in the closet about your sexuality is that a bad thing? . . . forbidding you from drinking VB if your tastes were so challenged?
Why are the beer makers of Australia determined to speak only to those with the social persuasions of Bob Katter and his Far North Queensland kind?
Why don’t we just leave it to ‘tastes great’, as if that were actually true?
And what, prey, is your counter-argument, 10:59? You’re obviously a person of great wisdom, not to say formidable literacy.
i’m going to also agree with the post above…’making fun of cliches’ is a great thing for directors like middleditch to do, as he’s been a part of those very cliches.
Hard earned thirst, 40 odd years. The Drinking Beer, approx 2 years. And now, The Real Beer. So can we now expect VB to change marketing direction every couple of years and spend the rest of its days wandering the desert aimlessly, looking for a divine sign?
The counter arguments, 5.47? There are plenty of strong ones here already, not least the one put forward by Old CD Guy.
My point was that Canning’s article is badly written. It’s sloppy.
In terms of the argument itself, it shows a distinct lack of understanding of the brand values and market heritage of both Carlton Draught and VB.
However, it’s probably unfair to criticise him on that score: both the agencies involved seem to have the same problem.
Hard working people get thirsty for beer and conversation today, just as they did way back when.
And that’s no piss take. It’s a basic drive called ‘thirst’.
(It’s like being hungry except it’s wet.)
Get the strategy right and you will get the ads right and sales will go up again.
It’s not rocket science!
The whole ‘REAL’ territory was done so much better by John Smith’s NO NONSENSE campaign and Bud’s TRUE.
End line on VB – Real.
End line on Budweiser – True
An execution taking the piss out of metrosexuals.
Gee never seen that before either. (Look up Ford Ute, Solo ‘Man Cans’ and a swag of others that have used this core idea better).
But “Hey!” Say the creative kids, “We’ve category jumped the thought, so that’s ok.”
Canning is half right, this is so-so, but at least there’s a giggle in Slo-mo.
My mistake. Canning said he liked Cry. So yep, he has no clues.
It’s cool to be a dickhead is what this ad should have been.