The Ministry for Communication & The Arts combines forces with Bureau of Everything to deliver Hawke’s a good honest Xmas campaign

The nation’s soon to be 4th favourite beer brand takes on the festive season with some Aussie home truths in a new outdoor and social campaign.

Ignoring the usual cliché Christmas message trap, MCA and BoE have leant unapologetically into the Australian experience at this time of year by pushing up against topics like ‘end of year exhaustion’, ‘traditional gifting, like Jack Daniel’s’, fridge politics and polarising holiday films.

The centrepiece of the campaign is a series of public service announcement billboards that would be close to Bob Hawke’s heart – a daily countdown of potential sick days remaining until Christmas day.

Says Hawke’s co-founder, Nathan Lennon and co-founder of The Ministry for Communication & The Arts: “Christmas is the Super Bowl for brewers, with December accounting for up to 20% of annual sales (95% if you’re Crown Lager). With the big Japanese-owned Australian breweries muscling us smaller guys out of all the good fridge spots, we’ve enlisted Cam to help us fight back the Aussie way: with some good honest advertising that helps prove that iconic brands are built on cultural relevance, not price-tag promotions. And hey, if we can snag a slab-sized spot under a few Christmas trees while we’re at it, all the better.”

Adds Cam Blackley, co-founder of Bureau of Everything: “Dave and Nath have created such a strong Australian point of view and iconic work with Hawke’s. It was an incredible responsibility to be entrusted with their baby and the high standards they set around the work. It was also a blast to be writing beer ads again.”

If they had to give the project an end line, which they don’t, they’d make it: Good Honest Beer with a Good Honest Collaboration. Because the project brings together The Ministry for Communication & The Arts (MCA) and Bureau of Everything (BoE) which is quite a sentence. But actually reflects the new way of the world, where Indies come together based on the brief and the types of brains that might bring a new perspective.

Both creative offices launched their companies earlier this year. This is the first collaboration between the two businesses, although the founders have been long-time mates and Droga5 alumni. Both creative shops are built around senior talent that work more directly with clients and can flex their creative muscles through their ability to drive impactful collaborations.

Hawke’s Brewing Co. was founded in 2017 by Australians Nathan Lennon and David Gibson, who were working as creative directors at Droga5 New York when they began discussing the idea behind the brand. They launched their own creative consultancy The Ministry For Communication & The Arts earlier this year.

Former M&C Saatchi CCO Cam Blackley and CSO Emily Taylor launched Bureau of Everything back in May this year.