VB gets ‘Real’ in new campaign via Droga5
This Sunday night Australia’s most popular beer, VB, will premiere the first television commercial from its latest marketing campaign entitled ‘Real’, via agency Droga5 Sydney.
The campaign will feature a number of executions including two television commercials.
‘Cry’, directed by Revolver’s Steve Rogers, is the first TVC to hit television screens, airing nationally on Sunday evening. This will be accompanied by outdoor, print and digital advertising across the country. The second TVC, ‘Slide’, will follow later in the year, launching during the cricket.
The new campaign was developed from insights pointing to anincreasingly superficial society, and asks men to take an honest lookat themselves and pose the question, have I gone too far? Fromphoto-shopping Facebook profile photos to skinny jeans and plasticsurgery, the campaign showcases that, while superficiality will alwaysexist, men have a real desire to be authentic.
‘Cry’ (90/60/30/15 second executions) features a number ofvignettes telling the story of blokes rescuing their mates fromsuperficiality. Neil Diamond’s song ‘Hello again’ provides thesoundtrack to moments of self-realisation as the characters, with thehelp of their mates, finally grasp the extent of their superficialbehaviour.
“Few brands can lay claim to such authentic credentials as VB,”said Duncan Marshall, executive creative director at Droga5, Sydney. “So whobetter to be leading the cultural charge back to reality thanAustralia’s favourite beer? It’s refreshing to work on an iconic brandthat’s been around for so long, yet is still a pioneer in its thinking.”
Agency: Droga5 Sydney
Creative Chairman: David Nobay
Executive Creative Director: Duncan Marshall
Creative Directors: Cam Blackley and Matty Burton
Creative Team: Cam Blackley and Matty Burton
Creatives (other campaign elements): Guybrush Taylor, Chris Berents, Andy Ferguson, Marcus Johnston, Omid Amidi, Paz Molina.
Senior TV Producer: Paul Johnston
Business Director: Jamie Clift
Account Director: Esther Knox
Account Manager: Lucy McBurney
Planning Director: Sudeep Gohil
Senior Planner: Chris D’Sylva
Director: Steve Rogers
Executive Producer: Michael Ritchie
Production Company: Revolver
DoP/Cinematographer: Russell Boyd
Editor: Jack Hutchings at The Butchery
Music Production Company: Nylon
Sound Designer: Simon Lister & Tone Aston
Casting: Peta Einberg
Client: Carlton and United Breweries
Marketing Director: Peter Sinclair
Group Marketing Manager: Paul Donaldson
Senior Brand Manager: Craig Maclean
Trade Marketing Manager: Michael Ismailoglu
Assistant Brand Manager: Ashley Barton
115 Comments
What a load of superficial …..that needs such an explanation…..agency should also take a good honest look at themselves!
Real! Really? Unreal.
Well done d5. Well done Cam. Well done creative cats. I like this spot a lot and I love Steve’s direction of this spot. It’s a creeper and reveals itself slowly. Neil Diamond is a genius choice. I think the cyclist is the one that pushed it a little too far but fuck it, it gets a laugh. All class gentlemen (and that’s refreshing for a beer ad in this country).
Love it!!! Finally an Australian beer ad with an insight vs a cheap laugh.
Great work Droga5.
First real bread and now real beer. Wow.
I sooooo want to like this. I drink VB, and after that stupid ‘drinking beer’ line and bunch of wankers marching I shook my head in shame with what they’d done to 100 year history.
This ad almost feels like it wants to apologise for the last one.
Regardless, as much as I wanted to laugh, it felt forced and drawn out.
That said, the punters will love it, so who gives a shit what I think.
That’s very good – not because Droga 5 did it – just because it is very good.
It’s actually their best ad to date.
I agree, it’s a bit of a creeper, but keeps getting better for me. Rogers is a classy choice. Overall, VB feels fresher and 10 years younger. The haters will get carried away, but it’s a bloody good spot, whatever the politics. Welcome Mr Marshall, we’re not all negative pricks here, honest.p
Blows Carlton Draught slow-mo shit out of the water.
Brilliant. Well done everyone at D5. Having sat through the winners at Cannes this year, I would be absolutely shocked if this wasn’t amongst them next year. Great job.
Is the average man really suffering some kind of masculinity crisis?
Not according to old spice… (sorry this misses the mark.)
Well, another Aussie beer ad that takes place either a) in a pub b) a barbecue c) with the mandatory three blokes up to their usual japes.
Always the same.
Always the same.
I’m not sure what this one is saying as I’ve never had a spray tan, considered major plastic surgery or walked across a pub with gigantic red fruit-filled cocktails.
Only ad people do that, or indeed write that.
Stella used to set ads in nineteenth century France.
Budweiser was advertised by a talking lizard.
In fact, most of the great beer brands have moved out of the pub because, y’know, it’s boring and predictable.
But hey, it’s Australia. Consumers need to be grabbed by the face and slammed into the product benefit.
And this one seems to be – it’s a beer – a beer you drink in a pub – but not if you’re gay.
But hey, Droga5 did it so get out the tissues and get going.
Back in the day we’d try and use directors who were new and exciting.
Then I moved here and realised that I was wrong.
All ads should look exactly the same.
Because two people make them all.
wow how original slow mo
Felt a little drawn out- but where’s the broadcast 30sec version??
Not sure why the extended directors cut is put on here instead when most of the time the public probably won’t see much of it.
Anyway- Rogers did a great job. Casting was suburb. Great editing as well. Think its a very differnt direction from the regulars, has a much more personal and emotional feel. Thumbs up.
The song kind of ruined it for me. Otherwise not bad.
isn’t it funny how the two main competitors have exactly the same tone of voice and “ironic” casting brief.
Swap the logos at the end between VB and Carlton and you would never know….
No wonder the brand is in decline
Great ad good work D5
Pete
It ends rather abruptly. Was kind of waiting for something interesting to happen, but it didn’t happened.
Was the casting of the guy from the Carlton Draught Tingle ad intentional? Or is there a distinct lack of pudgy, bearded men who like bear in this country?
Most casual observers will mistake VB for Carlton Draught.
I laughed, I cried, and now I want a VB. Ruins slo-mo.
just never quite arrives.
The irony of it being in slow mo is just so good, but that’s only because I’m an ad wanker.
I like it. The punters will LOVE it. And it puts VB back where it should be as a brand.
Nothing soft gets in.
Overcooked.
….”bearded men who like bear”…. classic
I found Inception easier to follow than this.
Especially the bloke who’s getting his man boobs reduced – he doesn’t have any.
Spot on 8:38.
It looks like Carlton, sounds like Carlton….may as well be set in the same pub with the same punters as Carlton…..
Infinitely forgettable…
Intensely boring piece of advertising….
I think the average VB punter who religiously goes for a beer at their local hotel, will see this on the 50″ plasma during halftime of a cricket game and will think ‘what is this all about?’.
I don’t get it.
I suspect the Droga 5 PR machine is working in overdrive on this blog. This ad is ordinary. A half-baked thought very poorly communicated.
I love the script and the execution, yet the strategy feels completely off.
Last year you told me that VB was for everyone – even ‘manscapers’, but now it’s back to being only for ute-driving, cattle dog owning, blue singlet wearing mega-blokes? How is that not confusing? This could have been Old Spice, but instead it’s Brut 33.
Seriously, aren’t we past the era of beer ads playing on such outdated ideas of masculinity?
Bogans might like this, but alienating a huge slice of your audience, instead of including them, is just a bit dumb.
Maybe if it was in slow-motion…?
9:48 That should have been “beerded men who like bear”. Apologies
comparing a beer ad to inception – nice one.
if you can’t follow the ad then i suggest you’ve got bigger problems.
The old restores the balance strategy back again. Yawn.
@ 10.19
OK, so what’s with the guy on the bike? Why is he wearing road racing gear when he’s in a gym?
The idea isn’t hot, but the execution is funny to watch.
But good point John (10:08). This feels like a step back in the strategy.
Hello again… Nice. tough brand- lots of legacy there.. But whatever, worked on me and my girlfriend laughed too.
To quote John McEnroe “YOU CAN NOT BE SERIOUS!”
Please, just for me, read the blurb up front about the amazing insights this campaign is built on.
Wow! Men want to be seen as real?
‘Real’ is what VB was always about until the latest generation of creatives got their hands on it.
@ Still confused after 4 viewings
You’re over thinking it. Grab a beer and chill out.
I wonder what Peter Bray thinks of this ad.
I LOVE this ad.
The best I have seen in ages, caught myself smiling and wanting more.
“OK, so what’s with the guy on the bike? Why is he wearing road racing gear when he’s in a gym?”
-Have you been to Fitness First?
Not entertaining enough to be that long.
Like the slo-mo ad, I’ve seen it once and maybe one more time, but after that I’m going to switch off and not want to see it again.
Also, once the ‘punchline’ is revealed, it’s thrashed over and over. Yes, I get it. Enough said, move on.
It’s a series of vignettes which could each make up a single 15 second ad – BUT- they wouldn’t be entertaining enough.
No denying the Carlton spot is very well accepted, i guess time will tell if the VB spot will be but why oh why does Carlton keep having to shoot beer ads in pubs?
We love an outdoor lifestyle here in Australia and i am guessing 75% of beer is consumed out and about with mates. I guess if they shot it outside they may find they have the countries leading beer, oops that is XXXX Gold territory. A mid strength beer with no name that understands Australian males.
Shhhhh.
Slo-mo is more original. Better. Funnier.
IMO.
“We love an outdoor lifestyle here in Australia and i am guessing 75% of beer is consumed out and about with mates.”
I hear Droga’s looking for planners…
It won’t make me buy VB
@ EL G
I’ve been to Fitness First, but I have never seen a guy riding in a spin class bike with a helmet on.
a beer ad that says ‘we’re for real men’. i feel like i’ve seen it 100 times before. at least ‘the regulars’ put an interesting spin on this idea. lazy, predictable ad.
Isn’t it just Toyota’s Border Patrol rejigged?
Nothing soft gets in
The punters will love it; great ad, well done. This is an Australian client who is consistently doing great work with all of their agencies.
This strategy has been around for 10 years or more.
As has been said on the blog already, the VB and Carlton ads are as interchangeable as the bland beers they peddle.
Why not try saying something original about the beer, or position it differently form all the other beer brands out there that set themselves in a pub with three blokes drinking it. It worked for Boag’s Draught.
Sorry, but these two brands are taking a step backwards.
I should grow a bad moustache. Might get my mug on a beer ad.
All Aussie beer ads are all the same. Blokes and friends doing dum things.
need something new
This ad will NOT appeal to the very people it’s obviously aimed at – i.e. the non-puncey-gym-going, anti-plastic-surgery, non-fake-tanning and non-gay-cocktail-drinking ‘real men’ tradie types.
It WILL appeal to self-indulgent advertising people though.
Fail!
“I hear Droga’s looking for planners…”
I hear Foster’s is looking for a new marketing director…
I wonder if Woolworths or Coles home beer brands are worried
Awesome… put a huge smile on my face
LOV the choice of old school Neil Diamond track. And LOV this ad, I smiled all thru and I get all the bits others might find confusing eg: moisturiser making hands slippery, cos i can relate. But um, that’s cos I’m a girl, like a lot of girls, don’t drink VB.
Jim Beam’s strategy several years back.
Meh.
Wow, Anonymous is a real d**khead. Poking fun at the iconic Aussie male never gets old. Stuff the U.S or France. The ad is funny. Period.
I want to like this.
I really do.
But it all just feels so terribly, dare I say it, unreal.
Won’t stop me giving the Neilsen figures a good nudge of a Friday night though.
2.01pm you are an absolute moron
Boring. Wanky ad made for ad wankers – and not the people who actually buy the stuff.
Someone give Steve Rogers another Boegs ad or he’ll drown. Old mate, wasn’t meant for characters. Everyone is flat and 2D, living in ad land.
I feel sorry for this coming out after Carlton Draught. Everything is the same, right down to the slo-mo and over all look. Would have been more poetic if Carlton had come out after. Could have been taking the piss directly out of this.
Yeah, let’s stuff the U.S and the multi-D&AD winning Stella Artois campaign.
Cos we’re in AUSTRALIA. HOME of GREAT ads starring fucking lads in fucking pubs drinking beer from the same fucking brewery.
The iconic Aussie male had been done to fucking death. Mainly by the same three agencies who still keep pumping out the same award friendly shit.
Boring. Same idea over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over
Could have been a 15″ or a billboard.
Poor performances.
Feels a bit CP+B’s ‘mantropy’ campaign idea to me.
I’m assuming that the reason why the guy who wants a man boob lift doesn’t have them was because the client didn’t want to portray a beer drinker as being fat. If that was the case then drop that particular idea.
From The Age: ”Historically, beer advertising usually involves a victim. It wasn’t about inclusivity but about exclusivity … real mateship is not about laughing at your mate but welcoming him back into the fold.”
Are you serious mate? What a load of cobblers. Post-rational nonsense.
R.I.P. VB.
This ad only makes sense to the people who concocted it. To the rest of us, it’s a just a self-indulgent confusing mess. I can just see the creatives coming up with the various scenarios without a thought for their audience. What a wasted opportunity.
This is a classic case of attracting a very good director with the lure of a decent budget in an attempt to compensate for a very ordinary idea. Much like the last VB campaign. The inmates have taken over the asylum.
Some one call the cops.
We’re watching an iconic Aussie brand being murdered.
Unforgivable.
Anyone associated with the creation of this monstrosity must never be allowed near any major brands again.
It took 30 years to make VB Australia’s greatest beer brand.
Yet it’s being killed off in record time.
This ad, and just about all the work done on VB over the last few years, is a damning indictment on the Australian ad industry.
Self-indulgent, self-centred, self-congratulatory rubbish.
9.03 gets it exactly right.
Slow Mo and this effort could interchange logos and no one would notice.
Has everyone forgotten what brands are about?
VB is our ultimate beer brand; it should be treated with respect.
This effort throws the brand out the window, and for what?
Nothing much. Nothing much at all.
I think it’s great. And i’d say 90% of those who have slagged it here haven’t done a great ad in their careers. I also think it’s probably the same dozen or so whingers who post criticism on every posting on this site. Glad to see they’re all taking Peter Bray’s piece earlier this week to heart…..not.
Call me a traditionalist, but around about now, at the end of another week, I think I’ve earned a beer.
I can’t help thinking that the old VB ‘beer as reward’ strategy had legs left in it.
It just needed an agency with the balls to acknowledge that, sometimes, brands and heritage are bigger than yet another disposable agency to be given the reins for a while.
If you’re ever tempted to wonder why clients don’t respect agencies any more…it’s because agencies don’t respect the client’s brands any more.
Wasted opportunity on this brand mkII. I look forward to the third strike…
VB deserved better.
Cheers…
VB. tough brand; history etc. pitch a better idea people.. ‘murdering brands etc’ you’re boring.
Let’s be honest, we’ve seen it all before haven’t we?
I find it a sign of great weakness, profound naiveté
and utter gayness when a brand is reduced to showing
who it is not aimed at.
I can’t think of a single good thing to say about this ad.
It’s not funny. It has no brand message. It has no product message.
Someone at Foster’s is going to be in serious bother very soon.
I didn’t love Tingle, but if the bosses at Foster’s could stop that getting to air, surely the marketing genius behind this will be dragged naked behind a clydesdale along 50kms of gravel road.
I suspect Clems may just find themselves getting another bit of business very soon.
Is that a Todd Sampson look-alike shaking his head at 0.50…?
I like this to bits. (And I’m usually one of the slagging cunts on this blog)
Dear agency,
Please stop killing VB over and over and over again. Leave it alone. Enough.
The brewery is doing enough damage by making it a light beer bit by bit, and by introducing wanker versions such as VB Raw. They don’t need your help.
So please, please, please stop.
Thank-you.
A loyal VB man.
@Josh
That was my first reaction too – I thought the strategy of ‘The Regulars’ ad was brave and worthwhile for VB – that it’s not just some bogan-tradie-blue-singlet beer, but a beer that was drunk by everyone from celebrities to blokes built like brick shithouses to metrosexual manscapers.
And now I’m being told that VB cures gayness and metrosexuality?! The endline to this ad could be… VB: Harden the fuck up princess.
The ad itself will make punters laugh.
Tradies will still buy VB.
But if I were the client I’d be deeply concerned about the lack of brand building and likelihood of growing category share.
Reminds me of a joke:
Copywriter: “What do you reckon we should do with this script?”
Art Director: “I’ve got an idea! Steve Rogers!!!”
Weak as piss. There are 100 beers on the shelf, but there is only one you had to earn. Finding a position in the beer market is hard enough without destroying a strong, well-established one in favour of a truly feeble one. 4:21 explains it well. Whoever devised, let alone approved this failed Marketing 101.
so many creative directors.
so little creative.
All the people supporting this ad must have had something to do with it. It’s rubbish.
Like the strategy – this is compelling social commentary. The modern male is definitely confused. C’mon, how many of you fuckers use your girlfriend’s moisturiser etc? A documentary, in the year 2050, on the confused modern male of today might just use this ad to make a point or two.
Execution-wise I agree with the person who said ‘never quite arrives’.
But hey, it’s simple and the punters will like it. Go D5 🙂
‘Slow Mo’, ‘Real’ get your hands off it. I just came back from Dan’s and they’ve got Stella at $38 a slab – i bought two and haven’t seen one of their ad’s for years.
Some of you keep saying that ‘the punters will like it’. How do you know? Are you a bunch of planners? Or to ‘punters’ only like confusing shit?
I only use my girlfriend’s moisturiser as a wanking lubricant.
I don’t think is bad, but I don’t think it’s good either.
Then again, it’s Droga, so it will be in D&AD and Cannes anyway.
So it doesn’t really matter what I think.
I can appreciate first hand how hard it is to come up with good ads for beer, yet I think this will decrease their market.
VB is the drink that real blokes who aren’t sure if they’re real blokes need to drink.
Hard earned thirst was straight, regulars was curious, this is getting a bit gay.
Why ditch the regulars if it apparently worked so well?
Better than the atrocities than Patts kicked out. Remembering of course that they were the ones that managed the brand into decline by doing the same ad for 30 years. They were asleep at the wheel, hoping it would get better…
The Patts stuff with blokes ending up in hospital after a VB and a suvlaki was the first nail in the coffin of this great brand.
Regulars was another nail – the strategy of saying “this beer is for everyone” was dumb, dumb, dumb and incredibly amateurish. A product that is for everyone is really for no one. VB got to be number one by having a very specific positioning that gave it real beer cred – the kind of cred that persuaded even advertising wankers it must be a great beer (which it’s not).
This ad puts the whole brand death into fast forward. At least Suvlaki and Regulars gave a nod in the direction of “earning” a beer – the best beer positioning in the world and one any other brand would kill for.
But this bit of tripe? It just goes off on it’s own pointless direction, with no continuity with the brand history, no connection with 50 years of heritage, not even a nod in the direction of millions of loyal VB drinkers.
There are crap ads and there a crap ads. But rarely do you see such a badly misdirected, badly thought out, total disaster of an ad for a brand of this significance.
Really, is there anyone left at Foster’s who actually understands any of their own brands? And any agency in Australia that will put the brand’s they work on first and their own egos second? Because it certainly doesn’t look like.
Oh, and I almost agree with someone here who complained about someone else saying this ad was murdering the brand. Not true. It’s a clear case of rape.
are useless shites. The only time they’re useful is to guide junior creatives. After about 4 years in the industry, any creative worth his/her award show blow should be able to devise their own strategies.
Oh – the ad? Yuck.
awesome
Patts Patts Patts …. perhaps you should spend less time here and more time working on your clients work. For eg anyone want to know why the AFL finals have started but no afl creative on air – they screwed it up thats why – again!!
Oh, but don’t tell anyone, oops sorry just did!!!
This is fantastic work – congrats to all involved
The pussies in the ad are the advertising creatives that came up it.
VB drinkers won’t relate to this.
All the haters here are very quick to stand on their soapbox and crap on about what they don’t like. The VB brief is clearly one of the most difficult any agency could wish to tackle, and thank god Droga5 have the balls to do something different.
You talk about the “50 years of heritage” which is all well and good, but 50 years of the same idea also paints you into a corner that is very difficult to get away from. If VB continued to prat on forever about a Hard Earned Thirst, it would be treading water as it’s just NOT as relevant as it used to be. Sure if you’re happy to talk only to the faithful then yes, but these guys are getting older and drinking less, and the younger guys just don’t buy into this concept in a meaningful way.
Do I think this is the greatest spot of all time? No. Does it make punters think about the brand in a different way? Yes. Droga5 and Fosters are clearly working to a plan here, and anyone who thinks it’s possible to create a silver bullet spot to reinvigorate a brand such as VB is mistaken.
Regulars introduced the idea that VB is not just for bogans, it reaffirmed that VB is as inclusive as its always been. This spot is inclusive in it’s own way, it shows that real blokes don’t need to try hard to be something they’re not, and they will bring their mates back to the fold when they deem it necessary. I reckon the average VB bloke will relate to this absolutely.
Great work guys, looking forward to seeing Slide.
see, i watched this at uni with no sound and was just in that stupid silent laugh hysterics state you get in when something is done well. the story works without sound so, in my head, it’s a great little ad. i’m still at uni though sooo…
5.22, you seem to be living in a parallel universe.
VB was NEVER a beer for bogans. And only an absolute wanker would think so.
It was a beer for real blokes; blokes who worked hard and earned a decent beer at the end of it. They weren’t bogans, they were the people the rest of wanted to be.
Yes, it was unashamedly blue collar. That’s what gave it credibility.
The people cast in the suvlaki campaign were bogans. The people in Regulars were bogans. And most of the people in this new ad are bogans.
That’s why those ads fail miserably – they laugh AT VB drinkers, not with them.
Whatever you think about the great John Mellion campaign, there is no way the people in them were bogans. And the creatives who made those ads – all long since retired – understood that.
There is real respect and affection for the market in those ads. You can see they were carefully cast and meticulously directed, especially the earliest ads. A number of them, I believe, were shot by some of Australia’s greatest directors, like Breresford and Schepisi.
So before you start reinventing the wheel, get some idea of it’s actual shape and learn why the thing rolls before stepping forward to defend the indefensible.
It’s a sad case of selling something very average (a strategy) when there’s so much good stuff out there (the truth).
Drinking a decent drop of beer isn’t being superficial. Big hairy Germans and their big breasted women have been doing it for a hundred years. It tastes better.
Skinny leg jeans superficial?! Keith Richards is superficial? Nice ad though.
Thank God it’s a new week. Last week’s outpourings from so-called creative agencies would make a poor man roll in his grave.
VB . . . more homophobia per bottle.
What’s the real subtext? . . . the same as Border Patrol, and a dozen other Aussie ads that feel the need to announce that their brand is not for, well “sissies”, because only gay men, or effeminate heterosexuals taking masculinity in the ‘wrong’ direction, wear pink shirts, rollerblade, have cosmetic surgery, buy expensive sports gear to look the role of the serious athlete, eat quiche, etc.
Someone is protesting too much, me thinks, and strictly from a marketing perspective, they’re selling to the converted. How does that build share?
“I’m assuming that the reason why the guy who wants a man boob lift doesn’t have them was because the client didn’t want to portray a beer drinker as being fat. If that was the case then drop that particular idea.”
Mate that’s a very good observation. I can hear the boardroom, speaker phone and pre-pro conversations in my head.
I got an idea!
“A hard earned thirst needs a big cold beer
And the best cold beer is Vic, Victoria Bitter.”
What a load of crap.
Isn’t this exactly the same idea as the Jim Beam web films that won the Direct Lions Grand Prix at Cannes in 2003 for Y&R, Sydney, created by Phil Shearer and Chris Round under ECD Shaun Branagan?: http://filmgraphics.wiredrive.com/l/p/?presentation=db6175bc861054d62fe6234738afb146
Greatest VB ads I’ve seen!
The situations in the ‘Cry’ & ‘Slide’ ad’s are both SPOT ON!
Well done you guys & well done VB!!! Keep it up!
Well, it’s about 6 years after this launched. And it’s a cracking beer ad.
Was it right for VB? Probably not, given the changes they’ve been through.
But it’s a great ad for saying ‘man the fuck up and drink a real beer’ / ‘eat a real steak’ / ‘drive a real pickup truck’ / ‘yeah you know the formula you emasculated piece of shit’.
Love it.