VB says “Matter of fact, get the jab” in latest vaccination campaign via Clemenger BBDO
Victoria Bitter will evoke the spirit of its famous anthem to encourage Australians to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in a new campaign via Clemenger BBDO Melbourne.
The campaign has launched today and will call on Aussies to help us get back to working up a hard earned thirst.
“So if you’d like to get back to leading a band, or lending a hand, roll up your sleeves, and get the jab,” the new ad says. “Matter of fact, I got mine now.”
The classic 53-year-old VB anthem is one of Australia’s most iconic and loved advertising songs, celebrating knock-off from a day of hard work with a refreshing cold beer.
The new ad has the iconic images and music but with new words: “Right now you can’t get it goalin’, you can’t get it bowlin’. You can’t get it takin’ a vow, or chasin’ a cow.
“A hard earned thirst comes from being all over town. Not from being in lockdown.”
VB’s head of marketing Brian Phan said the campaign encouraged Australians to get vaccinated so people across the country can return to work and re-unite with family and friends: “This will support hospitality and business more broadly by encouraging Aussies to get the jab so we can re-open all of Australia’s pubs, clubs, construction sites, offices, shops and everywhere else you earn a hard earned thirst.
“VB has been celebrating ‘taking a vow’, ‘chasing a cow’ and ‘leading a band’ for more than half a century. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has taken nearly all of these activities away from us. And let’s be honest, you can’t really earn one sitting on the couch or doing a puzzle. It’s a serious issue, but our Aussie sense of humour is still important during a pandemic.”
VB is proudly owned by Asahi Beverages, which last year acquired Carlton & United Breweries.
Says Robert Iervasi, group CEO of Asahi Beverages: “Re-opening businesses and re- uniting with loved ones is critical for the wellbeing of all Australians. We hope we can play a small role in this unprecedented national effort to roll up our sleeves together and ensure Australia’s long-term recovery.”
Australian Hotels Association chief executive Stephen Ferguson threw his support behind the new campaign, saying: “We have all missed the social things in life like gathering with mates at the pub for a beer. The sooner we all get vaccinated, the sooner we can get all get back to living.”
Says Josh Landis, CEO, Clubs Australia: “Your local club can’t wait to swing open the doors and start serving fully vaccinated patrons. It is so important for us all to get the jab so that we can enjoy an ice-cold VB at our favourite venues once again.”
Says Jim Curtis, executive creative director, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne: “When it comes to big, iconic brands like VB, I feel there’s a responsibility during times like these to lend some influence in the right direction. We hope this motivates a few more people to get the jab and get back to earning a thirst!”
The new campaign will run on TV in states presently in lockdown and across the country digitally, supported with some print advertising. It will run for at least a month to help Australia achieve National Cabinet’s requirement of 80 per cent vaccinations before wide-spread lockdowns end.
Creative Agency: Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Production Company: Flare
Director: Nathan Christoffel
Post-production: FINISH
Editor: Sam Coates
Sound house: Squeak E Clean (Paul Le Couteur)
Media agency: PHD
76 Comments
Literally playing rugby.
https://wa.campaignbrief.com/get-it-before-you-get-it-from-cooch/
(See from around 3:15 onward).
That VB left a bad taste in my mouth
People are going to get vaccinated if they want to get vaccinated. If someone is on the fence about getting vaccinated do you really think you will persuade them with this? If anything the bombardment of ‘go get vaccinated’ content is going to deter them further. If your creatives are bored why don’t you get them to make a case study or just anything other than this
Anyone else swimming in tight turn around vax briefs after Qantas?
“We need to be seen doing something to help Australians get Vaccinated, what role can extra crunchy coco-pops play?”
the funny VB ad told us to
Ah, because nothing says creative like doing the same as every other brand. Well done CMO’s.
Vaccinated countries like Israel and the UK are seeing a huge surge in deaths. This idea that we all get the jab and everything goes back to normal is really worrying, look at what’s happening around the world.
https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/countries-and-territories/israel/
Quite Right. See the recent CDC report that indicates the vaccinated who test positive to Covid are carrying the same or very similar viral loads to the unvaccinated with C. Wonder how VB will approach that campaign….
Rn Israel’s problem is that 28%+ of the population is under 16 and un vaccinated.
Their figure of being 80% of vaccinated, is actually more like 55% of their overall population. That’s quite a problem.
If Australia, the retirement village that it is, were to reach 80% vaccination, it would mean that it closer to magic number of 70% of overall.
How is that a problem? We already know the COVID hardly affects under 16s at all.
Look at rising mortality rates in the UK, especially vaccinated people over 80 – we’re in for a bit of a shocker I’m afraid.
Hate to tell you, but vaccinated people over 80 ain’t going to live forever matey.
Over 100 people are in intensive care units in Victoria right now with Covid. None of them are double vaccinated. Get your jabs people.
yeah, that ad didn’t go down very well, did it?!
Coco pops – of course, doesn’t work. Bad example.
Brands that bring people together, like in bars, travel or holiday destinations – why the hell not.
We’re not there yet re Covid, we’re all sick of being locked down. And as a business you should think about how you can help customers’ problems. If it’s relevant to your product. Not cereal. It’s classic marketing. And this mainstream communication has more integrity than most/all agency Cannes Innovation entries, born from problems, but the public never see the work/shallow vanity projects.
You might put anti-vaxxers off with this, but you’re speaking to the great and increasing majority. And getting a load of free PR in the process. “Done before” isn’t relevant, this is too important, we’re not talking about yet another brand doing a flash dance.
Re Honey, let’s get the jab – That’s what we do, we persuade. Honey, let’s get the jab so we can crack cold VBs with our mates.
It works.
Would you care to Google this campaign to see how it’s already doing? Please, after you. Not bad return on dollar, marketing ROI is off the charts when done well. I believe sales will follow, but can’t back this up yet of course.
This might have been mildly edgy or even remotely interesting about 8 weeks ago. Hawke’s “Jab for a Slab” was simpler, cooler, and unfortunately for VB – much sooner.
Medical procedures and beer. What could possibly go wrong?
We have the jab chatter drummed into us constantly by the government, there is no need for brands to get involved with this.
Vaxx washing – dear Asahi what are you doing to make people get vaccinated?
All aboard the bandwagon!
Have a look at the comments for this ad on Facebook.
VB loyalists are swearing never to drink VB again.
Talk about forgetting your core customer.
You alright m8?
Not as huge if people weren’t vaccinated though hey.
The people dying in the countries you’ve listed are the ones that aren’t vaccinated.
No one is really saying that you get the jab and things get back to normal are they. They are saying this is the way out of lockdowns.
What do you want to happen? Serious q
More vaccinated people in the UK are dying of COVID than unvaccinated. It’s the same in Israel. We could have combined an elimination strategy with a reasonably paced vaccination rollout. Now the premier isn’t even bothering to show up to press conferences.
FUCKING AWESOME AD! Just shut the fuck up, be thankful for what this country’s done for you and stick it in you.
Previous comment forgot to say … or fuck off
Short memory my friend? Remember when Nike fans were burning their shoes after the Kaepernick ad?
Losing a few anti-vaxxer VB drinkers is a small price to pay for a brand taking a stand.
Issue here is authenticity. It’s blatant bandwagoning for an alcohol company to now be caring for people’s health seeing their industry is responsible for one death every 90 minutes and 400 hospitalisations a day (https://ndri.curtin.edu.au/news-events/ndri-news/media-release-alcohol-causes-nearly-6000)
You people are crazy.
We either can’t make ads right now or probably shouldn’t be and you guys are criticising the one idea that gets us back to work, back to the pubs and back to our families.
VB are just trying to align themselves with a larger message.
If this ad makes 10x people get the jab that otherwise wouldn’t then it’s succeeded.
Not everything needs to be revolutionary.
Qantas didn’t invent the idea of being pro-vax.
You either get the jab or you whine about pErSoN@L FrEEd0MMs and admit you don’t care about the collective social good.
Some worthwhile perspective from you.
Not everything has to be genius, although this is a bit flat.
>If this ad makes 10x people get the jab that otherwise wouldn’t then it’s succeeded.
hahahahahahahahhaaha
>admit you don’t care about the collective social good.
hhahahahAHAHAHAAH
what does getting the vax have to do with the collective good? it still spreads between double vaxxed. it really will only harm the non-vaxxed. let us die off if you hate us so much.
Well said. Also considering no one in Sydney or Melbourne can shoot right now using footage from the old ads is a decent enough solve in what I assume was also a tight turnaround to get on the bandwagon.
Maybe this is really ,really clever.
After all,the anti vaxxers won’t be able to go to a pub,bar or club for a beer,which means they will be buying a lot of slabs to drink at home.
Can everybody please stop saying ‘jab’ every 8 seconds.
What % of the Aus population are ‘anti vax’ ?
Will every pro-jabber in here be getting the booster shots for the rest of their life?
Knowing full well that these jabs only last 6-12 months in efficacy, that viruses will spread and harm (albeit less so) even those who are double vaxxed, and knowing viruses don’t just go away because of vaxxes, but because of herd immunity.
So, will it be a booster shot forever then? Will VB send a slab to every who listened to the ad and suffered a serious side effect?
What % of vaxxers are happy to get the booster shot for the rest of their life?
Exactly. Judging by the difficulty in getting a vaccine appointment this side of October I wouldn’t exactly say this is a problem that needs solving.
If you dont support vaccinations.
What is your solution?
Because all I ever see from people who go on about jab propaganda, boosters, not safe etc – have ZERO practical realistic alternatives to getting us out of the situation we are in.
It’s all ‘we got to learn to live with it’, ‘we can’t keep hiding’, ‘we need our government to lead’ – which, is fine to have as an opinion, but all completely lacking in strategic alternatives.
This whole ‘go work – go broke’ stuff is just people picking sides because they are angry and frustrated and need to direct their anger towards someone else.
A non-argument wrapped in do-nothing buzzwords. “Strategic alternative”.
Here’s a practical realist alternative. Let those who wish to be vaccinated be vaccinated, and those who don’t think it’s necessary (because really, it isn’t) to not be vaccinated.
Then get on with life. If they catch it, chances are they’re a little sick for a week or so, chances are they’re then better protected than vaxxers who will need to be doubled jabbed every year until death.
There’s your strategic alternative.
Answer the question. Will you be getting the jab every 6 months now?
Nobody in hospital in Victoria right now with covid is fully vaccinated.
Don’t want the jab because it’s too risky yeah?
I don’t remember people complaining about their rights when kids were vaccinated against measles, polio, whooping cough, nor the requirement of proof of that from childcare etc. Vaccines have dealt with those. Why all the fuss over the same thing here?
Apples and oranges. Each of those vaccines provides a lifetime of protection. Not getting those vaccines doesn’t mean people can’t suddenly live a normal life by entering pubs and shops. COVID is far less deadly than all mentioned, especially for kids. COVID is shown time again to only be dangerous to old and sick.
When it’s your turn to put work up on this blog and ppl are shitting all over it – this is the calibre of ppl you’re dealing with.
Puts a lot into perspective.
“ it really will only harm the non-vaxxed. let us die off if you hate us so much.”
If only that was true. As much as I’d be happy to leave you struggling to breathe in a gutter, the nice folks in healthcare will load you and your dumb-ass anti-Vax mates into an ambulance and take you to hospital. You will the take up critical beds that will be needed by people whose need for medical care wasn’t easily prevented.
Thus revealing the psychopathy of the authoritarian health stalinists. How about we meet and I leave you breathless in a gutter you rat? Go ahead and show me the data that beds are full. That hospitals can’t cope with a few people with a cold. I’ll wait. Cretin.
but those people wouldn’t be in care because they’re vaccinated? they won’t need beds
I have been getting a flu shot every year for at least the past twenty years.It takes less than 5 minutes.Never had flu.Don’t get what all the fuss is about.
The issue is that not everyone wants a jab, especially one enforced by a government that has bungled so much so often and then blamed its citizens.
The issue is about right to choose.
“You will the take up critical beds that will be needed by people whose need for medical care wasn’t easily prevented.”
Do you mean the majority of which are normally occupied by those who’ve ended up there through preventable diseases stemming from societally-approved lifestyle choices like obesity, alcoholism or smoking, rather than societally-unapproved ones like not signing up to an indefinite Pfizer subscription, for example?
If we’re actually mandating health procedures, then it’s time to mandate healthier lifestyle choices in general to combat the long-known obesity epidemic, or alcohol abuse and its radiating effects, and stop with the “ohhh but it doesn’t spread to, or affect, other people – when we know the knock-on effects absolutely do.
If you really want to use your pulpit, then maybe take some of that energy and direct it to those who manage our healthcare systems so leanly that they’re perpetually on a knife’s edge, ready to tip into catastrophe at any moment. But you won’t – you’ll stick to the socially-acceptable punching bags like the safety-in-numbers hero you are.
Love,
Double-vaxxed but not bothered if others don’t want to be.
How to your propose mandating healthier lifestyles?
What is your solution then?
If we can mandate that people inject a pharmaceutical product for their “freedom” back, then I’m pretty sure we can mandate the banning of tobacco to put a stop of smoking-related illness, or enforce daily exercise through smartphone step counter tracking so you earn your weekly Big Mac or something equally insane.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way. If we want to force people to do something they don’t want to do, we just have to get the team we support to do the forcing, and pray that our team never loses the power to do the forcing to somebody we don’t support.
The growing stridency of the anti vaxxers suggests that they now realise they are fighting a losing battle ,as they become an ever diminishing minority.
I prefered covidtising, personally.
What makes you think vaccinations are societally-unapproved?
“How about we meet and I leave you breathless in a gutter you rat?”
The anti vaccine nutters threatening people with violence. How quaint.
After they wish my death. You can fuck off too.
Nah mate, they’re shitting all over your work because it’s not very good. Don’t delude yourself, like these anti vaxxer crazies.
“but those people wouldn’t be in care because they’re vaccinated? they won’t need beds”
You’re a smart one.
You do realise there are other medical conditions that require hospitalisation?
Nobody is making you do anything, not even VB. You can choose to revel in your own ignorance if you like.
I just hope you have no ambitions to travel, cross state borders, eat in restaurants, go to pubs or attend sporting events.
You really showed those health nazis who is boss!
>nobody is making you do anything.
>we’re just removing your ability to travel, cross state borders, eat in restaurants, go to pubs or attend sporting events over a harmless cough that’s killed a few 90 year olds
you’re pathetic
A neighbour of mine said his mate’s girlfriend’s dad walked past a hospital today and the car park didn’t look that full. Pretty sure there is some substance to covid being a hoax. #staytrue
Wow, Clemenger do the Same idea for all their clients. Do a Covid version of an ad for NAB or VB and put it on the news.
Is that you Donald Trump / Pete Evans?
Almost 80% of adults vaxxed in nsw, every other state on the way. You are the loony fringe, despite what Facebook may say. We don’t want you out risking the safety of the rest of us.
Deal with it.
I rate this one and a half Astra Zeneca’s.
“Over a harmless cough that’s killed a few 90 year olds”
4.55m dead.
False reporting. Widely known that medical authorities and the media report anyone who had COVID in the last 6 months as dying FROM covid.
Only now are some news outlets reporting sufferers dying WITH covid, meaning underlying issues are likely at play. Don’t believe the hype.
Almost 80% of the population in NSW have been vaccinated.
Around 45% of those are double vaccinated.
Anti vaxxers are fighting a lost cause as they become a minuscule minority.
Come on guys,swallow your pride and get that jab.
I’ve met so many very smart ppl in this industry.
I didn’t know there was equally this many dumb-dumbs.
Sad to see so much ignorant anti-vax nonsense spouted here. Good on Clemenger, VB and all the other agencies and brands who are taking a stand. Get the jab.
Geez, it’s a good ad, with an insight that relates to the brand platform in a fresh new way. Settle down.
Not sure how this relates to “For a hard earned thirst” but sure.
That said, twisting the difficulty of being in lockdown to be a “hard earned thirst” (you can get it Puzzlin’ etc.) would have been a better way in then “If you wanna get back to leading a band or lending a hand”.
I see what you mean about puzzling’ etc. But I though the connection was we can’t earn a thirst doing the things we love due to lockdown, and we can’t quench it either cause pubs are shut.
Just fuck up and get the jab