The overly pretentious ‘c’est cidre, not cider’ Stella adverts have been making their rounds recently – heck they have a whole micrositededicated to promoting their foray into the ‘cider’ market (read: appletiser market; I have a problem with calling this cider; 90% of the s%*t in the pubs ain’t cider, but that’s neither here nor there).
It’s claimed by people inside the brand that consumers want this and believe it will ‘enhance the category’. Again that’s because the majority of British people have never actually tasted proper cider and they enjoy drinking vast amounts of bad tasting booze (WITH ICE, GIMME THE ICE). It’s a worrying fact if it is true because when large corporations like AB Inbev get into a market, they often manage to suffocate the already struggling, actually genuine cider industry in the UK.
Regardless and aside from this, we’re here to look at the ads right?! And I did mention Strongbow didn’t I? so lets to it…
For all the things I hate about the product and the brand, we have some clever, clever advertising here. The ads are at once an assault on the British cider culture and a clever injection into the market. A counter intuitive message perhaps, but there is nothing quite like getting into bed with a beautiful girl by berating her and calling her fat.
Another reason these work is by altering the experience of drinking cider in your mind. By drawing on pretentious themes and the grandeur of Belgian beverage production, you’re compelled to think differently about this drink while you drink it. Probably tastes like s%&t but hey that’s that.
Strongbow have, like a drunk gypsy defending their daughters honour, got all shirty and released a rebuttal on their facebook page to this abomination of a drink:
Having seen advertising wars before, but not being able to recall any of note, this is certainly a brilliant example (and one that I won’t forget). Forgiving the oxymoron, but Strongbow have flipped a gentlemanly middle finger at the Stella move and it’s beautifully simple and brilliant.
These are the people that brought us the braveheart-esque tv ads celebrating British grafters, epitomising all the virtues of the working class effort in this country. Like f*%k are they going to let this european invasion go down lightly!
I’ll leave you from this uncharacteristically long blog post with this final image that I found at Pete Browns blog, put together by a friend of his (sorry, Pete, couldn’t find a name to attribute it to!) – Beautifully satirical and fantastically observant.
