Apologies for the delay… have some beer commercials while we wait for takeoff.

Hi everyone,

I was committed to never writing one of those ’sorry I haven’t been blogging’ posts, but here I am, doing exactly that

I think I have the flu, or something very much like it, with all the fun stuff that goes with it: weakness, chills, and aches all over. It’s one of the perks of working in an office with poor ventilation and co-workers with young bug-ridden kids. I don’t get sick easily, but I’ve never been sick more often than since I started working at my current office. Not even when I was a primary school teacher, with 30 of those aforementioned bug-ridden kids hanging around me all day.

Anyway, I’m working on a post at the moment which I promise will be much more interesting than this one. It should be up sometime tomorrow, so please check back then and hopefully you will be so highly entertained and informed that you’ll forget all about this ’sorry I haven’t been blogging’ transgression. It won’t happen again.

In the meantime, please enjoy a sampling of some of my favourite beer commercials. Why, you ask? Well, why not? There’s more to beer ads than the simple act of selling beer.

So much creativity goes into making beer commercials.

The people who write and produce beer commercials are the cream of the advertising industry. I’ve seen too many cars zooming effortlessly through curvy mountain roads and too many girls skipping along beaches during their periods to be impressed anymore (although this Australian ad is a new and slightly cheeky take on the old menstruation/tampon issue). The writers of these commercials know pretty much what will be expected of them. But those who write beer commercials (the good ones anyway) have to think at a higher level. They are expected to be different to what has come before.

It’s not all beer and roses in beer advertising, however. There is still an obvious gender imbalance in beer ads – it is unfortunate that the beer industry hasn’t seen fit to cater as lavishly and humourously to its female customers as to its male ones. Women drink beer too!

As an aside, I wonder if all the cleverness actually pays off? I wonder how many people start drinking a new brand of beer because of the quality of its advertising? Anyone have any data about this they’d care to share?

Here, for your viewing pleasure, are some of my favourite beer ads from the last few years:

A brilliant look at evolution, from Guinness. I wonder what Ben Stein would have to say about this:

The Carlton Draught ‘big ad’, set to the tune of O Fortuna! from Carmina Burana. Speak to any Aussie you know about this ad, and watch their eyes light up:

Molson Canadian ads are always amusing, with their angsty explorations of mainstream Canadian identity:

Ah. I feel better already. ‘Til tomorrow, my friends.