Russia's anti-alcohol squirrel back on sauce

Last year, Russia's health ministry scored a huge viral hit—to the tune of 3 million views—with a PSA (see below) starring a psychotic, alcoholic squirrel manically raving about shooting someone's wife, warbling ethnic folk songs and battling invisible spiders in its cell. His eerie vow to viewers: "I'm coming for you." Watching the rodent literally climb the walls in the midst of an intense, pop-eyed breakdown, one question stuck in my mind: What's that gnarly dude been drinking, and where can I find some, because I really want to get that hammered. Now, Russinvest is marketing a 40-proof vodka with a picture of a crazed "hell squirrel" on the label. The marketer's goofing on the earlier PSA and riding its bushy coattails to generate massive attention—for free. Mighty capitalistic of those sloshed Ruskies. I've been sampling some product for the past few hours, and I can vouch for its potency. I wish I understood Russian, because that's the language I hear from the voices inside my head. And … are those spiders crawling all over my face and head? Oh god, get 'em off me!

Filed under Alcohol, Gianatasio, Russia
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Smirnoff's fruit flavors get 'peelable' bottles

Neat packaging work here by JWT Brazil for the new Smirnoff Caipiroska collection of vodkas. The bottles come in "peelable" skins to imitate the fruits that infuse the liquor—lemon, strawberry and passion fruit. Sadly, the packaging won't be be widely available—it was made especially for promotional kits. Still a great idea. Good thing there isn't a banana Caipiroska. You'd have to wrap in once, and then sleeve it in plastic. See a few more images over at Comunicadores.

Filed under Alcohol, JWT, Nudd, Packaging, Smirnoff
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Carlsberg tries to 'unbottle' bashful Swedes

Carlsberg beer and ad agency Akestam Holst are going social in Sweden with their "Unbottle Yourself" mobile app, inviting the nation to let its collective blond hair down and loosen up a little. Weird, I'd always considered Sweden a swingin' sexy socialist paradise. Wasn't there a song called "Sweden Swings (Like a Pendulum Do)"? Kidding. I know that was Norway. The Carlsberg contest asserts that Swedes are "the most reserved people on the planet," and since there's no way an alcoholic beverage would ever exaggerate in its advertising, I guess that must be true. To win a grand-prize party trip to Hong Kong, Swedes must accomplish various "missions." These include: skipping down the street for at least one block; wearing a helmet at the gym; washing the windshield of a stranger's car; pretending to be a tour guide on a bus; and placing water bottles on the floor and racing between them like a ski pro. Sounds like a typical day for the AdFreak staff, except we do most of that stuff naked. My favorite Carlsberg mission is speaking with a slight German accent the whole day. It really does stipulate "slight." Vell, that's probably vise. The Swedes may be shy, but those Germans can't take a joke.

Filed under Akestam Holst, Alcohol, Carlsberg, Europe, Gianatasio, Social media
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Mexico introduces the world's first gay beer

A small Mexican brewery called Minerva has brewed several new beers targeted specifically at gay drinkers. Purple Hand Beer and Salamandra, supposedly the world's first "queer beers," are already available in some bars and restaurants in Guadalajara, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos, according to reports. The "artisan honey-ales" are made with organic honey and malt, giving them an orange flavor, which the brewer believes appeals to gay communities. Also, in a nice touch, the labels (which reference gay themes) are designed to be unglued and worn as a symbol of gay pride. It's an interesting idea, and some people will surely try the stuff just on principle. But can you really expect someone to like the flavor of something based on whether they're straight or gay? One thing's for sure: They won't be packaging this stuff inside dead rodents like the Scottish do. Via PSFK.

Filed under Alcohol, Gay pride, Mexico, Nudd
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Michigan moms spice up tequila advertising

Leave it to two women in their late 30s with eight kids between them to be causing car accidents on Michigan highways with their liquor advertising. Adrienne Graves-Mensack (married with five kids) and Lisa Spitler (single mother of three) are importing Alien Tequila into the state, and developing their own campy-suggestive ads under the theme, "Be abducted." For a billboard on I-96 in Brighton Township, the ladies struck their sexiest poses—and it apparently worked, as the board distracted drivers enough to cause "a minor four-car crash," according to local reports. "It's supposed to get you to look at the poster and at the product, and it did its job. It got attention," Spitler says. The Alien brand, imported from Mexico, has its own larger campy ad campaign with an abduction theme. Check out two of those spots after the jump.

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Filed under Alcohol, Alien Tequila, Nudd
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Willem Dafoe gets heavy for Jim Beam spot

Jim Beam and StrawberryFrog make the most of Willem Dafoe's totem-pole-carving face in this "Bold Choice" spot by having him play nearly every character in it. The sumo-wrestler Dafoe is the stuff of screaming night terrors, but the rest of the ad is pretty good, although it's the poop-shoveling carny—and not any of the slick businessmen or snippy fashion designers—who's most likely to have experienced a life-changing decision involving Jim Beam. Folks in Milwaukee might also take exception to the commercial, based on the closing scene.

Filed under Alcohol, Celebrity endorsements, Jim Beam, Kiefaber, StrawberryFrog
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Scotch is made by dudes in skirts, says rum

Scotland is used to people making fun of their kilts. But a Caribbean liquor has managed to turn that timeless ridicule into an international incident. Seeking to lure local drinkers back to native rum (and away from Scotch whiskey, which is apparently big there), Angostura of Trinidad & Tobago has drawn some unfavorable comparisons between Scottish culture and its own, claiming on billboards that "In Scotland, men dance in skirts. In Trinidad, men dance with women in skirts." I think the Scots can get through this, though. If they haven't gotten upset about Groundskeeper Willy, then a nationalistic ad campaign for bad liquor shouldn't rile them up, either.

Filed under Alcohol, Kiefaber
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Bud Light's office goons now try to get fired

Having cursed their way through the infamous "Swear Jar" spot in 2008, and stripped down for the "Clothing Drive" sequel last year, Bud Light and DDB's misbehaved office workers go for broke in this just-released third installment. Seeing a laid-off co-worker gratefully accept a case of Bud Light as his severance package, they all start acting as obnoxious as possible to try to get themselves canned—and secure their own cases of watery bliss. The economy must really be doing better if you can joke about layoffs again. "Severance Package," unveiled late Friday, was the carrot in a Facebook contest that challenged Bud Light's fans to guess the plots of its three Super Bowl spots, airing Sunday, based on still images only. Sounds like the fans might not have actually guessed all (or any) of the plots. Says Bud Light in a Facebook note: "Your guesses made us laugh, scratch our heads, and there are some of you we're honestly concerned for. But in the end, your creativity won us over."

Filed under Alcohol, Bud Light, DDB, Nudd, Super Bowl
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Russian drunk-driving billboard is awesome

Seriously, how awesome is this billboard? It's a holiday PSA (thus the guy's Santa hat) from Russia. According to Copyranter, the headline reads, "It could be your body." That's a bit of a stretch. It would take an impressive series of events to be propelled from one's car, thrown skyward and driven halfway through a billboard—while still holding the steering wheel. And yet, if anyone can accomplish it, it's a Russian driver, probably after having "one for the road." Via Adme.ru.

Filed under Alcohol, Nudd, PSAs, Russia
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Bud Light explains why it can't do 3-D spots

You can always count on Bud Light turning to slapstick for its Super Bowl ads. It is, after all, the brand that paid millions to air a dog biting a crotch during the game in 2004. Bud Light is apparently warming up for the big day with a commercial that aired during the NFC and AFC Championship games yesterday. "3-D Test Commercial" shows why the brand decided against running a 3-D ad—namely, because people will jump through their TVs and into walls trying to get at the beer. The spot's funny enough in a Three Stooges way, and ad agency Cannonball includes a clever little disclaimer: "No stunt people were harmed making this ad because, well, they're stunt people."

Filed under 3-D, Alcohol, Bud Light, Cannonball, Morrissey
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Should police post mugshots to Facebook?

"Your police department has tagged you in a photo on Facebook!" You haven't gotten an e-mail like that yet from local law enforcement—but you might in future. Facebook has long been an outlet for public shaming, but some members of the Huntington Beach, Calif., city council wanted to make it punitive by having the city's police force post mugshots of DUI offenders on the site. This isn't really a new idea—some cities have put DUI offenders' pictures up on billboards. But arrests and convictions are already matters of public record, so measures like this seem mean-spirited. In any case, the proposal was defeated in Huntington Beach. Perhaps they figured there are enough pictures of drunk people on Facebook already. Previously in mugshot news: Rip Torn is not sexual-predator stock art.

Filed under Alcohol, Facebook, Kiefaber, Police, Social media
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Today's crazy new product: whisky in a can

Straight Scotch whisky in a 12-ounce can. It doesn't seem right, really. But Scottish Spirits is pushing forward with the new packaging. "We are really thrilled with the idea," says CEO Manish Panshal. "It's going to be a part of every lifestyle and occasion. The can is the perfect size to be shared between three people who can mix it with other things like cola. It's lightweight and portable and entirely recyclable, which is good news. It will be one of the hot picks for any outdoor activities." Now, in true Scottish spirit, they just need to package the can inside a dead rodent.

Filed under Alcohol, Nudd, Packaging
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Shed dignity with Captain Morgan's workout

Avast, ye fatties! Everyone's favorite boozy buccaneer leads an exercise class and discusses his fitness philosophy in this well-cast and fairly amusing video introducing "The Captain Morgan Workout." Attired in his trademark red pirate's costume with tall leather boots, wide belt and goofy, gold-trimmed hat, the Captain is the gayest workout guru since Richard Simmons. The regimen consists solely of repeatedly adopting the hand-on-knee Cap'n Stance. "I want you to vary this exercise a little bit by continuing that exact same motion," he says. That's the best joke in the video. The before-and-after testimonial photos—the models' bodies haven't changed, but their frowns have turned to smiles—are also amusing. Overall, the effort rates about 3 starrrghs out of 5. It's a tad too long at 2:45, and by the end I was wondering which muscles he'd tone if he were forced to walk the plank.

Filed under Alcohol, Captain Morgan, Gianatasio
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Heineken guy knows how to make entrance

Beer drinkers are often the life of the party, though not always in a good way. But the Heineken guy in this spot (titled "The Entrance") from Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam manages to be memorable without being hammered—and generally delights the crowd (in spite of his hipster facial hair) with a grand entrance that incorporates everything from fake eyeballs to impromptu flute playing. Adding further hipster cred is the Danish alternative pop group the Asteroids Galaxy Tour, which, depending on your perspective, is a bonus or a nightmare. As one YouTube commenter remarks, "Shut up the Asteroids Galaxy Tour."

Filed under Alcohol, Europe, Heineken, Nudd, Wieden + Kennedy
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Carlsberg crafts refreshingly useful print ad

You can debate the effectiveness of magazine advertising all day long, but this Carlsberg ad from Belgian agency Duval Guillaume is undeniably useful. Follow the instructions, and you can use the flimsy piece of paper to open a bottle of Carlsberg. That's pretty cool, but does it make this "probably the best ad in the world"? Not if you consider the likely inspiration—this YouTube video (1.8 million views) showing a guy using a piece of paper to open, yes, a bottle of Carlsberg. Via Adland.

See the ad itself after the jump.

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Filed under Alcohol, Carlsberg, Duval Guillaume, Europe, Nudd
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Women like whiskey? You don't know Jack.

A teeny, tiny Jack Daniel's campaign marketing its whiskey to women is generating some controversy. SpiketheCookies.com leads you to a tab on the Jack Daniel's Facebook page, where you can watch a little video with animated stills of some women drinking whiskey while baking cookies. It also offers a scant two pages of recipes, which include the "You clearly can't cook, so just put some Jack in that store-bought mix" recipe and the "Passed down through the Daniel's family for years" recipe, which has 17 ingredients. Fortunately, fans (male and female) are providing their own recipes in the comments. Newsweek applauds the effort as subversive because it suggests women can drink whiskey for their own reasons, not just to keep up with the guys. Yes, you can drink whiskey and be womanly. You have come a long way, baby. But Jezebel is upset that the central image is the stereotype of women in the kitchen. The Jezebel write-up even says, "It seems this ad was concocted by male ad executives trying to come up with a way to make whiskey less scary for women." That assumption seems a little too Mad Men to me. Using my journalistic powers, I called up the agency—Slingshot in Dallas—to see whether this was indeed an all-male effort.

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Filed under Alcohol, Cullers, Jack Daniel's, Slingshot
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'60s model Evelyn Kuhn sues over Stella ad

Mother London's recent work for Stella has an authentic 1960s vibe. Perhaps too authentic. The New York Post reports that Evelyn Kuhn, one of the world's first supermodels, is suing Corbis, the stock-photography company, after a 1963 photo of her popped up in a Stella campaign ad this past March. The ad is thought to be the one shown here, posted on Ad Broad—with what appears to be Kuhn in the upper-right image. The photo was reportedly taken in 1963 during a shoot for Polydor Records in which Kuhn wore a gold-lamé dress. Corbis says Kuhn lawsuit is "without merit." Not so Jacques d'Azur, the star of that Stella campaign, which was tied to the Cannes Film Festival. Jacques, a kind of World's Most Interesting Man Lite, is oozing in merit, as well as chicks.

Filed under Alcohol, Controversy, Mother, Nudd, Stella Artois
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Guinness knows dark times are here to stay

Here's the latest Guinness ad from AMV BBDO in London. And you have to hand it to them—it's a troubled spot for troubled times. It shows cities around the world being enveloped by zeitgeisty black clouds—a visual reference to a churning pint of just-poured Guinness, but also an apt metaphor for our gloomy economic and political times. (Change the creeping dark clouds to white ones in the New York scene, and you also have a visual nod to certain events of nine years ago.) But the spot isn't overly pessimistic. "There's more life in the dark," says the tagline. In other words: The world is screwed, so you might as well drink and have fun. The ad breaks in Ireland on Friday and in the U.K. in March.

Filed under Alcohol, BBDO, Europe, Guinness, Nudd
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Johnnie Walker helps paralyzed athlete walk

Well, not really. But toward the end of this 90-second BBH clip, Marc Herremans—a Belgian triathlete paralyzed from the chest down since a 2002 bike-training accident—rises from his wheelchair and takes several steps before turning to face the reality of himself, still unable to walk but determined to move forward with his ambitions. "When your reality changes, your dreams don't have to," Herremans says in the voiceover. Using a guy who "Keeps walking" even when he can't is a provocative choice—reminiscent of the old Super Bowl ad for Nuveen Investments that showed Christopher Reeve rising and walking again. There was a significant outcry against the Nuveen spot, but Reeve stuck by it. He told Adweek in 2000: "It was not an irresponsible commercial. Time magazine had an editorial condemning me for raising false hope. It was written by a journalist who had been in a wheelchair for 22 years—and I can understand his cynicism. After that much time in a wheelchair, how can one dare to hope?"

Filed under Alcohol, BBH, Johnnie Walker, Nudd
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Grolsch-bottle orchestra plays holiday carol

Grolsch has those special bottles with the swingtop lid, which comes in handy in this video Christmas card from the Dutch brewer, featuring the "Swingtop Philharmonic Orchestra" performing "O Christmas Tree" entirely on Grolsch bottles. The video comes off almost as a piss-take (or maybe we're just thinking of the Heineken musicians from that brewer's Men With Talent show). But the blurb on the Grolsch YouTube page sounds sincere, perhaps overly so: "Dozens of Swingtop bottles provide the score with tuneful pops, clicks, jingle bells, güiro sounds, wind tuned with Grolsch beer, orchestral timpani, bass drum and the sound of a mysterious festive Grolsch 'glockenspiel' that provides the story with a stunning seasonal twist and climax." Via Presurfer.

Filed under Alcohol, Grolsch, Holidays, Nudd
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Johnnie Walker keeping dudes all bottled up

Johnnie Walker and BBH made one of the best ads of 2009, so these holiday-themed "Say it without saying it" spots are a little disappointing. Not only do they reinforce the dumb sitcom biotruth that men should never be open about anything, they suggest masking one's true feelings with liquor, which is a horrible idea. Too much of that just leads to the openness these guys are trying to avoid. And that would be epic, since the recipients of the whiskey in both spots, deep down, are undeniably total assholes. Second spot after the jump.

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Filed under Alcohol, BBH, Johnnie Walker, Kiefaber
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Drunk squirrel warning Russians off alcohol

This Russian anti-alcoholism PSA is very ... well, Russian, in its handling of the subject. But unlike most tragic Russian humor, people actually seem to enjoy this ad—to the tune of 1.5 million views on YouTube so far. Evidently, the drunken jabbering of a psychotic, red-eyed squirrel is more entertaining than I'd assumed. (The squirrel apparently yammers on about chasing spiders up a wall and a friend's wife who died because she is a devil. He is not voiced by Mel Gibson.) The ad was commissioned by Russia's health and social development ministry because alcoholism kills around half a million Russians every year. Indeed, it's such a problem there that they finally got around to banning drunk driving. It figures they'd be late to that party if they're only now catching up to the angry-squirrel craze we've long since discarded.

Filed under Alcohol, Animals, Kiefaber, PSAs, Russia
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Rokk vodka knows you love a pompous ass

Moody, monochrome photography. Futuristic cars. An overwrought soundtrack. Three dweebs splashing around salaciously in an ornate pool. A woman breathlessly relating her dreams of luxury, status and one brand's power to transcend space and time. Such is this sendup of pretentious advertising by comedy team The Lonely Island—featuring Saturday Night Live's Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, who appear in the spot. It's also a real commercial for Rokk vodka. Some might find it an amusing bit of social satire that successfully skewers overblown ads. Others will view it as under-done and less outlandish than the genre it lampoons. As for the burly Viking dousing the dudes with a garden hose, well, I think everyone can enjoy that.

Filed under Alcohol, Gianatasio, Parody, Rokk
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Steven Seagal beefs up Australian beer ads

Anyone know what happened to Steven Seagal? He looks like a Macy's parade-float version of himself in this Australian's Carlton Dry campaign from Clemenger BBDO in Melbourne. That waxy sheen doesn't look natural, either. Maybe he's been eating too many of the exploding sausages from the second spot. Carlton Dry is holding a contest in which it asks people to tell the funniest stories about themselves—the winning story will be made into a three-minute online film, as well as a 30 second "movie trailer" style ad, with Seagal playing the person who submitted it. For his sake, I hope the winning story involves a treadmill. UPDATE: Seagal is starring in a new A&E reality series that follows him on real-life police patrols in Jefferson Parish, outside New Orleans. This Carlton campaign could be the next crime he's asked to investigate.

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Filed under Alcohol, Australia, BBDO, Carlton Draught, Celebrity endorsements, Kiefaber
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Stella's ice contest is a chainsaw massacre

Stella Artois spotlights an elaborate ice-sculpting contest in this spot from Mother New York. And I'm sorry, but the losers here really got screwed. The winner openly bribed the judges with liquor, for God's sakes. It's Hayes-Tilden all over again. This is hardly the Christmas spirit under which Stella itself was born. I mean, come on. That ice-piano guy should have won, hands down. According to its description, the ad "is a playful take on the care and dedication that go into 'crafting' the winning ice sculpture, and relates back to the care and dedication that go into crafting Stella Artois—the beer originally crafted for Christmas."

Filed under Alcohol, Holidays, Kiefaber, Mother, Stella Artois
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