3 Beer Ads: 1 Good Idea

How Far Can a Good Idea Go?

Response advertising can be risky.

Heineken released the first ad on the right some time ago. Hear it and it’s obvious it was meant for the Dutch market.

But it went viral with 1.5 million views in the first week. It received media attention and was, itself, featured on other programs. It was a successful ad.

So rival Bavaria Beer decided to mock the ad. See the Bavaria ad on the right, second place.

Now it’s arguable that the Bavaria ad should have confined itself to online release. Online, the spoofing could be perceived as a viral and subversive without being overt in the rest of its market. A lot of risqué ads are released online.

It’s also arguable that it risks a reduction in its own brand. What do you stand for if it’s overly dependent on other brands’ messages?

But evidently the Bavaria ad did enough to perhaps cause Heineken to feel they needed to reclaim the lead.

And thus came the third ad...

The original Heineken ad

Bavaria’s spoof

Heineken’s follow up