As Wadworth runs a 6X campaign based on visual puns,its head
Two very serious German people are talking. One says to the other: "My dog has no nose." The other replies "How does it smell?" "It cannot smell. It has no nose," answers the first, simultaneously overturning the expectations of a very old joke, substantiating certain people's views of German humour and raising a laugh (and some market awareness) for Lowenbrau. The association of humour and advertising goes way back much further than this 1980s campaign but it perhaps is more important today than ever. US research indicates that some 25% of prime-time advertising uses humour in some shape or form, while more than half of advertising executives believe that a humorous approach is more effective in gaining attention than playing it straight. Indeed, a psychological study in 1987 showed that humour outperforms non-humour in every attention-grabbing dimension from that initial pricking-up of the ears, through sustaining the interest during the ad to retaining a positive memory once it's over. So why is it, if humorous advertising is so widespread, that it is beer advertising in particular that's remembered for years after it's off-air and out-of-print? Perhaps it's simply because beer is purely for fun at least from the perspective of the consumer. Whatever the case, it's true that top-quality beer ads are rare among commercial messages advertising that people don't resent interrupting their programmes, breaking into their articles or invading their landscapes. We hope that Wadworth has become a recent addition to the admirable roster of amusing beer advertisers, with its current press and poster campaign that delivers visual puns based on the similarity between "6X" and "sex". If so, it is part of an honourable history. Going back in time As far back as 1929, when the US was in the grip of prohibition and the UK was experiencing its share of the Great Depression, a boom in mind-catching beer advertising was referred to in a report from the Royal Commission on Licensing as "almost a public nuisance". While British advertisers probably saw the economic crisis as a chance to help in the drowningof many sorrows, the Brewer's Journal reported in the late 1920s that this boom was designed "to capture the younger generation growing up". In those days, however, humour was not a mainstay of beer advertising, which appealed both to nationalism ("For an A1 nation, beer is best") and health ("Rich nourishment in every glass"). This second route caused considerable controversy at the time, and the following recorded exchange from the House of Lords is certainly funnier than the style of advertising it referred to: Lord Rhayader: "I see advertisements all over the place, Guinness is good for you'." Lord Iveagh: "It is true." Rhayader: "It is a matter of opinion, perhaps." Iveagh: "My word is as good as yours." Rhayader: "I'm told that if I put up a "Guinness is bad for you" Iveagh: "It would not be true!" So good to see the quality of debate has not declined over the last 70 years or so. It was the detective novelist Dorothy L Sayers who wrote "Guinness is good for you" while working at the SH Benson agency. And she pointed out the main challenges facing the advertising copywriter in the climate of the time, where the only choices were suppression of the bad news or over-exaggeration of the good. Perhaps it was the famous "Guinness for strength" ad, showing a workman carrying a girder in one hand, that broke the mould to introduce humour via its obviously ludicrous exaggeration. That said, many of the ads that followed are probably funnier in today's eyes for the inaccuracy or wildness of their claims than for any planned amusement. Mackeson's "It looks good, it tastes good and by golly it does you good" is even more medically suspect than Sayers' work for Guinness. A humorous revolution It appears that Guinness flew the flag of truly humorous advertising almost single-handedly until the 1970s, when such marketing suddenly became the rage. One lager burst out with "Give him a right good Hemmeling tonight", while two of the truly great lines arrived within a year of each other. Carlsberg's "Probably the best lager in the world" (1973, from Saatchi & Saatchi) and Collett Dickinson Pearce's "Heineken refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach", each provided immense potential for extended humorous campaigns covering several decades. This was the real starting point in a process that saw Budweiser move from lines like "Whenyou've said Budweiser you'vesaid it all", to the lizards, frogs, "Whhhhaaaasssssuuupppp" and "True" of recent years. Looking south Beers from the southern hemisphere helped create an almost entirely new advertising genre from the 1980s onwards, with Foster's and Castlemaine leading the way. The Foster's campaign featuring Paul Hogan commenting on various foibles of Englishness while sipping on his amber nectar, was brilliantly morphed into today's, "He who drinks Australian, thinks Australian" campaign. And, as we all know, "Australians don't give a XXXX for anything else". Castlemaine's great line has now been with us for 17 years. Coming home But it's not just the US and Australia that have given us so much fun in the last 20 years or so. I personally feel that the campaign created in the late 1980s by Wight Collins Rutherford Scott with the line "I bet he drinks Carling Black Label" was as funny as anything I've seen, but also set the scene for an "English" genre of beer advertising. Two campaigns stand out for me in this genre. First comes Boddingtons with the "Cream of Manchester" and "A bit gorgeous". And the next more-than-honourable mention goes to John Smith's. I was never a great fan of the cardboard cut-out "no-nonsense" man, but the way this has been developed into the current treatment with comedian Peter Kay is masterful. The ad, when he's telling his mum he's arranged for her to go into care, is both side-splittingly funny and utterly horrible. "But I'm only 55," she says. It's true pathos and far too good a moment to be wasted on advertising. Ultimate classics I am proud to be associated with the marketing of beer, at least partly because of two advertisers both of whom appear to target a wider group through their advertising than those that actually drink their product. One is Stella Artois, whose advertising has, for years, transcended the medium. Every ad tells a touching and funny story. The other, is, of course, Guinness. "White Horses" wasn't funny. It was, though, utterly sublime as was the story of the former swimming champion who always reaches the bar before his pint is fully poured. Above even these, though, is the dancing man waiting for his pint to settle. A true Desert Island ad. These heights are rare, even though quality is commonplace. Did the "Gentleman and a Skolar" campaign really do it for you? Did you want to "Follow the Bear"? Did the spoof "Miller Time" chat show hit the spot? All have enough quality to stick in the mind after years. But none is an absolute classic. But other classics do exist, on a far smaller scale, and clearly with an agenda that's as much about gaining editorial coverage as advertising exposure. I have to admire the fun that David Bruce had for so many years with the word "Firkin". He beat the UK arm of French Connection to that technique by at least 15 years. And then there's the nearly sad, but ultimately successful approach of Shepherd Neame. Following that glorious day when England beat Germany 5-1 on the way to the 2002 World Cup finals, itproduced an ad supporting its Spitfire ale. "Germany defeated. Now on to Japan. Sound familiar?" Possibly not in the best possible taste (but also rather funny). Shepherd Neame was dragged in front of the Advertising Standards Authority but because this was just one treatment in its "Bottle of Britain" campaign, the ASA accepted that it was likely to be seen in an appropriately humorous light. Both Bruce's Brewery and Shepherd Neame gained acres of coverage out of these flirtations with controversy. Whether or not our Wadworth advertising will ever achieve such noto
