No new ideas at Heineken
I confess I felt the tiniest bit sorry for multinational brewer Heineken a couple of weeks ago when the Advertising Standards Agency decided their advert for Kronenbourg was misleading, because the advert implied the lager was brewed in France using Strisselspalt hops. In fact it is made in Britain and Strisselspalt is only one of a blend of hops used in the brewing.
Although they were caught bang to rights, at least the advert mentioned hops and their effect on the beer. What other mass-market lager advert has done that in the last ten years?
Whatever sympathy I had for the company evaporated, however, when I saw the news of their latest desperate gimmicks. These are a new (allegedly) New Zealand “cider” brand – in “kiwi and lime”, “passion fruit and apple” and “summer berries” flavours, natch – and a new device to serve Heineken at 2ºC into frozen glasses, so that the beer ends up at precisely 0ºC.
Really, Heineken? Is that all your R&D millions can come up with? Another alcopop masquerading as cider, and even colder lager? Is that it?
Although they were caught bang to rights, at least the advert mentioned hops and their effect on the beer. What other mass-market lager advert has done that in the last ten years?
Whatever sympathy I had for the company evaporated, however, when I saw the news of their latest desperate gimmicks. These are a new (allegedly) New Zealand “cider” brand – in “kiwi and lime”, “passion fruit and apple” and “summer berries” flavours, natch – and a new device to serve Heineken at 2ºC into frozen glasses, so that the beer ends up at precisely 0ºC.
Really, Heineken? Is that all your R&D millions can come up with? Another alcopop masquerading as cider, and even colder lager? Is that it?
Can you imagine too, how many iterations that went through internally before getting to the decision makers? Truly sad.
ReplyDelete