Barbara Lippert's Critique

Chances are that at the end of the day, you would probably appreciate a co-worker's invitation to go out for a tasty malternative beverage—especially if you had just discovered a pustule the size of Dr. Ruth growing on your neck.That's the case in one spot in a new campaign for Mike's Hard Lemonade and Iced Tea. "What's wrong, Jim?" a woman asks her hangdog colleague, sitting after hours in his cubicle. "I think I've grown a second evil head," he says flatly. She sees the thing erupting out of his clavicle, displacing his collar and tie: It's your basic slobbering, Jason-eyed monster with a demented, putty-colored head and a hideous, gaping mouth filled with tiny triangular, fetid teeth. "Sorry," she says, equally deadpan. "What if we go out to get a refreshing Mike's Hard Iced Tea? Would that help?""I didn't know Mike's made a hard iced tea," the evil head says in its soul-destroying voice, staring at her boobs. "You bet they do!" she says, ever helpful. Cut to a bar, where the carbuncular entity emits a satisfied burp.(Ironically, this second-evil-head idea—an id eruption, if you will, and a funny way to sell—parallels what happened to the protagonist in the 1989 British movie How to Get Ahead in Advertising, a savagely anti-consumerist, anti-advertising rant.)This is the second outrageous campaign Cliff Freeman has created for Mike's. The first was a parody of the manly-man beer ads from the '60s, where the beer was compensation for a hard day's work. Except, in Mike's world, work tends to get impaling and limb severing: A construction worker gets speared with a piece of rebar; a lumberjack chops off his foot. Each is chuckling, however, by the end of the spot—why worry about a steel bar through some important inner organs when you can knock back a cold Mike's with your buds? The interesting thing about this conceit is that I doubt anyone in the target group recognizes the ad genre it parodies—they just find the pitch-black physical humor funny.Similarly, this campaign parodies the '50s product-as-hero ad style in which the brand name is endlessly repeated, the product cures all and, if it's a line extension, a friendly neighbor says she didn't know that this wonderful company even made such an exciting new item. In our hip 21st-century mondo, however, that formula hardly persists in straight form. What is obvious to the target is that Mike's will do whatever it takes to get away from the ridicule of the Zimas—and the scorn that comes with being thought of in any way as a girly, or fashiony, or designer drink. "Ape-Like Men," the other spot on the air, features Dr. Seuss-like aliens with heads embedded in their chests (which is better than elsewhere). As an obnoxiously smoochy couple loads groceries into their sorry hatchback, a bunch of the aliens descend in parachutes. One sweeps the woman off. "That sucks," says a George Costanza-like guy as hubby watches the mate-napping. "Looks like you could use a refreshing Mike's Hard Lemonade." Hubby, taking a second to grasp the horror, responds, "You're on!"The spot is funny in a demented way, but I also think it's still a bit premature to show anyone—even the most inventively hideous life form—causing chaos from the sky, and sudden loss.The third spot, which won't be released for a few weeks, is actually the funniest. It shows a guy getting a sonogram—in the area that would be his uterus, if he had one. A bunch of snakelike fetuses writhe on the screen. "Well, that would explain the stomach pains," the doctor says calmly. "How long have I got, Doc?" the demon-bearing guy asks. "Not long," he's told. "Long enough to go get a delicious Mike's Hard Iced Tea?" The doc says he didn't know there was such a thing. "You bet!" the patient counters.This campaign is funnier than the first, and smarter than mere gross-out bits. In addition to the artful casting of deadpan Everymen and the great effects (as good as anything Lt. Ripley had to witness in Alien), what sets it apart is the beautifully delivered, incredibly corn ball vernacular ("You bet!") in response to the extreme horrors. The final paradox, of course, is that through repetition of the brand name and satirical adjectives like "refreshing" and "tasty!" this nonadvertising advertising aggres sively sells.

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Barbara Lippert's Critique

Barbara Lippert

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Barbara Lippert