Barbara Lippert's Critique: A Heavy Aftertaste

Here's a surprise: On Sunday, SAB Miller bravely sent its brand-new brewski campaign for Miller Genuine Draft tottering into the land of Guccis and Jimmy Choos at the Oscars. And indeed, this new MGD work from The Martin Agency gets right down to the business of not only elevating itself in the minds of men and women alike but of separating itself from the stinky little boys in the category. The new tagline is the admirably direct and terse "Beer. Grown up," which obviously gives the old heave-ho to the boorish humor and/or Jackass-style stunts so prized by Miller's arch rival, Anheuser-Busch's Budweiser. MGD is clearing a new place for itself, going for "mainstream sophistication." Obviously, that's a bit of an oxymoron. As someone's grandfather might say while wagging a finger, just saying you're a grown-up doesn't make you one (especially for those who've been on the cusp for 20 years and who remember drinking MGD in high school or college). At the same time, MGD is losing share to light beer, imports and the overall female-dominated cocktail culture. So this is like McDonald's suddenly trying out "premium" coffee—that also sounded absurd at first, but McDonald's knows the rising tide of Starbucks' venti-decaf-mochaccino culture has lifted all tastes (and price points). What's nice about the first new 30-second MGD spot, "Hello/Goodbye," is that it portrays the transition to adulthood as a single moment of comic, self-invented ceremony—like burying your fish in the backyard instead of flushing him. It opens on a deflating blow-up chair. (Talk about taking the air out of your inner child!) It's a great image, but there's also a mid-century tufted couch in the room, and I had just seen an Italian chair like this in Conran for almost four figures, so I wasn't sure if this was supposed to be cutting-edge design. It's not. It's a cheesy leftover from bachelorhood, and it goes phooo-t. The spot looks great, and the music is dead-on fabulous: Etta James' "I'd Rather Go Blind." The idea of women wanting to take a blowtorch to their men's moldy old dorm-era furniture is well-trod. The spot's second vignette is fresher and funnier—a man hands a sanitation dude his beer-drinking helmet, complete with side straws. It's a major apparatus, and he passes it along with a heavy heart. The next scene's item is a big red plastic cup, and you can just smell the old golden suds in it. Here, the guy (an actor who seems to have become the go-to slacker—he's also in an Applebee's ad, enjoying a value meal) lets the cup fly out the window at a party. The faux poetry of the moment is amusing. It's like, "Fly, little cup, fly. I have better receptacles in my future!" The announcer's line, "There comes a time when you're ready to move on to something better," captures the tongue-in-cheek jauntiness perfectly. And hey, it's Edward Norton! He's an actor I used to worship for his intelligence but who ended up dating Courtney Love and doing Death to Smoochy. (It happens.) But here's one of the sweeter seven-degree separations of Oscar night: Jon Stewart shared in the Smoochy acting honors. The 60-second spot, more of an anthem, is called "Redline" because it literally introduces a red line of demarcation. The almost-men have to make the leap by stepping over it. (It would make more sense if a red line were part of the MGD graphics or packaging, but it's not.) The ad opens on an empty highway, as a guy in construction boots and jeans toys with putting his steel-tipped toe over the line. His station wagon sits on the shoulder, packed to the gills. It reminded me of a Saturn Ion spot from eons ago that showed old couches on the highway as the driver heads off into adulthood. Here, the road ahead feels sort of sad and lonely—a mighty heavy metaphor to saddle a beer with, if you ask me. And that's the problem with this spot. For all its unexpected setups, nice cutting and sweet voiceover ("There's a line we all cross: Buddies become friends"), it takes itself way too seriously. It's as if the beer has built-in bar mitzvah properties: "Today, you are a man!" One guy in the spot is deciding whether to cross the line from chopped meat to sirloin. Now, there are momentous decisions to be made on the road to adulthood, but whether to go beyond hamburger is not one of them. Other scenes include a wedding, a couple stepping into a new house, and an almost unintentionally comic moment of a dude leaving his cubicle to step into a side office. One man looks at his soul patch in a mirror and, yes, shaves it. What a bad metaphor! Does growing up literally force you to sell your soul? Each development ostensibly makes things better for the guy, but with the exception of the pretty, super-skinny wife and the house, there's something sort of grim going on. While it's respectful, and I admire the point about getting real and growing up, the seriousness with which the line crossings are presented, in the context of selling beer, becomes a bit absurd. Adulthood becomes the equivalent of eating spinach (except you get to watch HDTV from your sectional sofa while you do it). For hetero guys, it almost proves why Bud keeps on creating slightly misogynist scenarios about men escaping their wives and girlfriends, as in the Super Bowl rooftop spot. Growing up is hard to do, but does it have to cross the line into being so heavy?Miller Genuine DraftAgencyTHe Martin Agency, Richmond, Va. Creative directorsob Schapiro, Kevin Ragland, Raymond McKinney, Ty Harper Copywritersob Schapiro, Sara Grunden Art directorevin Ragland Agency producersolly Schaff, Jenny Kennedy Directorredrik Bond, MJZ, Los Angeles

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Barbara Lippert's Critique: A Heavy Aftertaste

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Barbara Lippert