Everyone knows that book clubs are just an excuse to get together with friends and drink wine. Canned wine brand Archer Roose has decided to cut out the proverbial middleman by creating the Elizabeth Banks Book Club—the first-ever club of its kind where the books don’t actually matter.
Banks, Archer Roose co-owner and chief creative officer, is the latest Hollywood multi-hyphenate celebrity to launch a “book club,” and she stars in an ad touting books that don’t actually exist, such as “A Dragon’s Farts” and “Childhood Chest Hair.”
The spot ribs the many book clubs by celebrities and acknowledges that, if you’re a female famous person and don’t have a book club, you’re not really famous.
Archer Roose is on a mission to disrupt the wine industry with luxury wine in cans, and it knows that book clubs are just an excuse to get friends together to enjoy wine. Banks’ book club also features such titles as “How to Play the Violin Despite Your IBS,” “Riding a Bike is Hard. Tax Fraud is Easy” and “Things Horses Care About” to name a few.
One of the many fake books in the club for Archer Roose.
“Our ‘club’,” says Banks using air quotes, “is designed to get people right to the wine. It celebrates the camaraderie enjoyed with friends and Archer Roose.”
By following @archerroosewines, Instagram users automatically join “the club.” They are encouraged to share the titles on their personal channels, stock up on Archer Roose and call their own wine-filled meetings. They are also encouraged to brag about their participation in the program to gain the “smart person social clout” that is associated with being in a book club. Throughout the summer, users can check out Archer Roose’s Instagram for additional playful book titles and ongoing social support around the book club.
“Now you can have a book club meeting with your friends or family and not have to worry about if you read the book or not,” said Archer Roose CEO Marian Leitner in a statement. “It’s all about the wine and not taking ourselves too seriously.”
Created by Archer Roose’s agency of record, Colossus, in Boston, the brand and agency worked together to introduce Banks in “Uninvited Guest,” where she forcibly made herself the brand spokesperson, and launched the Archer Roose Rewards Program, which offered to mail free snakes to anyone who purchased 100,000 cases of wine.
“Drinking wine doesn’t have to be so stuffy” said Greg Almeida, ecd at Colossus in a statement. “We try to make it fun and accessible. Would you rather stand around and talk about tannins, or hang out with friends and pretend to read a book about horse emotions? Your answer says a lot about what kind of wine drinker you are.”
Archer Roose is women-owned and -operated company, and for this production, Colossus used a largely female crew—the spot was directed by a female director, Nat Prisco of Community Films, another woman-owned company.