Publicis Brazil tackles a pervasive gender stereotype head-on in its new spot for Heineken, “The Cliché.”
The three-minute online spot opens with the question, “What if you had the perfect excuse to watch the match without your girlfriend?” as a group of men open menus at a restaurant one week before the UEFA Champions League Final in Milan while having dinner with their significant others to find an enticing proposition. A card inside the menu reads: “Would you like to be free to watch the UEFA Champions League Final at a Heineken party? Gift your lady a weekend at this spa.” (Complete with a voucher for said spa, of course). Each of the guys finds a way to suggest the proposition to his girlfriend, with one guy even claiming he “bought” her a gift. None of them thinks to just be honest and tell them about the card (it doesn’t say anywhere that it has to be a secret). But this isn’t just a simple giveaway and the guys at the UEFA Champions League Final Heineken party are in for a surprise. Check out the video before reading the below paragraph if you’d like to avoid spoiling it.
For this viewer, at least, the “twist” ending, that the girls are also at the game, didn’t come as much of a surprise. Everything about the setup seemed more than a bit familiar from Publicis’ similarly soccer-themed prankvertising effort “The Dilemma” last year. The message at the spot’s conclusion, “Have you ever considered that she might like football as much as much as you do?” is welcome (especially by the girlfriends, we’d imagine), however, even if it should be an obvious one.
Credits:
Cliente: Heineken
Agência: Publicis
Direção de criação: Hugo Rodrigues, Kevin Zung e Alexandre (Xã) Vilela
Direção de arte: Henrique Mattos, Cícero Souza, Guto Kono
Redação: Pedro Lazera, Mariana Albuquerque, Samuel Normando
Atendimento: Danilo Ken, Daniel Batista e Marina Roge
Planejamento: Eduardo Lorenzi, Alexandra Varassin, Rafael Fiorito e Leonardo Andrade
Social strategist: Tiago Martinez
Mídia: Gracieli Beraldi, Giuliana Barletta e Nicolas Lana
RTVC: Tato Bono, Dani Toda
Produtora: Hungry Man
Diretor: Caio Rubini e Fabio Pinheiro
Managing Partner: Alex Mehedff
Produtor executivo: Rodrigo Castello e Renata Corrêa
Line Producer: Mariana Marinho
Diretor de fotografia: Felipe Meneghel
Equipe de produção: Hungry Man
Supervisor de Pós-Produção: Rodrigo Oliveira
Pós-Produção: Efecktor
Montador: Thiago Ceruti
Color Granding: Psycho N’Look
Produtora de áudio: Jamute