Last week, we showed you W+K and Heineken’s “occasionally perfect billboard” in New York, which one night evolved into a stage where indie-rockers TV on the Radio played a free outdoor concert. A pretty cool idea, yes, but one that’s apparently been done before.
We got an email from a source familiar with the matter who gave us a history lesson:
“Shiner Beer has never been the official beer of the ACL (Austin City Limits) Music Festival in Austin. But Heineken has. Starting three years ago, Shiner expressed it’s displeasure at being snubbed in our own hometown with a series of stunts — secreting thousands of koozies into the festival that made every beer look like a can of Shiner. Or giving out free Shiner outside the entrance, next to a bank of portable toilets branded the ‘Foreign Beer Exchange.’
Last year Shiner and McGarrah Jessee created a stage out of a billboard across the street from the festival entrance and had local bands play (bands who had also been snubbed by ACL).
And then, what do you know, Heineken turns a billboard into a stage. We’re very flattered. I think.”
Have a look at the two stages after the jump and tell us, are Heineken and W+K guilty of a blatant ripoff? Or, is this just another case of “everything’s already been done, so who cares?”