Newcastle Mocks Stella Artois and Its Chalice in New Campaign

As a brand, Newcastle Brown Ale is no nonsense—or as its new ad campaign puts it, "no bollocks." The British beer also has little time for rivals who it believes are all bollocks—chief among them, Stella Artois. The new campaign from Droga5, breaking today, announces itself in part with a cheeky outdoor ambush of Stella's "Chalice" ads. Next to Stella billboards that proclaim, "It's not a glass, it's a Chalice," Newcastle has placed boards that ask, "Who uses the word Chalice?" That sets the tone for the campaign, which is meant to be aggressively yet humorously anti-bollocks, with the hoary clichés of the entire beer category as its target. Check out the first commercials below, directed by Ivan Zacharias. As the agency puts it, "Newcastle's heritage, its founder, hometown and brewing process are all fair game. … It's beer advertising without all the bollocks that usually comes with beer advertising."