One Beer, Two Commercials

Everyone that drinks beer has their staple labels that they live by, whether out at the bars, or at home or hanging out with friends.

I don't drink that much beer at all. Except for one - Red Stripe. Maybe it's the little Jamaican in me, but besides the fact I don't find it as harsh as some of the others, I love it and am fiercely loyal to it (and can now justify the yellow T-shirt with the famous logo I got when I visited my relatives one time as a kid years ago).

But it's kinda hard to come by. Out on the town, very few bars don't serve them, so I'm forced to imbibe mixed liquor drinks instead. It's not sold at the Beer Store, either - I have to hunt for the six-pack of stubbies at the liquor store in the Imported section. And even the quantity of the stock's small in size.

So, given all of this, you'd think the ad campaign was virtually non-existent, right? Strangely enough, no. I found out they have commercials.

Obviously, in Jamaica - where it's probably the equivalent of maybe Molson or Labatt or Alexander Keith's (choose your poison) - they're going to be advertising everywhere. Take a look at this commercial touting the virtues of Red Stripe.




It's easygoing. It's leisurely. But it's too boring and amateurish for an audience outside the Caribbean (although I watched it and suddenly had the urge to find a beach somewhere where I could sit with a stubby and watch the tide roll in and out).

So how to sell a beer that's virtually sold or drunk in very few places?

As it turns out, there have been not one, but a SERIES of commercials, which I guess ran in the States during football games earlier this year.

The secret weapon this ad agency decided would best work in wooing that fickle 21-50, like-their-Coors-with-their-beer-nuts target audience? A black dude with a Natural and a Jamaican accent wearing a suit and a Red Stripe sash.

I watched them. There's like, I dunno, 10, 12 of them? It's weird. Watching them, they're not all that funny. Trying to explain them to someone else kind of is.

But here's probably the best one out of the bunch.



I'm afraid, as annoying as the commercials are, the next time I have a hankerin' for the Red Stripe, the first thing that will pop into my head is that floating, disembodied, smiling face, cheering:

"Hooray beer!"