By now, many people will have seen the Heineken beer commercial of that title. It shows an experiment: complete strangers are paired and given the task of assembling some furniture. What they don’t know is that each one is paired with someone who holds a totally opposed political position: a climate change activist with a denier, a feminist with a conservative, a transgender with someone against more than two genders. They chat as they work, also answering a questionnaire that reveals a bit about each person. When the task is done, they find they have assembled a bar (it is an ad for beer, after all.) Then they are made to watch video statements recorded earlier where they each strongly express their diametrically-opposing opinions, and in the case of the transgender, her identity. Their last instructions are to put Heineken beer bottles on the bar, and to decide either to immediately leave or to stay, and discuss the issues over a beer. All three pairs decide to discuss.
The advertising industry has discovered an approach of injecting political correctness on social issues into a sales pitch. In this case, the concept was apparently based on “contact theory” that says that more contact between conflicting groups can encourage dialogue and increase tolerance.
Of course, it’s still about selling a product but at least, it’s more interesting than the trite images and messages of local TV commercials. Isn’t everyone bored with the endless hype on long shiny hair or the wonderful mothers feeding their families and getting their laundry clean?
Worlds apart from the Heineken advertisement are Filipino advertising strategies and messages on alcohol. They’re still mostly stuck with associating sexy babes with the promotion of drinking. And when a new and psychological approach was tried, they had poor Derek Ramsay wracked with self doubt, and reaching for a bottle of Tanduay to regain his tibay ng loob.
Alcohol pushed as an emotional crutch — a sure path to alcohol dependence and to strong sales. Clever? If this were Britain, the ad would be pulled off the air for violating their advertising standards. We don’t appear to have standards.
It’s not obvious that commercial advertising is a place to raise serious issues. After all, the main objective of ads is to sell products, and ultimately, this approach is a sales strategy.
Myself, I find the constant barrage of messages to go and buy something offensive. But if advertising can’t be escaped, an ad like Worlds Apart is at least an attempt at something sensible.
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Author’s email: h.cecilia7@gmail.com
