John Smiths Beer
Beer ads in general are quite good, but when John Smiths decided to take on Peter Kay they went into overdrive. The diving ad starts off and you have no idea what’s about to happen. The first diver is good, the second diver, the Canadian does a fantastic triple somersault and enters the water perfectly, and then comes John Smith (or Peter Kay to all of us). As he runs to the end of the board you’re thinking- “no he can’t be, surely not”, and then he jumps and you hide your eyes as he bombs into the water. That isn’t enough though, the spray from his bombing soaks the judges who remain po-faced. Icing on the cake is of course the cheeky builders bum as he climbs out of the pool to his perfect 10’s and does a thumbs up to the crowd. Sheer genius. Then came the football keepy uppy, where again you’re on tenterhooks waiting for what ever’s about to happen. Kick ups, round the world, teaching overseas, and catching the ball on the back of the neck from one player to the next to Peter Kay and oomph ball goes over the field into the garden, smashes the glass and a “ave it” accompanies it. The wonderful thing about these ads are their ability to make us laugh at our shortcomings. The beauty of Peter Kay is that he makes it look okay to be bad at things and still be incredibly popular. I have heard they have signed him up for another three ads and I myself can’t wait to see what they have in store. Do they make me want to drink John Smiths beer, well if I wanted to buy a bitter and went into a shop I would certainly remember the name of the brand and would probably plump for that one on the strength of a great campaign. The good thing about these ads is that you never tire of seeing them and don’t switch over channels when they come on- like you do for a lot of ads.