Heineken - The Asteroids Galaxy Tour

So, now you have a wife and kids, where to?

Well to the bar of course, But what to drink? There are lots of choices out there and how are you going to make such a difficult choice. Well with great advertisement. Heineken is a good choice

This commercial makes it seem like you too can be the life of a party. If you drink our beer, look what can happen. Great music, good friends, and most importantly, a good story. This is not your typical beer commercial with boobs and beers and sand. No this is much better. It shows a glimpse into a life that everyone can relate to in some way. Not because you lived it, though some of us have. No rather it brings you back to those innocent times when perhaps you saw your first bond film, or your first music concert. Or perhaps your college years where everyone knew you and you knew everyone, there was no party off limits and you where cool. Don’t you want to recapture that, just drink our beer.

The music is good, a Danish band called The Asteroids Galaxy Tour. This has been a major push for Heineken, and great publicity for the band, which has been collaborating together since March 2011. This commercial has been a great success, with over 4 million views on YouTube and countless more on the old fashion Television.

What is your favourite beer?

VW - Rabbit

Now for the next stage in life, after you run off with the hot girl in the bitching car, you inevitable have to deal with kids.

This commercial came on the scene as the VW Rabbit was released. (Duh) The great thing about this commercial is that nowhere, and I mean nowhere in this commercial do you find out about the size of the engine, or the speed of the car. No there is no info on the car except that its called a rabbit and it has been re-introduced. Yet after watching it you cannot help but want to go out and buy one, marketing at it best.

One more fact about the VW, their name is Volkswagen, German for the people’s car. It was founded in 1937 by the Nazi trade union the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront). One thing about the car is that in the 30’s cars were still a luxury and not everyone could get one. Hitler decided this was no good, and as part of his economic recovery plan for Germany sought a car that the people could afford, hence the name. So on 22 June 1934, Dr. Ferdinand Porsche agreed to create the People's Car for Hitler. The only change Hitler really wanted to make with the new design? Well he wanted it to be a happy car so designed the front of the now famous VW Beetle to look like a smiley face.

So the next time you see a beetle and its smile puts one on your face, don’t forget to thank Hitler.

Nissan 300zx - 1990s

Commercialization

Being a child of the eighties and nineties one thing stands out to me that this new digital generation, with their TiVo’s and downloads may be missing.

Commercials.

So these things came about because everyone was sick of watching them, but that has more to do with the fact that programs have allows more time for them and now product placement is on the rise. But there was a time when there where commercials, most of them terrible, but some a golden few were memorable, even magical. They were sometime funny, sometimes just catchy, but always you remember them.

So I start this new segment with a commercial that has stuck with me throughout the years.

Nissans 300zx commercial from the early nineties.

It was made before CGI was big. This means time and effort went into the making with models and stop motion. Something that sadly has gone the way of the dodo, but it was an art, a time consuming often painful art.

This was a good commercial because it made you stop and think why was Barbie with Ken, when GI Joe was in the next room? Maybe she liked that sort of thing, but were all the Barbie’s the same? Surely not. Also this was released about the same time as the first Toy Story, and while that movie has entered the movie lexicon, and personified toys are almost main streamed, at the time it was not. It also makes you ask would you rather have a hot place and a bitching wife, or a hot wife and a bitching car.

I have the latter, how is your life arranged?

On closer inspection you may also notice that despite the persistence on the name of Barbie and GI Joe, both are close but not actually the toys, she looks more like Barbie dark haired vixen and he looks more like the Army Man from the discount store, you know GI George.

Not that either matters, the commercial was good and it stuck with me, and at the end of the day all that matters: Did you remember it?