In this galaxy – and that was only about 20 years ago – the marketing team behind Chilean beer Cerveza Cristal had a clever and bizarre idea. The brand edited advertisements for the beer directly into television broadcasts of the original war of stars Trilogy.
Instead of watching a commercial break, viewers could watch A new hope or The Empire Strikes Back continuously on free-to-air Channel 13, but there was a catch. In one moment, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi tells a young Luke Skywalker about his father’s exploits and prepares to give the little boy his father’s lightsaber. Next he opens an old chest, revealing not the weapon of a skilled warrior, but a cooler full of ice-cold beer. There is a glitch in the Force and in the film: Cerveza Cristal’s logo appears in the center of the screen, its catchy jingle playing in the background.
That was the idea back then hailed as a “genius”. by the jury of the Cannes International Advertising Festival, which awarded the Grand Prix to OMD Santiago, Cristal Beer’s advertising agency at the time. But despite the acclaim, the clips, originally from 2003, were forgotten – until they resurfaced on X this week:
Around 2003, when the original Star Wars trilogy was airing on television in Chile, they did this funny thing to avoid commercial breaks. They inserted the commercials into the films themselves. Here’s one of them, with English dub added. pic.twitter.com/wC7N2vPNvv
– Windy 🛸 (@heyitswindy) March 2, 2024
The site erupted with Memes. Photoshops of Cerveza Cristal into famous film franchises like dune And Lord of the rings spread throughout the site.
Cerveza Cristal’s free social media promotion comes at a crucial time for Compañía de las Cervecerías Unidas, Cerveza Cristal’s parent company, which it says has had a bad year Fourth quarter earnings report Last month. Net income fell over 10% compared to 2022, and revenue fell over 25% compared to the fourth quarter of 2022. The company suffered in part from the strong Chilean peso, which meant CCU was unable to maximize its export revenue, including to the United States. Over the past five years, the company’s market capitalization has plummeted $5.27 billion To $2.17 billion.
But beer brands across the border suffer, especially because inflation-related price increases deter customers. Beer prices rose almost 6% from April 2022 to 2023 and over 70% since 2000.
In addition to the CCU’s problems, there are the adversaries it faces in the industry. In December, Chilean craft breweries joined the Association of Independent Brewers and brought in Antitrust proceedings against CCU, arguing that the Chilean beer giant had reached agreements with bars and restaurants to limit the entry of competing brands. Anheuser-Busch InBev is suing CCU in a similar case, Bloomberg reported.
And these aren’t even the first legal problems facing the makers of Cerveza Cristal. Twenty years ago, the beer brand was on everyone’s lips precisely because of the gimmicks that brought it so much attention this week.
It’s a (legal) trap
Cerveza Cristal’s stunt may have impressed advertising experts, but not LucasFilm, which filed a complaint against the company for violating Chile’s advertising ethics code.
The complaint received from Assets through Conar, or Chile’s Council for Self-Regulation and Advertising Ethics, argued that the advertising created the false impression among the audience, which was made up of a significant number of minors, that the advertised product was associated with the films. The films broadcast by Channel 13 are protected by Chilean copyright and intellectual property laws.
“Viewers are falsely led to believe that the film contains a reference to the product (Cerveza Cristal), which undoubtedly comes as a surprise to the viewer while depriving them of the opportunity to change the channel during the commercial,” the complaint states said.
LucasFilm won the case. Dan Croxall, a craft beer law expert and professor at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law, shared Assets that in similar intellectual property cases, a clever gimmick or extra layer of brand recognition is simply not worth the risk.
“It gets a laugh – instead of a lightsaber it’s a bottle of beer or whatever – and it’s creative, but it’s someone else’s creativity,” he said.
LucasFilm and CCU did not respond AssetsPlease comment.
Croxall said that despite the legal blunders, CCU’s attempt would be a pretty good marketing strategy – if done within the legal framework.
The beer market, especially for craft beer, is overfilled with almost 10,000 craft breweries in the U.S. beginning in 2022, according to the Brewers Association. Between an overcrowded industry and big beer companies that control everything 65% of the market, it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate your own brand from others. In the past, microbreweries and craft beer companies have used the likeness of 1990s hip-hop icons and sports teams to brand their products, sometimes without a license, Croxall said. Illegal use of intellectual property, as reflected in the LucasFilm lawsuit, is not advisable, but attempting to associate a recognizable name or brand with one’s own name or brand is certainly justified.
“The more at the forefront, the more likely it is that a point-of-sale decision will be made in your favor,” he said. In other words, if consumers know your product, in whatever way, they are more likely to buy it.
While Croxall doubts that a meme renaissance could have a lasting impact on a brand’s success, he argued that it could be an effective attempt to capture the attention of Generation Z. The young generation is bitter on beerDear cannabis or simply not drink at all for health reasons. However, Zoomers will engage in memes, as the pandemic era shows Meme stock revolution. It’s up to beer companies to appeal to young shoppers who aren’t thirsty for their products.
“If there’s a new hit brewery trying to reach Gen Z, I would try to associate myself with the things that resonate with them,” Croxall said. “I would just be very careful about doing it on the legal side.”