Since 2016, when we first wrote an article for branding.news — plus some stuff for our sister site brandingmag — we have seen some good ad campaigns. We’ll let you be the judge, however we do think that we’ve got some experience in branding and advertising and we, kind of, know what’s going on. Still, during all this time, one ad has somehow slipped from our hands. Ironically, considering how huge it is, we have only just stumbled upon it: Ladies and gentlemen, meet Carlton Draught‘s big ad. How big, you ask? So, big that it has a special Wikipedia page dedicated to it. That’s how!
During this week’s #ThrowBrandThursday, we invite you to admire, from a distance, an ad that became famous before it even hit the TV. It was August 7, 2005, when Carlton Draught’s short video appeared on the TV screens. Yet, more than half a million people viewed the commercial on the web. The two weeks prior to being screened on TV, the ad got viral online where, in just 24 hours after release, it had been downloaded over 160,000 times. In just two weeks, the ad had seen the light of day in more than 130 countries and it was widely covered in the press. Again, that’s how big this ad was! And still is.
Although, the commercial wouldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for George Patterson and Partners, Melbourne — now Young & Rubicam — who used their magic viral marketing techniques to promote the ad before it was broadcast on TV. Clearly, the viewers weren’t really interested in the strategy used to promote it. What mattered to them is the content. And it still does…
In case you’ve seen The Big Ad, you know that it’s a parody to such films as Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and of commercials pioneered by the likes of Qantas and British Airways. The big ad introduces a bunch of guys dressed in yellow robes running across a picturesque New Zealand valley. On the other side, it’s red-robed men who purposefully race towards them. While on the run, the two groups join in unison to the tune of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, “O Fortuna.” Only, this time the words have been changed a bit.
Listen to this: “It’s a big ad. Very big ad. It’s a big ad we’re in. It’s a big ad. My God it’s big! Can’t believe how big it is! It’s a big ad! For Carlton Draught! It’s just so freaking HUGE! It’s a big ad! Expensive ad! This ad better sell some bloo-oo-oo-oody beer!” We bet you can picture the melody in your head.
The “yellow fraction” forms the shape of a Carlton Draught pint and the other group forms the shape of a man, who, at last, meets the beer glass only to quench his thirst. But ‘nuff said’. Take a look at the Big Ad yourselves and let us know if it fulfilled your expectations and the urge to buy some ‘bloody’ beer!