Coors Light breaks away

Of all the beer brands that have helped perpetuate the slick and sexy lifestyle beer advertising formula, perhaps none has been more guilty in Canada than Molson’s Coors Light brand.

And, incidentally, none more successfull either. Coors is the leading light brand in this country.

So it comes as double surprise that Molson has broken – no, shattered – the mold with a new tv pool that takes beer advertising to new and giddy heights.

The pool was created by the copywriter and art director team of Cotton Stevenson and Robert Beattie at fcb, Toronto.

It has a look and a style that is arresting and at times breathtaking in a way that some of the great travel documentaries can rivet viewers to the screen.

Directed and photographed by Robert Gordon, who is repped in Canada by Derek Van Lint and Associates, the commercials show vast landscapes, interspersed with small scenes of life that cut across all demographics and all expectations.

At the heart of the filmwork is a very bold and crisp photographic approach that brings rich colors to vivid life, whether as a panoramic view of the sky, or a meadow with horses galloping, or the early morning mist blowing across a lake.

There is a feel about the commercials that suggests a respect and reverence for nature that we haven’t seen before in beer advertising. It leaves you with the feeling that Coors Light is really serious about being different.

Frequent use of time-lapse photography and a very strong musical score that changes with each spot adds to the sense of difference. Even the copy is uncharacteristically sparse and restrained. The voice-over comes into the picture in the same blunt fashion as the images: ‘Can’t fake smooth,’ or ‘It’s an attitude,’ or ‘Easy going. Smooth. Unrestricted.’

The people images, which unlike past Coors commercials are incidental to the visual storyline, show such scenes as a couple in shadows by a shoreline, a person painting on a canvas by a lake, two men sitting at the end of a dock, a herd of horses, a person walking along a catwalk.

The commercials are breaking over the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The producer at fcb was Pat Lyons. At dvla, executive producer was Humphrey Carter and producer/ad was Richard Cannon.

Editor was Richard Unruh of Third Floor Editing, and the music was the work of Doug Riley and Tim Tickner of The Einstein Bros. MS

Fournier shot, he scored

In ‘La Reprises Filles’ (The Girls’ Replay), a 30-second French spot announcing a prize-packed nhl playoff promo for Molson Export and O’Keefe beer, we open to a mid-pan shot of the backs of the heads of two women as they watch a noisy hockey match. The sound f/x indicate a home team crowd in delirium, and when a goal is scored, the ladies raise their bottles in celebration.

In the following setup, with the women now facing the camera, the action begins to unspool in super slo-mo – like in a replay – except we realize the women weren’t watching the game at all , but instead, checking out a ‘Moment de verite’ scratch ‘n’ win coupon found inside a 24 case of beer.

The spot is destined for lots of teleplay in the weeks ahead, and is one of two new French 30s from La Fabrique d’Images director Jacques Fournier. In this promotion, beer drinkers are being coaxed along with 100,000 instant prizes to be found inside 24-bottle cases of Molson Export and O’Keefe.

Fournier’s approach to the assignment mixes humor and intensity with the now instinctive montage technique of playoff hockey teleproduction.

Add prizes of 10 holiday packages to the Stanley Cup finals and 100 ‘mini-season’ tickets for either the Montreal Canadiens or Quebec Nordiques, without forgetting the real fun of qualifying, playing and winning a ‘Moment de Verite’ prize, and this promotion could go all the way to the finals.

In a later sequence, we freeze-frame on the celebratory clinking of bottles as the v/o says, ‘Let’s see that play from another angle.’

From coffee table and munchies, the camera pov tilts up towards the ladies, film running in reverse, as they scratch away in earnest to a full-screen resolution of a ‘Moment de Verite’ ticket, and an announcer booming: ‘In cases of Molson Export and O’Keefe.’

At closing, before the final graphics come up, there’s a shot of the Stanley Cup rotating on a pedestal, before a zoom-in run at the cup makes it look like it’s going to blow right out of the monitor.

Fabrique’s Claude Landry produced for agency Groupe Everest.

Craft credits go to art director Nick Jolicoeur, dop David Franco and pm Martin Ulrich. Daniel Lussier wrote the original music.

Everest credits include creative director Pierre Cote and producer Richard Goulet.

Michelle Tremblay was the post supervisor. Buzz did the post-production. Post M did the sound, AstralTech handled lab duties and Supersuite did the film-to-tape transfer. LRB