We all know about the Pepsi ad flop. You know, the one with Kendall Jenner stopping a protest by giving a police officer a can of soda. Nothing against Kendall Jenner. The creators of the ad, however, its a different story.
Now I am not here to rant on how wrong Pepsi’s marketing department was. No negativity here. Rather, I would like to praise another brand’s ad for truly bringing opposite ends together to have a reasonable, calm-mannered, rather friendly conversation.
Yes that’s it ladies and gents: Heineken with their “Worlds Apart” ad. The video has essentially reached every news site around the internet these past couple days, so you may have already seen it.
The ad is a social experiment in which the participants are interviewed individually on their views of the world. The opposite views are unknowingly paired together to work on a project. Midway through the project they converse with one another casually. Connections are made. They finish the project before the individual interviews are revealed. Faces drop. Shock courses through the participants as the person next to them is everything their values are against. The glorious moment comes when the hosts of the experiment provide the option to either leave or sit down and discuss matters over a bottle of Heineken. Well, I’m not going to tell you how it ends because that would be incredibly rude. To view the video, check out Delish‘s article by clicking here.
What Heineken does splendidly is the fact they do not portray fighting. They do not portray protesting. They portray people with their views. Views they have either been taught since childhood or views they’ve collected throughout life. Heineken prove that differences can be united. Just because they have different views doesn’t mean you can’t work with them to complete a simple task. Heineken also teaches us a lesson on judgement. Basically, don’t judge a book by its cover. You don’t know where the person has seen or been through.
The final aspect, one not so philosophically based, is marketing based. Heineken’s bottles are strategically placed on the table for the label to face the screen. The nice thing about it is that is does overpower the ending. The focus is on the participants and their newfound knowledge of their partner. The beer is simply a prop for beginning conversation, not the sword in the stone to end the battle.
Kudos to Heineken for creating a thoughtful ad.
Zelly & Ol' Hem's 