Hasta La Creative!

Here's a fun project for beer lovers. Boston-based video editor Trevor Carmick has started animating the labels of some of his favorite brews, sharing his creations as animated GIFs. The results are subtle but enjoyable, like the Magic Hat #9 can whose label now swirls hypnotically, practically mesmerizing you into drinking it. On his LinkedIn profile, Carmick notes the initial success of his side project: "To my surprise, people enthusiastically responded to my label creations and I now enjoy a small online following of craft beer lovers as well as several breweries." Given the way his site is making the rounds on some of the nation's largest blogs this week, he might need to rephrase that soon. Check out a few of his creations after the jump, and visit his site for more.

Last week we wrote about Heineken's JFK airport stunt, in which the brand dared travelers to drop their existing plans and go somewhere new and exotic with the push of a button—without knowing where. Today, we have video of some of the gameplay from the campaign, by Wieden + Kennedy in New York. It's pretty amusing. It begins, fittingly enough, with people who won't play the game—i.e., the sane ones to whom we can most easily relate. Then we get to the nutjobs—those outliers who are willing to make that call to friends and family and say they won't be visiting after all, but will be boarding a flight to who-knows-where at the request of people who've clearly been drinking. Most of the folks who take the plunge seem pretty happy with their new destination, although the guy going to Laos—he looks more than a little ambivalent.

CREDITS
Client: Heineken
Project: Departure Roulette

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, New York
Executive Creative Directors: Scott Vitrone, Ian Reichenthal, Mark Bernath, Eric Quennoy
Creative Directors: Erik Norin, Eric Steele
Copywriter: Will Binder
Art Director: Jared White
Interactive Producer: Victoria Krueger
Executive Producer: Nick Setounski
Assistant Producer: Kristen Johnson
Account Team: Patrick Cahill, Jacqueline Ventura, Sydney Lopes
Social Strategist: Jessica Abercrombie
Project Manager: Rayna Lucier
Sr. Community Manager: Mike Vitiello
Director of Interactive Production: Brandon Kaplan
Head of Integrated Production: Lora Schulson
Business Affairs: Sara Jagielski, Lisa Quintela, Quentin Perry
Global Travel Director: Colleen Baker
Lead/Sr. Travel Consultant: Angela Wootan
Sr. Travel Consultant: Joelle Wainwright

Production Company: Legs Media
Director: Dan Levin
Post-Production Company: Legs Media In Collaboration with BrehmLabs

Editors: Frederic T. Brehm, Ian Park, Gabriela Tessitore
Sound Designer: Eric Hoffman
Colorists: Frederic T. Brehm, M. Scott Vogel
Information Display System Fabricator: Solari Corp.
Design & Build Team: The Guild

British brands, understandably, don't have much to say around the Fourth of July—until now. Newcastle Brown Ale, among the cheekiest of U.K. marketers, has turned America's most patriotic holiday to its advantage by inventing a new, completely made-up holiday: Independence Eve on July 3. The idea of the tongue-in-cheek campaign, created by Droga5, is to "honor all things British that Americans gave up when they signed the Declaration of Independence," Newcastle says.

To mark the new holiday, the brewer is introducing the "Revolutionary Koozie," which will be handed out at bars around the country this evening. It features the British flag on one side and the American flag on the other. At the stroke of midnight, you're encouraged to turn your beer 180 degrees and go "from honorary British subject to proud American with the twist of a fist." The campaign extends to digital with a transformation of the brand's Facebook page and a series of daily GIFs highlighting the differences "between British America and American America."

"Newcastle is a very British beer, and needless to say, it doesn't sell that well on July 4. So why not establish it as the beer you drink on July 3?" says Charles van Es, senior director of marketing for Heineken USA portfolio brands. "Unlike the Redcoats in the 18th century, we're picking our battles a little more wisely. By celebrating Independence Eve, we're taking liberties with America's liberty to create a new drinking occasion and ensuring freedom on July 4 tastes sweeter than ever."

Van Es adds: "Like Cinco de Mayo or Thanksgiving Wednesday, Independence Eve is just another excuse to enjoy good times with good friends, but now with a new purpose. On July 3, we're lifting a Newcastle to our British heritage and the American freedom we all appreciate."

The only downside to Steve Lovelace's Corporate States of America map, showing the most famous brands founded in each of the 50 states, was that there wasn't enough liquor involved. Only two were alcohol brands: Coors and Anheuser-Busch. Thrillist has decided to rectify that with its Red, White & Booze map, "plotting the biggest/most high-profile liquor or beer companies" in each of the 50 states. Check out it out above, and see a much larger PDF on the Thrillist site. Let the debates begin. First of all, why not Magic Hat in Vermont?

Not pictured and/or hard to read:

Alaska: Alaskan Brewing
Hawaii: Kona
Vermont: Hill Farmstead
New Hampshire: Smuttynose
Connecticut: Willimantic
Rhode Island: Narragansett
New Jersey: Jagermeister
Delaware: Dogfish Head
Maryland: Flying Dog

I'm not sure I'd swipe my passport through a vending machine, regardless of the reward, but perhaps I would if I were Canadian and needed a beer badly enough. Molson Canadian recently visited several European cities and placed fully stocked beer fridges in public places there. The catch? The fridges could be opened only by scanning a Canadian passport. Footage from the sites was then cut into the 90-second online ad below, from ad agency Rethink and director Jonty Toosey of Partners Film. A :30 broke on TV during the Stanley Cup Finals. The campaign also brings back the classic tagline, "I am Canadian."

It's a fun idea, and continues the trend toward more installation-based public branding and entertainment stunts. Coca-Cola has always done that very well, of course, but these days everyone's trying it—from Hot Wheels to those crazy Fantastic Delites stunts. Beer fridges that won't open are particularly galling, of course, and wondrous when they finally relent—as we learned last year with the JWT office fridge that only opens when everyone has done their time sheets.

Making-of video and credits for the Molson effort below.

CREDITS
Title: "The Beer Fridge"
Client: Molson Canadian

Agency: Rethink
Creative Directors: Aaron Starkman, Chris Staples, Dré Labre, Ian Grais 
Associate Creative Director: Mike Dubrick
Art Directors: Joel Holtby, Vince Tassone, Christian Buer
Writers: Mike Dubrick, Aaron Starkman, Matt Antonello, Dave Thornhill
Account Director: Ashley Eaton
Broadcast Producer: Clair Galea 

Production Company: Partners Film
Director: Jonty Toosey
Executive Producer: Aerin Barnes
Line Producer: Neil Bartley
Director of Photography: Bruce Jackson

Postproduction: Rooster Post
Executive Producer: Melissa Kahn
Editor: Marc Langley
Assistant Editor: Nick Greaves

Postroduction: Fort York VFX
Music, Sound Design: RMW Music
Producer, Composer: Steven MacKinnon

Colorist: Eric Whipp, Alter Ego

Here's a clever little gimmick. Australia's Cascade Brewery recently made a limited-edition batch of beer with special "experimental" hops from a secret garden in Tasmania's Derwent Valley. There was only enough for 5,000 cases, and so the brewer—with help from Clemenger BBDO in Melbourne—made an ad for it that can only be watched 5,000 times. Check it out below. The special embed code (which can take some time to load) includes a ticker that's counting down to zero. "Whether you caught the film in time or not, make sure you don't miss the beer," the brewer says on its website. Come on, people, we can make this thing obsolete within the hour if we put our minds to it. Via The Denver Egotist.

UPDATE: Video has been having trouble loading—either that or it hit 5,000 and ran.

The Paris Liquor Store est une nouvelle adresse de la capitale française pensée pour tous les amateurs d’alcools « tendance ». Avec une direction artistique très réussie réalisée par Ninjaz, ces créations typographiques à la craie et au posca sont à découvrir en images dans la suite.

The latest Tui beer billboard from New Zealand's DB Breweries is a homophobic eyesore, according to feedback on the brand's Facebook page. Or else it's funny and people should get over it, also according to feedback on the brand's Facebook page. Tui's marketing manager claims the ad's headline—"Dad's new husband seems nice." "Yeah right"—is an innocent combination of the brand's iconic catchphrase with current events: New Zealand's parliament passing a Marriage Equality Act earlier this month. The ad was meant "to highlight the common situation or uncertainty experienced when someone's parent remarries," he says. In other words, the "Yeah right" refers to the awkwardness of a parent remarrying another, not just someone of the same sex. I don't think Tui meant any actual harm here, but the delivery was crap. If you have to explain a joke, that's proof that it bombed. That's not something you can blame on the audience.

Budweiser is introducing a new type of can, which is strange, because most people felt the old cans were just fine and it was the beer that needed improvement. Kidding, of course—All Hail the King! Thanks to a recent technological breakthrough in aluminum manufacturing, the bow-tie shaped cans, bowing May 6, have skinny middles—the irony of which will not be lost on some of its consumers. Basically, the cans come slightly pre-crushed, which should save folks a few seconds between brews. The can crinkles by 10 degrees in the middle, which means it holds less beer than the classic cylinders (11.3 ounces vs. 12 ounces). But Bud will be selling the bow ties in eight-packs priced nearly the same, ounce for ounce, as traditional SKUs, so the initial outlay to get shit-faced doesn't really change. If the cans catch on, they'll become Bud's new standard, though I'm pretty sure package design alone can't set brands apart and give them distinct personalities—or can it? Via Co.Design.

Isaiah Mustafa seems perfectly content simply being the Man Your Man Could Smell Like—or drink beer like, or do another manly activity like. And who can blame him? This new two-minute spot for an Israeli brewer lets Isaiah be Isaiah, giving him amusingly elaborate lines to deliver, even if they're a poor man's version of Wieden copy. Isaiah has done this kind of thing before, and he'll do it again. Which brand will give him a real challenge and cast him as a pathetic weakling, or a doofus dad?