2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i08jbz4wOmY
For Australians mates are not just what one would consider a friend, they are more than that. According to Wikipedia, they embody equality and lifelong loyalty. When surfing the web for more information on this concept of “mateship” another one of Australia’s cultural icons kept coming up, beer. And not just any beer, but specifically VB. VB, which stands for Victoria Bitter, is the highest selling beer for over 20 years. Australians seem to love being able to kick back, get a barbeque going, and have a nice cold beer. VB has also recently expanded their advertisements to link the familiarity of a popular brand like VB to the idea of mateship. According to “The Age” the new VB commercial relishes on the sensitive side of men. With Neil Diamond playing the background, the men in the commercial have forgotten their sense of masculinity. In the commercial men are getting spray tans and “man-boob” lifts, and it takes their mates to crack open a beer and get them to back to normal. As David Nobay of VB's ad agency, Droga5, points out: ''Historically, beer advertising usually involves a victim. It wasn't about inclusively but about exclusivity … real mateship is not about laughing at your mate but welcoming him back into the fold.'' I thought that this commercial was a great representation of not only the Australian humor, but also of their concept of mateship. Above is the link for the commercial, I recommend checking it out for a quick laugh.
Hi Shermin,
ReplyDeleteVB is interesting in many ways as a social study. Twenty years ago the Australian beer market was much more parochial - a Queenslander or Sandgroper (West Australian) would not have been seen dead drinking a Victorian beer - VB is a product of the national branding that the big beer corporations have been involved in during the last ten years. The other interesting thing about VB is that it was originally the working man's beer in Victoria - it's ad campaign tag was "for a hard earned thirst", and the television ads depicted men (and only men), working in mines, on farms etc.
The new ads reflect the growing urbanization and sophistication that Australia has undergone in the last twenty tears.