A Wife Beating Brand

Just a thought…

When I first came to the UK four years ago I didn’t know the Stella brand. I grew up in Spain and lived happy as a clam enjoying my “cañas” of icy cold Mahou, San Miguel or Aguila. I arrived with a willingness to absorb my forefather’s culture of drinking pints of ambient temperature beer whilst posing as a University student (a mission I excelled at I must ad).

Anyway, when I first saw the Stella Artois logo on a tap I was immediately drawn to it: the Frenchy name and elegant design succeeded at reeling me in. I swiftly ordered one and as I held it and sipped it I thought: “that’s a rather all right beer, not the best I’ve had but it does the trick”. That is when my mate saw me and proceeded to fill my ears with this brand’s not-so-glamorous reputation.

A wifebeater is slang for the typical tough-nuts style sleeveless shirt, yet on the wiki definition you will find another meaning: “In the UK and Ireland, the term is occasionally used as slang for the Belgian beer Stella Artois. In British culture, Stella Artois is associated with a drinking culture in which domestic abuse may follow a bout of drinking Stella Artois at the local pub.”

I’m not sure how Stella’s ‘wife beater’ association began. On the Stella wiki it speculates that the association comes from Marlon Brando’s legendary cry, “Stellaaa!”, in A Streetcar Named Desire, a film infamous for its portrayal of domestic violence. Whatever, the fact is this beer is synonymous to wife beating! Jesus!

Wouldn’t you think this kind of widespread reputation would sink the brand? Think again.

Stella Artois is the best selling premium lager in the UK beer market.

Don’t get me wrong; I hold nothing against the beer, poor Stella. I am aware, as is everyone else, that there is no secret ingredient in it that will induce a fit of misogynistic rage or that by drinking it I will be immediately tagged as scum. I mean brands can carry undesirable social associations, I just think this one is pretty hardcore. I guess even more hardcore is the fact that it survives this; wife beating has just become a tongue in cheek kind of notion.

I quite like Stella’s ads, they are quirky and characteristic. They have gone from the 1970s slogan "Stella's for the Fellas" to a the current Frenchy (though it’s Belgian?) European sophistique vibe. Some of it is actually rather highbrow, what with “Reassuringly Elephant”, the surrealist version of “Reassuringly Expensive”. It ties in strategically, seeing as a lot of work has gone into tying Stella to excellence in cinema. All the ads make cunning references to famous old films. It’s worked well, high five to the planners, but it hasn’t made everybody forget the wife beatings. I will come back to this is a second.

I just want a quick look at the above mentioned strap line. Now, this is in line with the up-market sophisticated image of the recent campaigns. It makes sense, the thing is, is it really expensive? It sure as hell doesn’t seem like it to me (I don’t have the facts and figures to parade but I have done my homework). Does this not mean that this is just a disingenuous lie? Is saying that a beer is expensive when it’s pretty mid-range not promoting a fake feeling of quality? Oh wait, maybe it's just hilariously sarcastic. It didn’t strike me this way at first, I thought it rather charming, but on closer inspection and after reading the article that follows it did hit me.

So, I was reading thelondonpaper on the tube and I came across this article. It talks of the unprovoked attack on a teenage girl by a bunch of thugs, the attacker himself was “clutching a Stella Artois beer”, he is even pictured with it. A real piece of PR.

It made me think two things, apart from the general disgust this type of person provokes in me.

1) Would the writer of this article have bothered mentioning the brand if it was let’s say, a Fosters, and not the stigmatised Stella?

2) And, if it is absolutely clear that the Stella brand and wife beatings are inextricably associated in pop culture, despite the polished Frenchy-filmy stuff, shouldn’t the brand communications take a stand on this?

Now, for a moment think about this. Imagine, bizarrely that Stella resolved that enough was enough and decided to tackle not only its reputation (making it European and pseudo-expensive hasn’t done it) but to tackle the subject head on. Sure, Stella doesn’t make men hit women, it is beer like many others, and it also doesn’t want to lose the actual wife beating ‘market niche’ (cringe). Fair enough. But what if it took a stand against this kind of behavior by setting its advertising agency’s powerful creative communications engine on this socially responsible quest? What if it overcame the obstacles and dangers this challenge would pose for the brand and succeeded at promoting responsible and, blimey, civilized behavior in all, or most, of it’s drinkers?

Wouldn’t that be exciting?

And also, wouldn’t it be a brave, brilliant and rewarding challenge to take on as a planner?

Just a thought…

Phaedrucide and Planning: The Link

picture by victor_nuno.

I have gone to great lengths to define what Phaedrucide means to me, a process which has been more to my benefit than to anybody else’s. Whoever braves the long winded definition will understand that I was hardly trying to make my point succinctly. By writing down my big nebulous idea I have come to understand it in new ways and it has sharpened my mental construct like a tool that I plan on employing all the time, putting phaedrucide to practice.

What’s this about planning you ask? As you know, I am an Adman in potential (yes, still working on removing the “in potential” from the title). I will spare you the details of my quest to join this monstrous profession, it’s bloody hard for those who want it and easy for those who fall into it accidentally. Just to give closure to the previous posts with examples of my graduate recruitment application, my greatest success was to make it to the final round of interviews at what is without doubt one of the best agencies in London. As you can tell I didn’t get the job, but hey, everything happens for a reason. More importantly, it was an amazing experience to learn from.

Anyway, during my quest, involving placements, readings, research, interviews, cosmic signs, nuggets of advice and stratospheric conversations on all things Adland , everything pointed me to my true calling: Account Planning (Strategic Planning).

The way I see it, planning is the intelligent backbone of advertising and media communications at large. It is the keystone between creativity and effectiveness. The role of the planner will vary between agency cultures but in essence the planner is responsible for truly understanding markets, trends and behaviours and responding with a brand communication that will suit these or if need be, change them. Planners are a fascinating breed, they are interested and interesting and I guess all aspire to live up to the description of a creative generalist. I could go on and on describing the role but that is hardly my point. That has been done. In fact since the advent of the plannersphere there are more and more planners (from juniors to gurus) sharing their secrets and opinions on anything and everything that is relevant, which in planning seems to be everything and anything. So any textbook theory has been documented and as the industry evolves the accompanying theory continues to be documented only now it happens in real time and through an incredible network of planning minds, all of these devoted to the cause of expressing their opinions on, well, everything and anything. Lots to learn, lots to read.

The plannersphere is about more than documentation however. It is a community with all the marvellous things that entails. Nuff said.

I want to join the conversation but I want to contribute to this community, not just add to it.

So here goes, I will continue pursuing and sharing my personal creative endeavours and will also throw in quick interesting nibbles to take the edge off the Phaedrucide intensity. On the planning front I will express my views and opinions on, crickey yet again, everything and anything. My vow however is to do so through the eyes of my Phaedrus, keeping Phaedrucide blazoned atop this page and atop my perspective. Russell Davies the Great says is straight, there are a million different ways to do good planning, This is mine.

I have also had a great idea, which I will expand at a later date, of using Phaerucide as a concept brand to plan around and think hard about. This could be an interesting ongoing project…

Anyway, just want to rephrase a sentence I made earlier in this post, with the accompanying attitude and gumption that I am throwing at it: I am a Planner in potential working to remove the ‘in potential’ from the title.

I have a meeting on Tuesday with what is possibly the best agency in London… the future’s bright.