Heineken has a new ad where two guys walk into some dive
bar, and after they order Heinekens on draught, the bartender flips a series of
switches (it looks almost like a stick shift or something, actually), and then
the boring lounge piano guy gets replaced with some singing group with a singer
very reminiscent of Amy Winehouse (and some other stuff happens to the bar to turn it into a hot upscale nightclub, with walls flipping around all over the place, etc.). Now, I know the artist featured in this ad
is not Amy Winehouse, but it seems to me that the intention is clear to evoke
Amy Winehouse: you know, very similar sound, big black hair, etc. (Or am I
wrong?)
Now, I would normally say that Amy Winehouse would work
great for a Heineken ad, except for one thing: she died from alcohol toxicity last year.
And even if it’s not Amy Winehouse in the ad, and even if they didn’t mean it
to evoke her memory, the fact is that it does. And making people remember a big
star who recently died from alcohol poisoning after a long and very public
series of alcohol-related problems may not be the best way to advertise your
alcoholic beverage: that’s all I’m saying.
And I apologize for not being up on music enough to know
much about Clairy Browne and the Bangin’ Rackettes: They’re good, but this
scenario makes me think of Amy Winehouse; and then I start to think about how
maybe I shouldn’t have that next drink… (And they are selling an alcoholic beverage, right?)
It just seems to me that this is akin to Porsche making an
ad with a James Dean look-alike in it. (Okay, that’s not really fair: Amy
Winehouse didn’t die from drinking Heineken, and I’m not aiming to insult
Clairy Browne either. But you see what I’m getting at, don’t you?) It’s not
just about political correctness, or anything like that: I couldn’t care less
about that myself. It’s just that when an ad makes me think about something that
makes me say to myself: “Hmm, maybe I shouldn’t buy that”, I think it’s a
problem with the ad: that’s all. (But maybe I’m the only person who thinks so.)
Here’s the alcohol-advocating advertisement:
