VB serves up mateship with a twist

When men cry to a Neil Diamond track in a beer ad, you know there has been a seismic shift in society.

That is exactly what happens in beer brand VB's latest ads, which go to air this weekend in Australia.

For a brand that has mined the stereotypical image of masculine mateship for decades in its advertising, it is a significant step.

VB's journey away from different iterations of its famous line ''A hard-earned thirst'' began last year with The Regulars ad, which showed people of all shapes, sizes and sexual orientation marching under different banners that demonstrated VB's credentials as the everyman's beer.

A mantle that up until 15 years ago it could legitimately claim, as roughly one in every three beers drunk in Australia was a VB; today it is about one in five.

Regardless of the decline, VB remains one of Australia's best-known and loved brands, and one about which just about everyone has an opinion.

If The Regulars told us who drinks VB, then this latest series of ads, entitled Real, attempts to tell us why.

The campaign emerged from the insight that in an increasingly superficial world of Photoshopped Facebook profiles and plastic surgery, VB is one of the few things that are authentic.

In the ads we see a variety of men who, on realising the folly of their superficial actions, such as buying ridiculous pina coladas, having their man boobs reduced or getting a fake tan, break down and cry in front of their mates. In public, no less.

What marks these ads out is that for once rather than lampoon the unfortunate man, his mates comfort him, a refreshing twist on mateship, which is core to the marketing of regular beer and which usually descends into the usual tiresome blokefest.

As David Nobay of VB's ad agency, Droga5, points out: ''Historically, beer advertising usually involves a victim. It wasn't about inclusivity but about exclusivity ... real mateship is not about laughing at your mate but welcoming him back into the fold.''

''So what?'' I hear you say. We've had metrosexuals, retrosexuals, New Age men and buddy movies for years. VB is simply playing catch-up with the onward march of the Australian male.

The likes of David Boon and Merv Hughes have been replaced by Michael Clarke and David Beckham as today's role models.

The last time VB's Hard-Earned Thirst ads resonated was in the 1980s, when the image of the hard-working Aussie male was a welcome foil to the blight of white shoes and corporate hucksters such as Christopher Skase.

Since then, it has been nothing but an albatross around the neck of Carlton and United Breweries, which up until now has not had the guts to stray from it.

It is often said that advertising is a reflection of society, but in this case it is the rear-view mirror in which we are looking, and while that gives CUB some certainty about VB's place in the past, it does not necessarily give it any surety about the road ahead.

- © Fairfax NZ News