Boston based brewer Sam Adam’s pre-released a Super Bowl spot featuring a considerably more friendly, polite and brighter Beantown: a city where notoriously rude Red Sox fans welcome Yankees supporters with open arms and where trash-talking Celtics legend Kevin Garnett swaps rude insults for polite decorum.
Titled ‘Cousin From Boston’, the beer brand offers an alternative, yet unlikely perspective on how dreamily friendly its home town might be like if its famously abrupt citizens swap trash talking for kindness and warmth. A city where, instead of rude profanity and fighting over parking spaces, out-of-towners are warmly welcomed with polite conversation and strangers are hugged for no particular reason?
This alternative Boston fantasy, created in harness with agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners and director Adam Stoller, features comic Lenny Clarke, alongside Garnett and a crew of Boston sports fans and promotes Sam Adams as ‘Boston Lager Remastered’.
The anchor 30-scond commercial, which dropped on 30 January, is running on TV in six key target US markets (New York, Phoenix, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Boston) and is backed up by PR and supporting social content which includes an extended cut.
“Every New Englander on our team had a story about Boston being not-so-bright or friendly,” commented Goodby Silverstein & Partners Co-Founder Jeff Goodby. “It’s why we love the city. We thought: if the beer got brighter, what would happen if Boston did, too? Nobody makes fun of Boston like Boston. We’re coming from a place of love, and it’s all in good fun.”
The campaign was created for a Samuel Adams communications and marketing team which included Chief Marketing Officer Lesya Lysyj, Director of Marketing Lauren Price, Senior Brand Manager Kelly Bivens, Senior Integrated Communications Manager Dave Wells, Head of Communications Dave Dececco, Manager of Communications Devon Savage and Creative Director Conor McMahon by Goodby Silverstein & Partners.
The group working on the campaign at the agency included Creative Director AJ Warren, Creative Director Brett Beaty, Art Director Martha Jane Shafer, Copywriter Rich Forzano, Account Services Managing Partner Leslie Barrett, Group Account Director Michael Crain, Account Director Lauren Berry, Nolan Solis Account Manager, Ray Nguyen Assistant Account Manager, Head of Brand Strategy Bonnie Wan, Head of Communication Strategy Christine Chen, Group Brand Strategy Director Ralph Paone, Communication Strategy Director Maren Severtson, Junior Communication Strategist Josh German and Brand Strategist Weston Borg. Agency production was handled by Head of Production Jim Haight, Executive Producer Matthew Flaker, Producer Nick Goldsmith, plus Director of Business Affairs Judy Ybarra and Senior Business Affairs Manager Chrissy Shearer.
The production company was Biscuit Filmworks with Director Aaron Stoller, Director of Photography Jody Lee Lipes, Executive Producer Holly Vega and Producers Kim Bradshaw and Mala Vasan.
Editorial was handled by Arcade Edit, audio and sound ran through Lime Studios, VFX by Timber and colour by Company 3.
Comment
Anyone who has been to Boston might recognise a kernel of truth in the campaign idea. Indeed, a recent survey by language learning brand Preply found that Boston was ranked as one of the USA’s top five rudest cities and as the rudest for ‘not acknowledging strangers’.
Is this a beautiful idea of a kinder world and a dreamlike alternative reality, or just a ridiculously unlikely idea of a Boston that simply wouldn’t be Boston?
Personally, no one on the Activative team would like to comment, in case next time we visit the Massachusetts capital we get punched in the face.
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