The new Heineken ad. 6/10 for entertainment. 0/10 for effectiveness

Mark Ritson gives a superb account of the new Heineken ad and what it tells us about so much of today's marketing.

So far the ad has clocked up nearly 12 million views on YouTube, not doubt its visibility on Twitter and Facebook has been equally impressive. But will it sell more beer. Ritson thinks not. I agree.

Does Heineken want to sell more beer or feel good about itself. More to the point, do the marketers at Heineken want to parade their liberal, progressive, socially aware, do no harm, be nice to everybody, socially inclusive credentials or are they interested in the return on investment? Ritson thinks the latter. I agree.

I was left wondering if this ad was funded from CSR or the marketing budget. Maybe Heineken has combined the two?

Our experience of helping companies understand and profit from population, was that whenever our clients lost sight of what we doing - trying to make lots of dosh from older consumers - and started to confuse it with the CSR objectives, then we were in trouble. I suspect Heineken is falling into that trap. Dick Stroud