Creative Review UK Annual hands Boag’s Draught ‘Pure Waters’ the Best in Book Award
April 27 2010, 1:55 pm | | 8 Comments



Of all the work submitted to the Creative Review UK Annual, which has just been published, The Best in Book Award for this year, from all global entries, goes to Publicis Mojo Sydney’s brilliant Boag’s ‘Pure Waters’ commercial, which has taken the world by storm over the last year (including a Gold Lion at Cannes last year and four Nominations at D&AD on the weekend), with more victories to come no doubt. CB rated the spot #3 on our Top 30 Australian Commercials of the Decade back in December.

8 Comments
Boags is great from conception to execution.
It’s everything a great piece of advertising should be.
Congrats again to all involved.
Two things about this campaign.
First, it’s extremely good and makes wonderfully creative use of the inherent benefit of being a Tasmanian beer. Tasmania’s reputation for having pure water and a clean environment is well understood by all Australians (Gunns pulp mills not withstanding). The positioning is spot on and perfect for any beer, but especially a beer from Tasmania.
The second point is – why in the name of God did Cascade desert this positioning? Which fool opened the door for Boags by running bizarre, irrelevant ads with animated bulldogs and Tassie Tigers and what not? They had that wonderfully simple visual end of the Tassie Tiger on their can licking the drop of pure water trickling down the side of the can, a campaign based on pure water, and went off on a totally idiotic tangent.
So congrats to the Boags people for so quickly and creatively filling the void left by the fools working on Cascade. I’m now waiting for some equally clever marketer to start filling the void left by by VB’s desertion of the hard earned thirst / blue collar credibility positioning.
3:52… Speaking of VB and missed opportunities, I’ve heard VB has long been regarded in police circles as ‘the crime scene beer’. Like, green cans everywhere, every time. Now THERE’S your brand truth right there. I reckon the whole Underbelly/bad boy/outlaw angle is ripe for the picking.
Good.
This is hands-down the best work to come out of Australia in years. And a timely reminder that you can actually create something wonderful while at the same time expressing a tangible brand truth and consumer benefit that even the least-engaged viewer would understand.
You might be onto something 9.34.
So from For A Hard Earned Thirst to For A Hard Man’s Thirst.
With the voice of John Meillon (the only true voice of VB) replaced by Chopper Reid.
You can get it making a hit
You can get it dealing in shit
You can get it smashing in the head of a Carl
A hard man’s thirst needs a long cold beer
And the best cold beer is Vic etc
Credit where…
by far the best ad of the last few years.
3.52 – smart comments you’re making there.
Refreshing to read.
Keep going.
It might catch on.
Hmmm, 3.52. Some good points but may I suggest another way of looking at it?
I agree completely with the Cascade comment, that was a bit of stupid move, although one thing I would say with the positioning of Boags is that it only is about Tasmania. So the more they sell Tas, the more it helps Cascade as well by default. If Cascade do get their shit together (perhaps unlikely?) they could capitalise on this.
As for VB, well I’m not sure which beer could credibly take that positioning, I think anyone in Australia would call bullshit if someone tried it. And as for going after the ‘Blue Collar’ market with a hard earned positioning, I think if VB can’t do it and survive then who can? They all drink Corona and Super Dry now as they aspire to something else.
But, I would love to see another beer try and take Hard Earned. I think it would be comical.
The latest McCain ad tries to take off the classic VB ads of the past…….and fails dismally. Check it out if you’re into masochism.