"Faux fun:" A beer-ad idea that's neither original nor effective

Young adults. Wild party-hearty antics. A hot music track.

Put 'em all together in an alcohol-beverage ad, and you get "faux fun." It's a party like you've never seen in real life, in places that don't really exist, with people who'd never invite you to join the action anyway. But for beer brands, it's what many ad-agency creative types think is clever and edgy. And it's precisely what Bud Light's recently released SuperBowl commercial appears to be all about. 

So, what's wrong with a little faux fun?

If you were actually looking for a real-life party to crash, the prospect of this sort of unrealistic, over-the-top party action might catch your attention. But if you're looking to sell beer, chances are, you've seen it all before. More than a few times.

To the right are some of the brands that have been down this road before. Three crazy parties loaded (you'll forgive the expression) with wild action, hot music, unusually hip people, absent only a promise of big hangovers to come.

That advertising people routinely propose this idea to beer brands is just sad. At minimum, "creative" ought to mean something original.

(To see how distinctive they are, run all three videos simultaneously.)

For a beer brand, faux fun virtually guarantees a distinctive lack of distinctiveness. Hint to beer marketers: Ask yourself how many other beer brands could run the same ad. If the answer is "All of 'em," then kill the ad. It's hard to stand apart when your advertising is generic. "I've seen ads like this before" audience response is never going to yield epic business results.

Still, the ad guys, desperate to sell their party-hearty idea, will promise, "Our party will be so much hotter," and, "They've never heard our hip music before." But yield to their judgement, and the world just gets another fake-fun party, this time with an over-sized Pac-Man game.

Good luck with that, Bud Light.

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