US television

Newcastle Brown Ale gets meta for Super Bowl ad spot

Instead of making an advert extolling the virtues of the beer, their advert crams in 37 brands in a comment on Super Bowl advertising

Bottles of Newcastle Brown ale.
The product: bottles of Newcastle Brown ale. Photograph: Alamy

Newcastle Brown Ale has taken a meta approach to advertising ahead of the Super Bowl. Instead of making an ad about Newcastle Brown Ale they’ve created a super ad cramming in 37 other brands and turning the lens on advertising itself.

AmeriMerch.com, AprilUmbrellas.com, Armstrong Flooring and Ceilings, Beanitos Chips, Blettner Engineering, Boost Mobile, Brawny Paper Towels, Charisma, Detroit Beard Collective, District 78, Dixie, East End Leisure Co, Gladiator GarageWorks, Hello Products Oral Care, Hunt’s Tomatoes, JackThreads, Jockey, Kern Group Security, Kibo Active + Leisure Wear, Krave Jerky, Las Vegas, Lee Jeans, Match.com, McClure’s Pickles, Mr Cheese O’s, Polished Dental, Quilted Northern, Quinn Popcorn, Rosarita Beans, RO*TEL, Second Chance Custom, Sharper Image, Tessemae’s All-Natural Dressings, The Ross Farm, Vanity Fair Napkins, YP.com and Zendure Batteries all feature as a couple run about their house mentioning as many brands as possible. It’s fun, daft and nicely critiques the madness that is the Super Bowl advert rush.

The pitch: Cram 37 other brands into an ad about strange tasting British ale in order to laugh at, well, advertising.

The back story: Newcastle Brown Ale tries to make an impact by relying on the strength of other brands rather than its own.

The social-media campaign: Use reliably deadpan Aubrey Plaza to ask small businesses to chip in.

The reaction: Well, Lee Jeans is happy.

— Lee Jeans (@LeeJeans) January 28, 2015

Glad to have @QuiltedNorthern as part of the @Newcastle #BandofBrands. Together we’ve made butts look good and feel good for 100+ years!

— Joe Mahan (@dr_marshmallow) January 28, 2015

@Newcastle Smart, funny, creative AND fiscally responsible? Well done #BandofBrands #THM3224

— MC Wale Olaogun (@theMCwale) January 28, 2015

Newcastle should partner with BuzzFeed on that ad and have someone write a "15 secret brands you missed in the Newcastle Super Bowl Ad". $$$

Deflated footballs out of 10: Six

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