Sold

There is a series of advertisements that has recently caught my eye. While at home, it seems that advertisers try to make each and every product, from cigarettes to laundry detergent seem sexy, the advertising team for Stein beer seems to have taken the more honest apporach. In each of their ads is featured a sweaty, pudgy, uniformed Slovak guy ready for the work day to end and the drinking to begin. The slogan? Every day ends well.

What would other ads look like if the advertisers were more honest about their clientele? Instead of the hard-core athlete running up the mountain trail that Nike likes to depict in its ads, it might show the well-intentioned but ultimately lazy "runner" who every year means to sign up for that half-marathon. Instead of the calm, well-dressed stay-at-home mom cheerfully using paper towels to clean up a toddler's spilled juice, Brawny might feature in its ads a harried working mom teaching her kid to clean up his own sticky mess. And if we're being honest, who should star in the Bally Fitness Center ads? Not shapely 20 year olds in Spandex, but panting red-faced 30-somethings in too-big T-shirts left over from their college days as Alpha Gams.
I applaud Stein for its honest approach. I'd even be convinced to throw one back, if I weren't so busy trying to look like that girl from the Bally's ad.

Stay tuned: Who needs sleep?