Coors Light has put together some solid ad campaigns in recent years. I will always hold a soft spot for the one a few years back which always took the general form: one guy would ask the other, “Ready for a cold one?” The other guy would respond, “…Yeah.” as if he had just come upon the greatest philosophical revelation of his lifetime. The original guy would then pull a string magically dumping feet of snow onto the other guy. after this, he would slyly ask, “That cold enough for ya?” The guy getting the snow dumped on him would say, “It’s cold…but it’s not Coors Light.” One final throwaway joke at the end, exeunt, job well done.
More recently, there has been the “fake press conference” bit, my favorite two of which can be found here and here (the second one does an unthinkably perfect job replicating the semi-awkward laughter among reporters to be heard at so many real press conferences). With such fine ads in their past, naturally their latest work, “Protection,” must be expected to live up to that kind of standard.
Well, too bad. The ad does not make sense. It really doesn’t. It’s some guy (says he’s 26 years old) and his dad sitting around. His dad acknowledges the fact that his son must be going to all these wild parties, meeting all these wild women, etc. He adds that they should talk about “protection.” Understandably, the son is taken aback, wondering why his father would want to discuss such things with a grown man. The father says something to the effect that his son is “never too old for your old man to give you one of these.” Now, naturally, you, the viewer, are thinking “condom.” Alas, his old man pulls out…a Coors Light, and hands it to his relieved son, who in turn thanks him. “You can never be too careful,” says the old man.
Let’s think about this for a second. The joke is that they got you thinking condom and wound up going beer on you. The problem is that this is not a joke. the old man says, “You can never be too careful” when he gives his son the beer…but the only protection he is giving him by doing this is protection from not having beer. There is no rhyme or reason to what happens at the end of this ad, and this either makes it a completely bizarre non sequitur or their most brilliant ploy yet – an ad that you don’t even realize has been so effective, because you’re too wrapped up in thinking about what it might mean (nothing). But you definitely know it’s for Coors Light.
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May 5, 2007 at 3:18 pm
gsnitkin
I was also a little confused about this commercial at first, but I think the reason for the whole “protection” theme is because the beer Coors Light is advertising comes in an insulated bottle that helps seal in the “delicious rocky-mountain taste”. Man, now i could really use a brewsy!
May 5, 2007 at 3:55 pm
41milestofreedom
Yeah, that is probably it. However, the guy’s dad does not actually say anything about the frost brew liner when he hands his son the beer; he simply continues to talk cryptically about “protection.” So I guess my confusion now lies with why exactly they decided to structure the ad like that.
June 5, 2007 at 12:50 pm
mercedes
I must say the ad agency must have heard a radio commerial playing in Des Moines, Iowa. The commerial is very similar but the radio commerial is better.
July 18, 2007 at 1:29 pm
tipper
I live in Tennessee, and at the end of the commercial, the dad says “mine is bigger than yours” instead of “you can never be too careful”. very pervy.
August 23, 2007 at 11:27 am
kteees
where can i find a copy of the ad that says “Mine is bigger than yours” instead of the vanilla version of “you can never be too careful.” the youtube version doesnt have it.