You know the formula: Ocker bloke puts beer above all else, whether it's respect at his mate's funeral or his own life in the stomach of a saltwater crocodile. In the latest execution, we find our laconic hero standing by his plane on a desert landing strip. The plane's engine is running.
It trundles off down the runway with no one at the controls and takes off, leaving the bloke behind. He isn't particularly bothered, until he realises his beer is on board. The famous endline appears.
It is a reasonably well-crafted example of a theme we all know well, but what does it do for the brand? What does it tell us that the last ad didn't - or, come to that, the first ad, almost 20 years ago?
There are merits in repetition, of course. Some of our most treasured campaigns have sold products using tried and tested formulae for decades.
Take The Economist's advertising or Silk Cut's posters, for example. But what gives these campaigns their longevity is that each execution pushes the idea on a little further. Through a gentle process of education and evolution, they take the punter with them on a journey marked by in-jokes and ever higher degrees of esoteric wit. Yet the Castlemaine XXXX ads always revert to square one.
There is one overriding point that really jars and would have sophisticated Sydney-siders choking on their decaf soy lattes. The Crocodile Dundee Aussie stereotype is out of time. These days Australians do give a XXXX for a whole bunch of other stuff, from the environment and global politics to sport, sport and more sport.
This is a campaign in need of refreshment. Better make mine a schooner of VB.
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