New Stella Artois “Chalice Can” Full of Hot Air
The Brief: Stella Artois, a very popular Belgium Beer has announced what the company refers to as its “Chalice Can.” The big benefit? You can now have Stella Artois in a can.
The Blunder? Stella insults its customers by falsely creating a brand attribute. Specifically, giving the impression that something is special when it is without question completely ordinary. This is not Pet Rock brilliance, this is not Lucky Strike creativity, the Chalice Can is marketing pablum of the most grotesque kind.
Coke’s shapely new aluminum can is exotic and fun, Guinness’s new can has a feature that activates on opening to recreate the famous Guinness poor. Stella Artois’s big can promotion offers nothing of the sort. It’s simply a can with a drawing of their famous chalice glass.
The ad gives the impression that the can is special in some manner. It is not. It’s a joke. It’s “branding BS”. The packaging offers nothing of value, other than the regular benefits of a can, which is to say, it’s cheaper than a bottle. This is the kind of “creative” that makes people suspicious of advertisers and branders. When you create mistrust, you put your brand at risk.
The Solution: There is a difference between hype and fiction, hype is about creating a sense of excitement and anticipation while fiction is telling a story that is imagined and not necessarily based in reality. Having a picture of a glass on a can does not make it a “glass can.” Stella would have been better off naming its product the Chalice Tribute Can or the Stella Artois Heritage Can. As it is, the marketers have taken a great beer and cheapened it with an empty promise.
Notes