Tears or Beers? This is What Happened When Heineken Put Opposing Strangers Together

In a world where ‘us vs. them’ tribalism and the online echo chamber is pulling people further to the extremes of the political spectrum, it can seem that there’s no room for nuance and mutual understanding. Even the concept of ‘agree to disagree’ has been replaced with slanging matches – if the likes of Brexit and the recent US election are anything to go by. But even in this heated atmosphere, is it possible to find more to unite us than divide us?

That’s the thinking behind the experiment in this new Heineken film from Publicis London. In it, pairs of complete strangers meet in an anonymous warehouse and are asked to complete a series of tasks together. Unbeknown to them, they’re actually diametrically opposed on a number of hot button issues. There’s the climate change denier and the environmental activist, the lefty feminist and the ‘alt right’ anti-feminist, the transwoman and the gender traditionalist… and as the get to know each other they get on famously. The questions is, once they discover their differences, will they still sit down and share a beer?