BrewDog Punks ‘Game of Thrones’ with the Most Honest Ad You’ll Ever See

There is a growing cynicism towards advertising. Research shows that three quarters of the public don’t trust advertising. People have caught on to the game – they know brands make outrageous promises to win your attention – especially within the beer category. Lame jokes, generic casting and bullshit social scenarios.

BrewDog and Uncommon have previously shared a sharp criticism for advertising’s failings – this common ground leads to a new and unconventional approach creating the most honest ad you might ever see. Simply 30 seconds of the beer can and the word ADVERT set to killer metal track ‘Bleed’ by Meshuggah. The track itself is deemed one of the heaviest riffs ever written in a variety of online lists.

Nils Leonard, co-founder at Uncommon said: “The ad break in GoT is one of the most prestigious media slots in the cultural calendar. Brands often spend big here, investing in massive narratives and slick films often referencing the show they sit around. So we didn’t.

“The magazine you notice on a busy shelf is the one with the least on the cover. Ad breaks for shows this big are a jazz salad of messages, so we set out to make the simplest, most honest message we could.” 

James Watt, co-founder at BrewDog added: “Only 14% of the UK population have discovered craft beer, there’s a huge untapped market. The craft beer revolution will only take hold if we convince the world to ditch the mainstream and embrace the alternative. We don’t want to live in a world dominated by bad beer any more than you want to live in one with lame advertising. So we have drawn a line in the sand with this new campaign. We’ve done what we’ve always done: The exact opposite of what convention and rules expect. This is what a BrewDog TV ad looks like.”

The campaign will run across TV, Cinema, OOH and Social. The TV debuts during Game of Thrones on Monday May 13th. The OOH will feature on bus sides across London and Manchester, with one key poster site in the iconic Manchester Piccadilly Gardens.