It is well known that super bowl commercials are the things of legend. Every year as a child I would run around and play games with my cousins but when it was commercial time during Super Bowl parties I always sat in front of the TV and watched. One commercial sticks out in particular is it 2005 Heineken commercial featuring popular actor Brad Pitt. I only vaguely remember this commercial until I was older and saw it pop up again on YouTube here are some of the reasons why I found it so compelling.
The commercial opens with Brad Pitt sitting in his fancy rooftop home he looks out his window across to another building and sees a giant room full of cameras and paparazzi. Cool as a cucumber Pitt gets up and goes to the fridge to grab a beer, this is where the conflict begins when he finds an empty six pack box. Now much like any of his action movies he realizes that there’s a mission at hand. Next we see Brad in the lobby of his building. They chauffeur offers to grab his car, but instead Brad opts for the back door. The paparazzi notices movement and are immediately on the move. In a smooth sneaky way that only calm and cool action heroes could Brad manages to outsmart the paparazzi on his tale and makes it to a local convenience store. This scene is important because he is a big celebrity so placing him in a local tiny convenience store is an attempt to make him seem more relatable. It makes you realize this high-intensity beer run isn’t so far out of the question for joe schmo. He makes it back to his apartment managing to avoid all of the cameramen once again and right before the ad ends we get a small scene of Brad on the phone. He’s talking to somebody about plans that they had made and right before he takes a sip of his beer he asks “can you come pick me up?”.
One reason it’s important that they use Brad Pitt for this role is because what young man doesn’t want to be Brad Pitt. Also, the use of a male actor also targets the audience of Heinekens’ choice. There are two specific scenes that I want to go into depth on. The first being a quick scene between when Pitt leaves the store and gets back to his apartment. He acknowledges one of the people chasing him for the first time. He walks very closely behind someone and without stopping or turning he just says “hey Bob”. In an attempt to get his camera out in time Bob drops the camera and we hear a very unsettling crunch. This is strange because as an audience we have no idea who this guy is but you have to have some sympathy towards him for being so close and blowing it. The second scene is right before the commercial ends and Brad is about to take a drink of his beer and asks the person on the other end of the phone if they could pick him up in a very subtle version of the often bolded and blurted out “DRINK RESPONSIBLY”.
This Heineken commercial is one of my favorites and I think it’s because they fit so much into a two-minute slot without having to use any cheesy gimmicks. They simply got to the point. The point being Brad Pitt is cool and if you drink Heineken beer you will be cool too, but don’t drink and drive.
