Takes Great, Less Filling, Watch Out For The Dragons

December 15, 2012 11:20 AM

Just an ordinary low key 3D beer commercial. SLYT
posted by Xurando (49 comments total)

Yes, it's awesome, and if you would like to learn more on how it's made by Dentsu Canada, Sons and Daughters and Crush there's info here. They also did some neat event projections in the same campaign.
posted by dabitch at 11:33 AM on December 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

The glasses aren't working for me.
posted by RobotHero at 11:35 AM on December 15, 2012

This does, in fact, make me want to drink a Sapporo.
posted by jeremias at 11:55 AM on December 15, 2012

It's kind of embarrassing isn't it? I mean, they must have put a million bucks into it, what with the CGI and the cast of thousands and the music. But then it ends with a reference to "biru".

Nobody tell them it's spelled "beer".

A simple spell-check could have fixed that.
posted by twoleftfeet at 11:57 AM on December 15, 2012 [4 favorites]

Well, I've no interest in drinking a Sapporo, but I am now considering switching my heating boiler from natural gas to Dragon.
posted by HuronBob at 11:57 AM on December 15, 2012 [20 favorites]

Pretty.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 11:59 AM on December 15, 2012

But then it ends with a reference to "biru".

Probably the fault of some sarariman.
posted by dhartung at 12:01 PM on December 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

So, nobody's gonna talk about the ridiculously racist caricatures being appropriated to push western imperialist drinks? You disappoint me.
posted by kafziel at 12:01 PM on December 15, 2012 [4 favorites]

I love that they're carbonating it by beating on a taiko drum.
posted by griphus at 12:12 PM on December 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

The glasses aren't working for me.

You don't get the full 3D effect unless you are wearing beer goggles.
posted by twoleftfeet at 12:15 PM on December 15, 2012 [3 favorites]

I don't have any Sapporo on hand. I have Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout, will that replace all the geishas and sumo wrestlers with beefeaters doing a morris dance in front of Big Ben?
posted by RobotHero at 12:25 PM on December 15, 2012

Parallaxical.
posted by humboldt32 at 12:30 PM on December 15, 2012

Mod note: Flag and move on, folks.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 12:32 PM on December 15, 2012

My reaction: "Hmmm."

My daughter's reaction, over my shoulder: "Dragons? Water bending?! KIYOSHI WARRIORS?!"
posted by lekvar at 12:39 PM on December 15, 2012 [3 favorites]

I did think, "Okay, this is for a North American market, right?" Because I kind of doubt they'd be using karate-sumo-taiko-teahouse-dragon-Tokyonightlife-whatever imagery to Japanese people.

Needed more geishas, though.
posted by Madamina at 12:40 PM on December 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

But then it ends with a reference to "biru".

Silly Japanese language, missing such vital consonants! Now let me go get a tall, cold glass of genuine beel.
posted by Nomyte at 12:41 PM on December 15, 2012 [3 favorites]

I totally thought this was an ad for Japan Pavillion at EPCOT.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:52 PM on December 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

I object to the title of this post because it reminds me of those very bad times when one brother fought under the banner "Tastes Great" and another brother took sides with "Less Filling".

It was a terrible time for our country, a very contentious time, which nobody enjoyed. It was a deep dark moment in our history, with only moderate effervescence, and nothing to make Lite of.
posted by twoleftfeet at 12:56 PM on December 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

Stop posting, Ken Burns, you're drunk.
posted by found missing at 1:03 PM on December 15, 2012 [3 favorites]

"My dearest Susannah. Spring has come and with it the wildflowers that remind me so dearly of our time together. I long powerfully to be with you and home. I do not know if the ideal that we fight and die for is truly worth all this sacrifice of blood and life. But I do know that that last week someone handed me a Murphy's Stout and that's what beer should taste like, so fuck this shit I'm coming home.

Expect me with the rise of the sun, two weeks time"

--Letters from the great less filling/tastes great war, collected.
posted by lumpenprole at 1:09 PM on December 15, 2012 [13 favorites]

Pepsi Biru?
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 1:14 PM on December 15, 2012 [4 favorites]

...sorry...
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 1:14 PM on December 15, 2012

somebody's been riding the elevator at the Standard Hotel:
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 1:22 PM on December 15, 2012 [3 favorites]

Western advertisers use American "caricatures" in advertising targeted at Americans all the time. Why would it be different in Japan?
posted by Brocktoon at 1:30 PM on December 15, 2012

This is by no means the weirdest thing that the Sapporo Brewery has done. That honor goes to Space Barley.
posted by twoleftfeet at 1:33 PM on December 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

Ah...rhythmic whacking of the barrels...this is the missing part of my homebrew...
posted by Hollywood Upstairs Medical College at 2:09 PM on December 15, 2012

Because beer isn't just wheat water and a lot of branding...
posted by Napierzaza at 2:21 PM on December 15, 2012

I am 100% in favor of any potential widespread convergence of television ads and Age of Empires intro videos.
posted by threeants at 2:40 PM on December 15, 2012

Lovely commercial to watch while drinking a Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale.

Metafilter: we do beer snobbery right
posted by Ber at 2:43 PM on December 15, 2012

Because beer isn't just wheat water and a lot of branding...

Right, beer isn't just wheat water and a lot of brandy. In fact, lots of beer contains no wheat at all.
posted by kenko at 3:10 PM on December 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

The Two Hearted Ale in my glass laughs at your Sapporo.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:25 PM on December 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

Meanwhile, ninja of the Asahi-no-shinobi steal through the frozen wastes surrounding Lord Sapporo's fortress, knowing that the infiltrators concealed among the lower-ranking malting hands have already discovered the secrets of the Yebisu gates, granting them entry to the inner compound. Lord Sapporo, obsessed with perfecting his beer-serving ceremony at the expense his duties to both han and bakufu, little suspects the blow that is about to fall upon his neck- one that will secure his dragons for the rival brewing clans once and for all.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 3:37 PM on December 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

I don't have any Sapporo on hand. I have Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout, will that replace all the geishas and sumo wrestlers with beefeaters doing a morris dance in front of Big Ben?
posted by RobotHero at 12:25 PM on December 15 [+] [!]

If you drink enough of it, it might.
posted by Paul Slade at 3:43 PM on December 15, 2012

I've been brewing at home for over 25 years.

Or at least I used to think it was brewing. It all seems so plain and inadequate in comparison.
posted by tommasz at 4:21 PM on December 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

Pepsi Biru?

Pepsi Brew.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 5:15 PM on December 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

"..somebody's been riding the elevator at the Standard Hotel". Yep that's exactly what I said in the first link. That hotel elevator is the awesome.
As for Sapporo and Dentsu Canada, they did a great job, and won some awards in 2010. Not sure how much beer it has sold tho.

Sorry, biru.
posted by dabitch at 5:25 PM on December 15, 2012

Is it just me, or did this ad remind anyone else of the level design from Dark Souls?
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 5:39 PM on December 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

Video games have take Sapporo advertising to the next level.
*achievement unlocked
posted by vozworth at 6:03 PM on December 15, 2012

It all makes my walk to the fridge for a beer seem less...theatrical. *challenges cat to trial by combat, loses*
posted by arcticseal at 7:25 PM on December 15, 2012 [3 favorites]

I don't know which countries work like this, but I really prefer when a company will show their brand without a trademark or copyright sign next to it. It's rarely prominent, but it's always visible and can completely destroy the aesthetics. This is something that really disproportionately bothers me. One of the nice things about Japanese advertisements, and this one in particular, is that they don't necessarily have such markings.
posted by Algebra at 8:04 PM on December 15, 2012

Big ad for beer made from beer.
posted by adamg at 8:14 PM on December 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

I must have drunk gallons of 台灣啤酒 in my time, and never got the impression it was brewed like that.
posted by Loudmax at 8:46 PM on December 15, 2012

I liked it. The aesthetic reminded me a lot of Jakub Dvorský game like Samarost.
posted by Popular Ethics at 9:41 PM on December 15, 2012

Where's the 3D? Youtube does actually have real steriographic videos you can watch - if you can do the crosseyed thing you can watch them without glasses.
posted by delmoi at 12:26 AM on December 16, 2012

So, nobody's gonna talk about the ridiculously racist caricatures being appropriated to push western imperialist drinks? You disappoint me.

Racist? Cultural stereotypes maybe, but I didn't see any racism.

Lighten up, but then again, someone always has to be offended by something.
posted by the noob at 3:17 AM on December 16, 2012

Fun fact: the taiko drum is very old, but the style of ensemble drumming we see and hear here, called Taiko Drumming, was invented in the 1951 and is primarily influenced by jazz.
posted by idiopath at 8:37 AM on December 16, 2012 [2 favorites]

1. I agree it's not 3D.
2. I was disappointed that the larger-than-life sumo wrestlers didn't make the earth quake and the pillars of Heaven shake.

posted by kirkaracha at 2:28 PM on December 16, 2012

Madamina: "I did think, "Okay, this is for a North American market, right?" Because I kind of doubt they'd be using karate-sumo-taiko-teahouse-dragon-Tokyonightlife-whatever imagery to Japanese people. "

Yeah, as dabitch points out, this ad was made by Dentsu Canada. Plus, the aesthetics are not very Japanese. Dragons, for example, are generally seen as being very Chinese. The use of sumo wrestlers also seems very North American (though props to Dentsu Canada for not using geisha).
posted by Bugbread at 6:13 PM on December 16, 2012

I guess that was sort of epic. Not the most epic, of course.
posted by orme at 4:48 AM on December 17, 2012