Two choirs, one clad in maroon choir uniforms and the other in yellow choir uniforms, charge each other while singing new lyrics to the classic melody of "O Fortuna" from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. Viewed from the air, one choir forms the shape of Carlton Draught beer glass and the other forms the shape of a human body with choir singers in white, blue & black to form the figure's eyes & teeth with additional choir singers in white to form the beer's head. The figure of the glass is then lifted to the mouth of the human figure and the audience sees the "beer"—rushing, ecstatically leaping, yellow-clad choir singers—flowing into the stomach of the large body. The view then zooms into the crowd of choir singers to focus on one man's glass. A caption then appears below it saying, "Made from Beer", and the commercial fades out. The lyrics to the ad are as follows: Big Ad parodies the visual style of battle sequences in such films as Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy with sweeping, larger-than-life panoramas of rugged mountain terrain. It is also reminiscent of the grandiose commercials pioneered by the likes of Qantas and British Airways.
Viral marketing
The company decided to use a viral campaign because of the distracting environment in which television is viewed and the fragmented audiences of traditional media. Two weeks prior to being broadcast on television, the advertisement was streamed on the Internet. Within 24 hours after release, the "Big Ad" had been downloaded 162,000 times. Within two weeks, it had been seen by over one million viewers in 132 countries. This campaign was widely covered in the press. The viral release of the "Big Ad" was so successful that the company reduced its television media budget so as not to overexpose the advertisement.
Agency: George Patterson and Partners, Melbourne Production: Plaza Films Post- Production: Animal Logic To create large crowds for the ad MASSIVE software with semi-independent AI actors from Weta Digital was used.
Other references
Canning, S. "Business Big Shot", The Australian: Finance, 23 Jul., p. 34.
Frilingos, M. "As big as … a Carlton beer ad", The Daily Telegraph: Local, Jul. 23, pg.8.
Lee, J. "Very big ad shows why we still call Carlton a beer", The Sydney Morning Herald: Business, 28 Jul., pg.29.
Lees, N. "Big ad hits one millionth viewer", Adnews, 29 Jul.
Sophocleous, A., and Cubito, A. "Clients catch the viral bug", Adnews, August 12, 2005, p. 6.
