WASHINGTON 鈥� Beer maker Heineken wades into the stormy waters of politically-charged ads with a four-minute video that many have touted as a counter to the highly controversial Pepsi ad featuring model Kendall Jenner.聽
Earlier in April, Pepsi after many criticized it for missing the mark with its depiction of social justice-oriented protest.
With the help of , Heineken’s latest ad is framed with this caption, found on their video :
Heineken presents 鈥榃orlds Apart鈥� An Experiment. Can two strangers with opposing views prove that there鈥檚 more that unites than divides us? #OpenYourWorld
In the ad, strangers are grouped into pairs and tasked to build a bar in an empty warehouse. They don’t know about each other’s political views, but they’ve been paired up as opposites: one pair, a self-described “feminist 100 percent” and one who sees feminism as “an excuse” for hating men; another pair, a transgender woman and a man who doesn’t accept the existence of transgender people; and the last pair, a climate change supporter and a denier.
After they build the bar and find out more about each other in the process, their opposing views are revealed. Heineken then presents them with two choices: stay and discuss their views over a beer or walk away. In the end, all three pairs decide to stay and talk over some Heineken beer.
Many media outlets have framed the Heineken ad as having succeeded where Pepsi failed.聽 called the ad “the antidote” to Pepsi’s. Adweek’s headline: “” The piece then goes on to call Heineken’s approach as “measured” and says, “It feels less like creepy money guys on high, fetishizing what matters to us.”
USA Today’s article also had a .
Others were more skeptical. on social media from both the self-described “alt-right” and those on the left, and ultimately concludes: “Beginning to solve the systemic problems that contribute to such strong ideological opposition will take far more than sharing a beer.”
And, one writer suggests, “In general, companies should really think twice before trivializing marginalized people鈥檚 fight for livelihood in the name of selling, well, anything.”
