10 thoughts on “‘British beer is being abused’ – Show some pride”

  1. Fascinating to read the comments on Pete’s site. I find this as intolerably bad as the craft brewers vid of a year or so ago. It’s terminally serious, the line readings are zombie like, and the music is comically sentimental. You can’t doubt the sincerity, but as a piece of advocacy, it’s abysmal. Or anyway, would be in the US. The commenters at Pete’s make me doubt myself.

    • Just to be clear I admired “Social Network” more than “The “King’s Speech,” so people need to do more than tune up their British accents to beguile me. But I think it speaks to its audience, which might be what you are conceeding in the back half of the comment.

  2. Jeff you miss something very important and I presume it is because you aren’t British. The British pub and British beer are something very defining in Britain. They have always been an essential part of British society and the people. Britain doesn’t have as much to be proud of as it used to – steel industry has gone, ship-building is long gone, coal-mining is long gone, many defining aspects of Britain in which we used to have pride have gone…and what if we lose beer and pubs too? Britain struggles to remain a proud nation – but what are we proud of? Let’s at least maintain a pride in beer – it is a serious subject.
    As for the music – well any school pupil graduating before 1990 could probably attest to the importance of ‘I vow to thee my country’ – it is as much an anthem and part of school assembly as ‘God Save the Queen’ – if not more so – analogous to the US’s ‘America The Beautiful’.

    And Stan – I don’t think any of those accents were turned up! Regional character – in behavior, accent, and beer, are very clearly established and recognisable by the British.
    I think that the whole probably speaks to its target audience very well.

  3. Christopher, you’re right that I missed the music cue–but none or the other bits. And to be clear, I wasn’t disparaging the subject, just the film–which is where I directed my criticism. Pete notes that it’s quite a bit like the US “I am a craft brewer” vid, and I was no kinder to it. As film and advocacy goes, they are both WAY too serious to work as decent advocacy pieces. (And too long.) You’re in over three minutes before the endless repetition gives way to the actual point of the thing: deathly for a video you want to go viral.

    • DeGarre – I know from firsthand experience that British pub’s are not as civil as most Americans might think I do ask for some civility around here.

      I don’t think Jeff got this one right but that does not make him a . . .

  6. I’ll agree with Jeff that the SIBA video was a tad long (having worked in production all of my adult life both behind and in front of the camera)…we are, after all, living in the era of the short attention span. But on the other hand, I also agree with Alan that it was much better and less pretentious than the “I Am A Craft Brewer” thing that escaped last year. I have to admit… that one did actually make me cringe (and it seemed to be ‘preaching to the choir’ a bit).

    But to try and stay somewhat positive, I’ll say that if either video moves people in such a way as to help advance the cause, then that’s great.

    Even if the SIBA video it is a bit too long, to me it is definitely more compelling than the other and a lot more ‘believable’.
    If only they all didn’t read the script like it was a eulogy (which is precisely the situation they hope to prevent).

  8. Great catch, olllllo.

    Like those subliminal shots popcorn vendors used to (or do they still?) slip into the previews at the movie theater.

Comments are closed.