As long as Jason is recommending boutique brews for the Gates-Crowley sit-down, I thought I'd suggest a still-further-outside-the-box alternative, something that would remind all concerned that, whatever our differences as Americans, there is far, far more we have in common. What better way to do that than with the product advertised in what is reportedly North Korea's first beer commercial?
Globalpost asked an award-winning ad exec to comment on the commercial. Among her thoughts:
What are some of the advertising messages that you can detect here?
- Beer that’s made in a lab, not a brewery
- Beer that makes you hallucinate
- ‘‘Let them drink beer!” (Kim Jong il's take on "Let them eat cake!")
- Drink beer from a champagne bottle
- This beer is so bad we need to take 2 and a half minutes to convince you to buy it....
What does this ad, and its presentation, say about the typical North Korean beer consumer?
Judging by the music and the colorful display of magical special effects, their consumer is roughly the age of 8.
If that proved a beer too far, I might opt for the deep sense of wellbeing and neighborliness inevitably occasioned by the Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA. A few thousand cases of that beauty might even persuade North Korea to chill out and rejoin the global community.
--Christopher Orr