New Lion Red TV ad turns out to be a fizzer

By PAUL PANCKHURST

The pub with no beer?

How about the beer with no ad?

A new 60-second commercial for New Zealand's biggest selling brand, Lion Red, was due to be screening on television now.

Instead, the would-be centrepiece of Lion Red's advertising over the thirsty days of summer - and through the World Cup rugby watching marathon - is gathering dust.

Lion Nathan's mainstream category director Doug Paulin said the commercial was intended to be "younger" and "more contemporary" than previous advertising.

However, the brewer saw the finished product and had second thoughts, fearing the change might be too swift and large for "loyalists", the Lion Red drinkers aged over 24 who are lifetime devotees.

Paulin said the commercial could screen once the brand had taken smaller steps in the same direction.

The talk in the ad industry, however, is that the ad is dead.

It is rare for a major commercial to be made but not aired.

The commercial was devised by Meares Taine - the Auckland agency that last year snatched the Lion Red account from Saatchi & Saatchi - and shot by Republic Films.

It is described by ad industry members as a Saturday Night Fever parody, a description which clearly fails to capture why it is seen by Lion as too big a leap.

One estimate of the cost is $350,000.

Paulin said Lion was spending more on billboard advertising because of the absence of the commercial, which had been due to start screening last month or the start of this month.

The latest twist adds to the long-term impression of Lion Red as a brand in an identity crisis.

Creative partners Roy Meares and Jeremy Taine created the boisterous "Red Blooded" campaign at Saatchi & Saatchi in the early 1990s.

Last year, Meares Taine came up with the "night on the town" commercial that revived the "Red Blooded" anthem.

That campaign hit controversy when the stars were dumped after one appeared as a gay character in the television drama The Strip.