Tinkoff Beer Ad Ruled Too Hot for Television

Moscow Times ^ | 19 June 03 | Alla Startseva

[RussianConservative]

A sexy television ad for Tinkoff beer has excited too many people and should be pulled from the airwaves, the Anti-Monopoly Ministry said Wednesday.

In an award-winning 30-second spot, a man in boxer shorts dreams he is lying on the deck of a yacht with his arms around two naked women -- one black, one white -- and one of the black woman's nipples can be seen briefly.

"Due to the many letters received from people complaining about the nonethical character of this advertisement, the ministry on Tuesday instructed TV stations to avoid airing it," said Larisa Bulgakova, spokeswoman of the Anti-Monopoly Ministry, which oversees the advertising market.

What the ministry issued is technically called an "instruction" and is not legally binding. A special commission will decide next week whether to accept the ministry's recommendation and officially ban the ad.

If the commission upholds the recommendation, Tinkoff, Russia's only super-premium beer and reportedly the favorite tipple of President Vladimir Putin, will have the distinction of being the first company to ever have a commercial pulled off air for "moral" reasons.

"The chances that the ad will be prohibited by the commission are very high," Bulgakova said. She blamed "complicated bureaucracy" at the ministry for taking so long to issue the warning.

The ad, called "The Yacht" and punchlined with the phrase "Tinkoff -- he [or it] is one of a kind," can be viewed online at www.tinkoff.ru and has been running on television for about six weeks. It was recognized as the best TV ad of the month earlier this month by the largest advertisers in Russia, including British-American Tobacco, Coca-Cola, LG Electronics, Alfa Bank, Megafon and IKEA. The jingle for the ad was penned by Ilya Lagutenko, the lead singer of well-known rock group Mumii Troll.

In the ad, a businessman, Tinkoff's target customer, dreams in black and white "because he is so unique. ... While everyone drinks beer, he drinks Tinkoff because he is so unique," the narrator says in the ad.

Tinkoff and ad agencies alike said they were surprised by the ministry's move.

"It is a very cool, uplifting, brilliant and professionally made ad," said Vladimir Yevstafyev, president of the Russian Association of Advertising Agencies.

"There are no violations in it. A man, who is obviously over 35 years old, is surrounded by two beautiful women. There is no sex. It is all very chaste," he said. "What is wrong with a naked body? Let's not be hypocritical. All kids are studying Greek sculptures in school, and none of those sculptures are wearing bras."

"This is the Anti-Monopoly Ministry's job, but I don't understand it. Look at ads for shower gel," said Tinkoff spokeswoman Oksana Grigorova.

"The situation is quite amusing," she added, pointing out that the company originally planned run the spot only for a month and a half and pulled it Monday.

Now the commercial can only be viewed on Fashion-TV, which is not Russian and, therefore, not regulated by the Anti-Monopoly Ministry.

"The Yacht" was the first stage of a new campaign, and not a single bottle of beer was shown. The sequel, advertising the beer itself, started this week, Grigoriova said.

"The campaign has been more successful than we could have expected," she said, adding that demand for the specialty drink is up 40 percent this year and the company, which brews the beer in Pushkin, near St. Petersburg, has a three-month backlog of orders.

Yevstafyev said it was "very strange" that the ministry waited until the ad had been showing for more than a month before starting proceedings to ban it.

From a marketing point of view, banning the ad would be "a great present for Tinkoff's chief competitors" -- namely foreign pilsners like Miller, Corona and Sol, he said.

[Destro]

For Monica and Clinton it was pizza....

[goldstategop]

For commercial American TV. But considering the sex they show on cable TV goes beyond anything shown on "family TV" I don't think Americans would be shocked. After all we're the world's biggest producers AND consumers of porn.

[1Old Pro]

They should show a couple having sex in a beer bath. Wonder how much beer such a commercial will sell...

How about "showering" under a beer waterfall.....

[RussianConservative]

Look statistic on my profile...Vodka in Russia last year account for 15% of alcohol sale...beer king now.

[goldstategop]

Naughty, naughty... put a SI swimsuit model in a hot bikini under one... :)

[Xenalyte]

"All kids are studying Greek sculptures in school, and none of those sculptures are wearing bras."

Jolly Roger alert!

[1Old Pro]

put a SI swimsuit model in a hot bikini under one... :)

I'm sure we won't have to wait long

[jeremiah]

I don't know about you, but it made me thirsty.

[Revelation 911]

now theres a job LOL- lay around with big roomy boxers on a fishing boat LOL........and get paid for it

[OldPossum]

I'm gonna have to take issue with you on that remark about German women, partner. If I had to pick out one ethnic group that most Americans look like, it would be the Germans. If you say that Germans are ugly, then you would have to say that Americans are ugly. Is that what you think?

[PBRSTREETGANG]

It worked.

The two naked women in the picture really made me wanna Tink-off.

[TC Rider]

Interesting, not all that bad.

What was up with the other commercial with the sheep?

[mhking]

What was up with the other commercial with the sheep?

I dunno - I'm behind a firewall without a means of seeing the ad. I'll have to look when I get home.

[sd-joe]

>> "this is free business"

It sure is, however intrusive government seems to have survived.

[RussianConservative]

German women, I lived in German 2 years..Bavaria, not nearly as good as a good Slavic woman...oh and by way, 19%+ Americans slavic...13% Black and some 17% hispanic...probably another 10% Asiatics/pacificans, that leaves some 41% to split between English, Irish, Scottish, Greeks, Germans, Swedes, French etc...my bet Irish alone 10% so no, Germanics not majority by long shot.

[newgeezer]

spokeswoman of the Anti-Monopoly Ministry

Is Parker Brothers doing anything about this bunch of commies?!!

[OldPossum]

Rather than just take numbers off the top of my head, I will find the real data (obtainable from the Census Bureau's immigration data) and get back to you. Not today, but soon.

[reformed_democrat]

If I had to pick out one ethnic group that most Americans look like, it would be the Germans.

On the east coast, I would agree. It has more than its fair share of PA Dutch (German), Polish, and assorted Eastern Europeans.

Once over the Ohio border, however, you enter Scandinavian country -- blue-eyed blondes as far as the eye can see. Apparently, the really tall blondes kept going until they hit water, because the farther west you go, the longer and leaner they get until California, where they migrate into the ocean and turn into dolphins.

At least, that's been my observation.

[Range Rover]

The sheep thing I don't get but I was pleasantly surprised to see the Yankees cap in the supermarket/picnic spot

Otherwise the yacht/naked blond spot isn't THAT provocative.

Compare it to the Clairol Herbal Essence spot where the woman fakes a climax.....

People got all up in arms about THOSE.

[OldPossum]

Well, I decided to go ahead and look up the data from the Census Bureau's 2000 Population Survey in which people identified their ethnic heritage.

First, incorporating all Slavic countries (Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, etc.), the number is 13 million, or 5.8 percent, far from 19 percent. (Russia alone was 2,652,00, by the way.)

Then, I looked at Germany, which constituted 19.0 percent. Germany accounted for 42,885,000 citizens, by far the largest of the ethnic groups. The next closest was Irish with 30,528,000 (or 13.5 percent of the population, so your estimate of 10 percent was not off by much).

I could have included other countries, whose population is made up in large part of Germanic peoples (Austria, the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland) but didn't.

I will back off on my assertion about the Germans, but still hold that they--not the Slavic peoples--are the largest ethnic group in America. I was noting that based on some numbers and conclusions I had remembered reading about the massive German immigrations into the USA during the last half of the 19th century.

OldPossum