INTERNATIONAL: Harp Lager aims to end years of feminisation with new ads

Ogilvy & Mather has launched a £2.5 million campaign for the Irish lager brand Harp, which urges men to save themselves from the slippery slope of feminisation. The TV campaign, O&M's first for the brand since it won the business last year, breaks in the Central region this month. It is fronted by a barman, a self-appointed guardian of the manliness of the male population. In the ads, he takes male customers to task for giving in to what he deems unnatural behaviour. This includes drinking foreign bottled beers, cappuccinos and flavoured waters, and wearing friendship bracelets and sandals. In one spot, the barman ridicules a man for ordering a foreign bottled beer and then suggests that he'll be swapping his copy of Autotrader for OK! next. In another, the barman appears behind a perfume counter and hands the young man trying to buy aftershave a pint of Harp instead. All the ads use the endline: "Drink Harp, stay sharp." Mr Paul Simons, the chairman of Ogilvy Group, said: "The campaign rationale touched a nerve among the whole team. "Over the past few years we've endured the feminisation of man, the mass introduction of foreign bottled lager, alcopops and the cappuccinostate." Mr John Steel, the marketing director for Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries, said: "The 'stay sharp' campaign for Harp in the 1970s helped men become shrewd and resourceful. "Once again, Harp is there, the leading light in a social revolution, and is the only lager sharp enough to take a stand for mankind." The TV campaign was written by Vicki Maguire and art directed by Maguire and Mark Chalmers. The ads were directed by Mr Dominic Murphy through Blake Productions. The campaign also includes 48-sheet and flysheet posters, written by Maguire and art directed by Chalmers and Chris Priest. Media planning and buying is by Manning Gottlieb Media.

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