Refreshes the Parts Other Beers Cannot Reach
Heineken1974
Refreshes the Parts Other Beers Cannot Reach is a 1974 television campaign (68 commercials, 1974–1988) for Heineken, created by Collett Dickenson Pearce, London.
The line
Heineken refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach.
Why it works
A pseudo-scientific absurdity that ran for three decades. Terry Lovelock's 1974 line launched with "Policemen's Feet" — a lab study of bobbies' tired toes revived by lager, narrated with deadpan authority by Victor Borge — and spawned 68 commercials on one elastic formula: some ailing part of British life, miraculously restored by Heineken. The most loved, 1985's "Water in Majorca," inverted My Fair Lady, with a refined elocution student finally mastering Cockney ("the wa'er in Majorca don' taste like wot it ough' to") after a sip. It is studied as the great case for campaign architecture: a single ridiculous promise, endlessly renewable, that made a premium import the wittiest brand in Britain. Campaign ranked it among its top ten ads of the century, and the Heineken Collection Foundation preserves the full series.
Techniques
- Humour Each spot finds some ailing part of British life, from policemen's tired feet to a stubborn elocution lesson, and absurdly revives it with lager.
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