Carling C2 – Robots | TV's Worst Adverts

Carling C2 – Robots

14 April 2007 by Silky

I’m not too ashamed to admit that there are times when I watch an advert and I really just don’t know what the monkey it’s about. The new one from Carling for their C2 beer is one of *those* adverts.

For those of you that haven’t seen it yet, how lazy are you? All you have to do is scroll down to the bottom of this post. Well, even if you haven’t been bothered to scroll your still not as lazy as the creators of this advert.

“It’s for beer where can we set it?” “In a pub!”

Brilliant blue sky thinking! But it’s no ordinary pub; it’s one for robots. Oh yes, a pub for robots. And it gets better:

“Hmm, robots obviously can’t drink beer. They’ll drink… circuit boards!”?

Right, so the robots go there to drink circuit boards. This is so preposterous that I can only presume they were flicking through “The Idiots Guide to Robotics” and happened to land on the circuit boards page when thinking it up. But there’s more:

“We need to give them futuristic names too.” “How about R2-D2 and C3-P0?” “No it’s been done” “OK, X-2000 and DV-9000-F!”

So they’ve set the lazy, nonsensical scene now push the product.

“I’ll have one of those C2 circuit boards.”

There’s silence in the robot pub. The advertisers obviously want to use this silence to highlight the fact C2 is different and people might be shocked if you drink it (either that or the animators were so busy sobbing into their hands, lamenting their wasted talents that they forgot to put anything in that bit). Sadly during the silence, the audience is thinking “What the X-2000 is this advert about?”.

Finally all is revealed: “C2 Circuit Boards. Also available as lager.”

And the audience is left thinking “What the DV-9000-F was that advert all about?”.

I just can’t understand why they have chosen to advertise their product like this. If they are hoping for the C2 robots to become the new Smash robots they’ll be hugely disappointed. If they’re hoping that the adverts will sell their beer they’ll be even more disappointed. There just isn’t a market for this in the UK. People won’t buy it because (Note to Carling) people in Britain don’t drink beer for the taste, they drink it to get drunk. And I have it on good authority that at 2% volume, you just can’t get drunk on the stuff (unless you’ve fasted for a week and are on some pretty strong antibiotics).

So, please Carling, stick at what you’re best at: flogging beer to football and music fans, where it belongs.

Judge for yourself:

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Just How Bad is this Ad?

(30 votes, average: 3.80 out of 5)

15Responses:

DaveP

Said on the 15 April 2007

That really is a crappy advert! Until you highlighted it, although I’d seen it on TV, I hadn’t even taken notice of what it was selling… always a sign they’ve misjudged.

Anyway, I drink cider, or occasionally absinthe, gets you drunk much quicker, and they don’t release stupid ads like this.
tom

Said on the 18 April 2007

theres a couple of things here the advertising standards agency could crack down on. Firstly the whole C2 thing evokes a sort of elemental impression of the drink, when as we know this beer is nothing like a natural element in any way. Secondly comparing the effect of beer to that of a circuit board could be misleading in that an additional circuit board generally improves a computer whereas beer generally doesn’t improve a human, at least physically. The Carling advertisement collection from the last few years have always got on my nerves as alcohol advertisements are not legally allowed to glamourise the use of alcohol, but they are just loop-holing so they still essentially are. ‘The Belong’ ad, for example, simply implies that if you drink this beer you will belong to a group or flock (presumably of other humans although that is debatable, a drunk is usually more likely to belong with a herd of epileptic bears in my opinion). My only real concern is that ‘the masses’ will actually believe this and then buy carling with this in mind. It’s quite cheeky and I’m doubting the competence of the Advertising standards agency.
On the other hand, who gives a shit, lets get drunk, yeeeh, beeeeeer, weheeey, lads, fighting, football.
Andy

Said on the 18 April 2007

Fuck off you boring twat. The tune on this ad is catchy as fuck. What the fuck are you even doing “reviewing” adverts? Your the biggest twat on the entire internet. Fuck nuts.
jonh

Said on the 19 April 2007

if you don’t get it your pretty thick lads. its highlighting the fact that you shouldn’t feel obliged to get pissed whenever you have a beer. its saying that beer tastes good and you should drink it for that reason alone. not to get drunk. the robots and subsequently the names are to encourage anonymity so that people dont see a fat ugly bloke drinkin c2 and think “i dont wanna be like that fat uggo guy by drinking c2″. pretty standard advertising. clever and subtle. not for you though, i understand.
Danny

Said on the 23 April 2007

I was SO unbelievably shocked to see this advert with an old SlagsmÃ¥lsklubben song as the soundtrack, I bet they didn’t even ask permission for it thought.

As for the visual aspect and concept of the ad, I actually had to rewind this advert to rewatch it to realise it was a Carling ad. Missed the little message at the end and thought “Since when do circuit boards advertise on TV?”
Adam

Said on the 25 April 2007

Im with Andy, that advert rocks my socks
Lucy

Said on the 5 May 2007

Danny, (Or anyone for that matter) can you remember the name of that old Slagsmalsklubben song? I think its a fantastic tune, but i can’t find it!!
matt

Said on the 13 May 2007

tom mate… u r a joke!!

laughed at your rant! fair play mate after all its an advert!

anyway back to the point i want to know what the background tuune is.. quite catchy… il knock TOM out if anyone can tell me the name!!

love!
Peteamania » Blog Archive » Petesâ€™s Advert Watch: Return of C2

Said on the 14 May 2007

[...] not the only person to realise how bad this advert is, a full write-up on it can be found over on TVâ€™s Worst Adverts. If youâ€™re one of the lucky ones that hasnâ€™t seen the ad yet then you can see this atrocity [...]
Silky

Said on the 15 May 2007

Hey matt,

Thanks for leaving a comment, mate, but please don’t use the comments to threaten violence against people you’ll most likely never meet.

Unless, it’s Barry Scott. No, no, on second thoughts, not even if it’s Barry Scott.

Cheers.
tekmark

Said on the 13 September 2007

yes its totaly bad ,and of couse the idea of robots driking beer is worse but if u have read enough scifi ther may be some thing in it i mean my car even drinks and smokes” the term printed circuit is technicly obsolete becauase the copper bords are now machined not etechd
sofiaa

Said on the 24 November 2007

EDIT FROM SILKY:

There are worse things you can do then spam this site with links to Printed Circuit Board manufacturer’s Web site but few more futile.

Tsk. Tsk.

http://tvs-worst-adverts.co.uk/
Fred

Said on the 17 December 2007

SlagsmÃ¥lsklubben in fact got payed for the song, its called “RÃ¤ven Ã…tersupstÃ¥r” and is from their “Fest I valen”. You can also hear the tune on http://www.liberty-films.co.uk since the production company who did the commercial used it for their homepage aswell.
Silky

Said on the 18 December 2007

Thanks for the info, Fred.

Adverts could do worse than have a few more SlagsmÃ¥lsklubben sound tracks, I think you’ll agree.
Dave

Said on the 6 February 2008

Come on everyone don’t dres it up, they’re peddling watered down pissy lager, bet they charge full whack for this muck as well.