You’ve probably already seen the following scene star Wars: Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) talks with Obi Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness) over a bottle of beer clearly marked “Crystal”. This image has become one of the most popular memes on the Internet and threatens to become one of the most iconic of all time. And yet no one seems to know very well where such hooliganism came from under Disney’s very nose. The main question everyone asks is: what is the origin of the cheesiest and at the same time funniest advertising?
As is often the case, the history of the image is even funnier than the current meme. It all stems from the courage of Cerveza Cristal, a Chilean drinks brand that, in 2003, decided to combine its Star Wars obsession with its product image.
It’s in the middle of the first broadcast of George Lucas’ prequels on national television. In fact, the company proposed Canal 13, a network owned by the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.crazy advertising deal. This is the creation of a campaign in which several symbolic scenes Space Opera your favorite movie and a bottle of beer will be included:
A cheap trick that went down in Star Wars history
So, during all broadcasts in December 2003, everyone who tuned into the channel could see different Star Wars characters drinking Cristal beer. The most scandalous thing is that the idea included inserting an image of a bottle into the episodes. What could have been avoided (theoretically) advertising fragments that stopped the broadcast of films.
The crazy proposal, which would have caused distrust in any other country, was immediately accepted. So Cerveza Cristal entered history in the middle of the famous conversation between George Lucas’s characters, the main character of which, as you can see, was the bottle. Here. The most interesting thing about the whole topic? That at that time no one paid much attention to courage, except one person. And yes, this is what you imagine.
The War Between George Lucas and Cerveza Cristal
While much of the audience simply laughed at the boldness of the drinks brand and Chile’s Channel 13, there were some who weren’t amused by the joke. In 2004, George Lucas filed a complaint with the Self-Regulatory and Advertising Ethics Council of Chile. In it, he complained – and rightly so – about the misuse of his intellectual property and demanded that measures be taken to avoid such situations. The Institute not only received the claim, but also recognized it as justified. Which led to a resolution that assured that something like this would not happen again.
The organization ordered the removal of all images of Cerveza Cristal from the films and declared that the films were under intellectual property. This set a precedent not only in Chile, but also in the rest of Latin America. Most extravagant thing? The following year, Canal 13 and Cerveza Cristal returned to action. This time, using hits like American Beauty and Gladiator using the same Star Wars method.
All of the above were compiled thanks to a user thread @heyitswindy, which, in turn, allowed us to remember an unusual incident. Finally, the inevitable happened. Cerveza Cristal has become a meme and the source of hundreds of images using a variety of popular scenes. So, one way or another, the shameless advertising was a success.For an ever-growing history of absurd events on the Internet.
Source: Hiper Textual
