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“Any Club That Wouldn’t Have Me As A Member…”

By Johnnie Walker

2008_05_07Canadianclub.jpg Is anyone else sick of those borderline-offensive Canadian Club ads they’ve been running in NOW lately? Based on the strange notion that thinking about your parents having sex will make you want to buy things, the whiskey’s “Damn Right” campaign tries to create nostalgia for the fatherly masculinity of yesteryear. They use “vintage” photos and the grammatically invincible tagline “DAMN RIGHT YOUR DAD DRANK IT” as a rallying cry for some kind of boozy retro-chauvinism that requires you to trade-in manscaping and yoga for stacked babes, guitar solos, and shag carpets. All that butch stuff your Dad totally did when he wasn’t too busy wrestling bears on his fishing trips with Jefferson Airplane.
Here’s a question for Canadian Club: since when is emulating your parents cool? Is listening to your Mom’s Roch Voisine CDs and copying your Dad’s haircut really going to turn you into the heppest cat on the block? It’s also hard not to view the campaign as somewhat homophobic. The “YOUR DAD WAS NOT A METROSEXUAL” ad seems to basically say, “your Dad wasn’t a gay, but you probably are if you don’t buy Canadian Club.” Guess what, Canadian Club? Most of our Dads aren’t gay. This is not news. One would hope that our Dads’ likely heterosexuality is not the most interesting thing about them.
If you head over to Canadian Club’s website, they have a fun little DIY feature that encourages you to put a picture of your own into one of their “Damn Right” ads. In the sacred name of blog-journalism, we made our own “Damn Right” ad, although Canadian Club might not entirely approve of how their message could be re-interpreted.

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Comments

  • toronno

    Geez, get a grip. It’s just another marketing promotion. But you know what? It is funny.
    Damn right, your Dad would have laughed at this. He was a real man.

  • Robsonian

    Amazing!
    I was glaring at one of these ads in the February issue this very morning! I completely agree with the author. These ads are 100% lame. I always thought CC’s TV spots (rye drinkers all over the world, different languages, etc.) were OK. Now I think I’m lamenting their passing.
    I’d also like to point out that the heavy sepia tone would seem to make the author’s hair stand out somewhat less noticeably than usual.

  • Kevin Bracken

    The ads are lame, and you’re totally right, emulating your parents isn’t cool. Hell, it seems the best way to make kids turn out the way you want them to is by reverse psychology.
    That said, I think the van one is pretty sexually orientation-neutral.

  • Marc Lostracco

    I also found the ad kinda obnoxious, but I still like the ads a lot—offensive and appealing at the same time! I’m torn! Wait, is this Vandalist?
    Also remember that your mom wasn’t doing too much personal grooming back then either, ifyouknowwhatImean.
    Behold my three attempts.

  • Amanda Buckiewicz

    Hahahahaha. Johnnie, this is fantastic.

  • Tomanimal

    Relax

  • PickleToes

    Somebody call the OHRC! We’ve found somebody else for them to censor!

  • Rajio

    Whats wrong with stacked babes and guitar solos?

  • n0wak

    Johnnie Walker complaining about Canadian Club? My mind is blown.

  • David E

    These ads are about as annoying as Kevin Brauch on MegaWorld or Thirsty Traveller.
    Geez, annoying without parallel.
    The CC ads are not worth the paper they’re printed on and I hope the guys who created them dont mind publicly admitting the errors of their ways and showing us their faces.
    That way we can run across the street should the ever come near us.

  • Miles Storey

    I agree the ads fall flat but I think it’s a stretch to suggest that the metrosexual reference is a way of saying you’re gay if you don’t like the drink, the two aren’t synonymous and there’s enough implication in the term already.
    Having said that the mockup ad is great.

  • andrew

    I like this ad series. I thought it was clever, visually interesting, and the text and aesthetic makes it pretty damn clear what market and demographic they’re going for. Nostalgia, and the general sense that our parents’ world and lives [at least before we showed up] were far simpler, happier, and fun – that sells this shit like hotcakes. I guess, given the time period they’re quoting here, they’re aiming at people like me in my early/mid thirties. We’re not wrestling bears or hanging with Jefferson Starship – we wish we were! Mostly folks my age are parenting babies and young children, fixing broken things on their new houses/fixer-upper houses, and fretting about the price of gas. This allows that fantasy of “hey we too are still fun”.
    Of course it’s offensive. Most advertising is. It supports all sorts of myths about who “we” are and what “we” want, mostly by showing fantasy and promising that buying that product will guarantee you achieve it. The fantasy of a pretty girl in a nice blouse doesn’t sell booze as well as 18 year old hotties in bikinis. I wonder, though, if a tagline like “Man, after fighting for two hours to get home on the 401, I REALLY NEED A MOLSON DRY” would work and destroy my thesis…

  • Mark Ostler

    When I look at that mock ad the word “mantastic” immediately comes to mind.
    The actual ads aren’t great, but my ears aren’t steaming like a tea kettle either.

  • PickleToes

    I think the ads are funny, although not the kind of thing I’d expect to see in NOW.

  • Marc Lostracco

    Wait, wait, I made three more.

  • Chris Taylor

    The CC ads are hilarious, but then they are aimed at rye drinkers, and Canadian rye is for peasants.
    Try something with finesse, like Black Maple Hill 18yo, and you will leave the world of Canuck paint thinners behind. Better yet, move on to scotch and forget rye entirely.

  • Johnnie Walker

    Marc Lostracco is my favourite person.

  • spacejack

    How about this one:
    DAD WAS A BADASS
    But emo kids can drink CC too!

  • Miles Storey

    Along Queen Street someone had added to the “your dad had a van” poster, “that’s why your Mum left.”

  • Paul Kishimoto

    @Johnnie & Marc: comedy gold. I lol’d hard.
    I actually believe CC would get a lot more play (HA!) with Johnnie’s ad. Anyone with a functioning sense of humour would appreciate a joke about their dad ‘experimenting’ with more than just drugs in college.

  • Svend

    Great spoofs, Marc!
    I like the original ads, they target young guys who DO like their dads and are curious about what they were like when younger.

  • Adam Sobolak

    Those ads are just so Toro Magazine.
    “Damn right your dad read it.” (Why not. It came with his G&M subscription. And every middle-age exec deserves to drool over Jessica Pare cheesecake. Right?)

  • Patrick Metzger

    I like the ads, at least as much as I like any ads. The idea of reminding young-ish people that their parents were once young-ish too appeals to me, even if it’s slightly tainted with a little superfluous machismo.
    If anyone’s interested in posts about ads that irritate me, we’re gonna need a bigger blog.

  • rek

    Patrick is the first commenter to get the point of the ad. Daaamn.

  • Rosemary Mosco

    Hee hee. Nice one, Johnnie.

  • SpupEh

    LOL @ Johnnie’s teh gay ad…ROFL @ Marc’s second set of three! I also hope that my gayness isn’t the most interesting reason why I don’t buy Canadian Club.

  • Johnnie Walker

    There’s some pretty good commentary about this campaign over at the Shamless blog and someone else’s take on the website’s make-your-own-ad feature on Banana Nutrient. You can check out the “YOUR DAD HAD A VAN FOR A REASON” ad people have been talking about at Accordian Guy (although I have to say, Kevin, I have a hard time believing the “reason” they’re talking about is man-sex). I get being into the ads’ aesthetic, it’s the “Man up and drink this, sissy-boy!” attitude I don’t find appealing. Seriously, guys, don’t make me say the H-word.

  • Skippy the Magical Racegoat

    Listen, I don’t complain about Calvin Klein ads that force me to look at buff hairless dudes in tighty whities. Not all ads are going to reach every demographic. It’s not misogynist or homophobic — FYI, metrosexual does not equal homosexual — it’s called “targeted marketing.”
    I thought this campaign had a cool, nostalgic vibe to it. But then again, my pops was a Travolta-esque disco duck who could hold his liquor and pulled in fine ladies…like my mom.
    I have no idea what they mean by “whisky cocktail,” though. Like, with water? Drink it straight, son. That’ll put hair on y…never mind.

  • leftist

    I think they are funny. On the grand scheme of things to rant about, this fares very low for me. Each to their own!
    To wit: some of my more conservative friends were really horrified by the Evil Dead the Musical posters which update the iconic Les Mis and Hairspray posters.
    Disclaimer: I have shag carpet in my room.

  • terrance

    if you’d like to see a better version of what they tried to tap into here, check out:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beF_gjnwU5E
    there’s a whole series that sort of go for the “golden years” nostalgia, without the overtly macho overtones.

  • mattalexto

    hasn’t anyone seen fight club? 20-something men these days long for a connection with their fathers. Duh.

  • jaymo

    Offensiveness is subjective. People with lives don’t give such things a second thought.
    Are we really so bored that we need to pick every little thing apart just to see if it might offend someone?
    Our whole society needs to just settle down.

  • matty

    I use canadian club as aftershave

  • DaveH

    Some people are wrapped just a little too tight.

  • PRQ

    I wanted to do one up with the vintage Johnnie/Alex photo, but I couldn’t find one that was big enough. Also I doubt either of you drank Canadian Club in ninth grade.

  • fantasygoat

    I would never drink “whiskey cocktails” or CC if I had a choice, but these ads are awesome. It aims at the wussification of society, and they’re well designed.
    Personally I drink bourbon. Scotch tastes like dirt to me, what with all that peet in it.

  • fantasygoat

    Oh yeah, this ad is incredibly effective because here you are, noticing it and talking about it.
    YOU LOSE!

  • lawless

    Hilarious spoof ad, I love it. As for the originals, totally annoying. I pass one on a bus shelter every day, and there is something really yucky about the ‘Dad’ depicted — he looks like a big angry asshole!

  • Robsonian

    Lostracco’s spoofs are essential!

  • Apricot

    I love the spoof, but I don’t think that the article’s sentiment is justified.
    This is an ad for alcohol, after all. Far more offensive campaigns have been run to sell a product that most people will by anyway.

  • rek
  • rek

    ^ “this” not “his”

  • Ben

    It aims at the wussification of society

    Hundreds of generations of hard asses worked hard for the “wussification” we have today. Also, no one is stopping you from moving to northern Quebec and living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

  • Marc Lostracco

    I originally saw the “metrosexual” ad, so it’s real, but I assume they changed it to the “never tweezed anything” one because the anti-metrosexual version was probably a little extreme.

  • David Newland

    Part of what makes these ads kinda cool is that the iconic “Dad” they’re talking about was someone we all thought was a nerd – not a macho guy at all by the terms of his time.
    Then we grew up and then started getting where he was coming from a bit more. It’s not a crime to get nostalgic about that.
    The dads in the ads are sort of dorky looking but are cool on account of their confidence. I can live with that.
    As for the tagline, my dad DID, and DOES drink it. So yeah, damn right.

  • chenyip

    Chauvanist, offensive, blah blah blah. Do you really want this guy as your dad?

  • Spouffle

    The ads are bad enough out of any context, but what really pisses me off is seeing them on the bathroom wall at Woody’s. In that context, it’s hard NOT to read them as homophobic. All about how your dad wasn’t a wuss ’cause he dug chicks and didn’t wear girly clothes and drank manly drinks. Blech.
    It’s not the first time an ad campaign has been contextually inappropriate and culturally insensitive in washrooms in queer establishments. Axe come to mind.

  • Todd Aalgaard

    Rigid ad copy is apparently the most man-smellingly masculine thing of all time.

  • Skippy the Magical Racegoat

    fantasygoat,
    I prefer bourbon as well. Wild Turkey Rare Breed, anyone? Great goats drink alike!

  • Ellstar

    The problem is not the ‘coolification’ of the dad in the shots, its the assumption that YOU, the male reading the ad is inferior as a man. The message is emasculating. I don’t know one guy who actually thinks those ads are ‘cool’.

  • SpupEh

    On the topic of offensive ads, I find those “where are you ladies going?” tv spots for frozen dinners that make it “good to be a man” way more icky.
    and yeah, there were lots of good whisky cocktails. many purists argue that the manhattan was a rye drink, though I personally prefer bourbon. with the cherry (for extra gayness) and the bitters (for…extra gayness).

  • rek

    The message of most of the ads is, simply, “your dad used to be cool, and he drank this”.
    The ad says nothing about you, the ‘son’. It doesn’t say you tweeze like a woman, that you’re too much of a pussy to be in a band, that you can’t score phone numbers with bar tramps because you’re ugly. Isn’t that what psychs call projection?

  • rek

    And if you do tweeze, are a pussy, and ugly, why is it so offensive to be told your dad wasn’t like you?

  • Todd Aalgaard

    We’re all an ad executive’s wet dream.

  • David Topping
  • Johnnie Walker

    I think the most prolific collection is still over at Michelle Schwartz’s blog.