"Within two weeks, Heineken joined the fray, launching an ad campaign of its own. Friend's signature pendant was replaced with a bottle opener with a similar shape, paired with a witty log line: "The best way to make a friend is over a beer." The campaign is "tongue-in-cheek" but reinforces Heineken's belief that "a refreshing social life matters more than we realize," wrote Guilherme de Marchi Retz, Heineken USA's marketing VP, in an email to Business Insider."
"Friend's founder, the 22-year-old Avi Schiffmann, has seemed to revel in the attention. Schiffmann called the backlash to Friend's ad campaign " entertaining" and even attended an anti-Friend protest. In an email to Business Insider, Schiffmann wrote that Friend had nothing to do with the Heineken ads. "I think they're pretty cool & I bought a rack of Heineken to enjoy the night I saw that ad go viral," Schiffmann wrote."
Friend spent over $1 million to place 11,000 car cards, 1,000 platform posters, and 130 urban panels across New York City subways. New Yorkers defaced the ads with graffiti messages including "surveillance tool" and "AI is not your friend." Within two weeks, Heineken launched a tongue-in-cheek campaign replacing Friend's pendant imagery with a bottle opener and the line "The best way to make a friend is over a beer." Heineken framed the effort around the value of offline social life and irony amid constant scrolling. Friend founder Avi Schiffmann was not involved with Heineken's ads, found the backlash entertaining, attended an anti-Friend protest, and bought Heineken to celebrate. Heineken declined to disclose campaign impressions.
Read at Business Insider
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