It’s the finest bevvy ad ever made

The ongoing heady celebration of what is possibly Scotland’s finest ever football win had me thinking back to World Cups of yore. And, specifically, Mexico 1986, when Gordon Strachan scored against the West Germans and found himself too short to jump the advertising hoardings while celebrating.

And then, in what’s possibly an alarming insight into the workings of my mind, my thoughts drifted to the second most memorable thing from that World Cup - a TV ad for McEwans Lager, which ran during the Scotland matches on ITV.

It stuck in my memory for a few reasons - not that I drank the stuff at the time (being 12). It had a thumping soundtrack, stunning production values for an ad of the time (even now), and it ran to what was staggering length - two whole minutes.

I loved it, hummed the tune for the best part of two decades, could never find the music or reference to the ad… and now the internet ponies up the full thing, on YouTube. Turns out it was produced by storied ad agency Collett Dickenson Pearce (think other iconic ads for Heineken - “refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach” - Harvey’s Bristol Cream and Hamlet - “Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet”). This was one of their finest hours, too, if less well-known.

The details around it on YouTube are, I think, a little wrong - it obviously ran on TV, not just in cinema, and it was 1986, not 1988, because it was certainly shown during the World Cup. But the comments are great - one explains:

“Fantastic, my fav advert of all time. It is based on ‘The myth of Sisiphus’ by Albert Camus. It is meant to show ceaseless and pointless toil as a metaphor for modern lives spent working at futile jobs in factories and offices.”

Indeed so. Great way to advertise fizzy lager. Enjoy.