Stella Artois has launched its Joie de Bière advertising campaign, the company’s largest marketing effort to date. Credit: Pixabay.

Belgium beer brand Stella Artois has launched its Joie de Bière advertising campaign, the company’s largest marketing effort to date.

The advert is titled ‘Les Pockets’ and is set in ‘Le Village de Stella Artois’, which is believed to be an idyllic representation of the brand’s hometown Leuven, Belgium, where people do not get distracted from the simple pleasures in life. The 30-second advert will be shown in 19 markets across the world from 16 April.

The star of the advert is a man who is trying to juggle two mobile phone conversations, but when he enters a local tavern to order a Stella Artois beer he realises that he cannot actually pick up his beer, so the villagers reveal their invention of pockets to him.

The tag line of the advert is ‘so why let life keep you from enjoying life? Stella Artois Joie de Bière’. The Joie de Bière title is a play-on-words of the European sentiment of joie de vivre, the joy of life.

Stella Artois vice president Harry Lewis said in a statement: “Our goal for the campaign is to remind people not to let life get in the way of enjoying what really matters—and for us that means taking time to sit back and savour a Stella Artois.

“Le Village is a place where people can take a mental escape to imagine what life would be like if you set aside modern distractions, and we’re excited to bring this concept to life as we set out on our mission to bring more joie to the world.”

The advert is accompanied by events and social media interactions, including Le Village-inspired pop up bars at US food festivals, ‘Don’t Rush Hours’, which are extended happy hours at selected bars around the US, as well as digitised vignettes and pop up adverts saying ‘don’t close on this banner ad’ to remind consumers to put down their technology and enjoy time with friends and family.

Stella Artois is owned by Anheuser-Busch (AB) InBev. One of the brand’s previous advertising campaigns was for the 2018 Super Bowl in collaboration with Water.org. It featured Matt Damon, one of Water.org’s founders, filling up a limited-edition Stella Artois Chalice with clean water.