Stan posted this four and a half minute video for Deschutes beer and I was surprised to find that I had an entirely different response to the thing than he did. I found it oddly creepy while he admitted he was "a sucker for these sorts of things." The strange thing I thought was how - for one of the first times that I can remember - I was maybe getting turned off about a beer I really liked. A brewery I liked. So, I thought I should think about that a bit more.
There is a good comparator. Stone. See, Jeff said certain things about Greg from Stone and Greg responded. In that response Greg from Stone set out all the things I dislike about his approach to thinking about beer - the boring narcissism, the ever present first person pronouns "I, me, mine". But he does not shake my interest in buying his beer because for the most part it is very good beer at a very good price. I can avoid Greg and the dumb grade 8 back of the glass gargoyle branding thing. It is good for me and Stone that things work out this way. I get to take what I like and pay for the pleasure.
My take on the Deschutes video is like that. Like Greg from Stone, it says a lot of things that may be good and reasonable things but does so in a way that makes me uncomfortable. Even though the vid's tone is entirely unlike a loud diatribe or self back slapping session it still leads me to think thoughts like this:
♦ There is something creepy in the voyeuristic decision to have the girl strip off her shirt and turn back for good measure. Or are we to think that sexism and beer can't touch craft breweries.
♦ There is something odd about the need to grab her off the street and the choice to include the banjo. I own two banjos but appreciate the have that creepy thing associated with them. Your average baritone ukelele or maybe a mandolin would have done the trick.
♦ There are no other people other than far way on that bridge by the pond. Is it intentionally surreal? Or is the message that good Deschutes beer best fits a post apocalyptic landscape. Did he see someone in the gas station and what did he do when he did? And what is the message that she reads at the bottom of a page. He wrote at the top. Is there some suggestion of misunderstanding?
♦ Building on that, there is a tone that is like something out of a movie by Bruce MacDonald or Don McKeller. Maybe it's that the bit of the US being filmed aligns with southern Canada, the setting looks less like wilderness to me and more like the landscape of Road Kill, the moment a bit like Last Night. I keep thinking she is going to off him. Solve her little problem once and for all. The message just fits into her master plan, creates opportunity.
So, I am thinking it is a Canadian thing maybe. Road trip movies often don't work out all that well up here. There's danger. There's bears in the woods, not just make believe empty campsites with no one out there out to the horizon. But, like Greg of Stone going on and on, it doesn't matter. The beer is still tasty and reasonably priced. Wish they were both in my town and not just something I can find on the road. If I really have to go on the road.