Rube Goldberg: Suds and Pubs

A pertinent example of Rube Goldberg ideas and its reinvention in popular culture is the Guinness  Beer ”Tipping Point” television commercial aired in Europe in November 2007. The ideas of Goldberg are realized to perfection by Danish producer Nicolai Fugslig at a cost of $20 million or  $222K per second ($ 9.3K per frame). Its very artistic and invokes the  intended and compelling sentiments of community. Its apparent that this particular community is appallingly impoverished and have no means of incorporating consumption of  industrial beer( all natural) into their traditional diet.

The commercial recalls  the  television advertising  of the Coca Cola Company  in July 1971 from the ”I’d Like To Buy The World A Coke” campaign which was an enormous success and at $300K the most expensive production of that period. The Coke ads marked the first  time beer or soft drinks had been marketed as more than liquid refreshers and is the template on which this ”Tipping Point” is built.  Call it the ”We Are The World School” of  advertising art.

All in all ”Tipping Point” is very impressive piece of cinema. Dramatic,  highly artistic and flawless in execution. Its interesting how a village of 1000 inhabitants has 10000 books to lend a film crew. Like  the finale of a Rube Goldberg machine routine, the end result of the process, in this case drinking beer ,may be perceived as irrelevent.

Coca Cola July 1971

This final video link also employs  Rube Goldberg type mechanisms to help this Dutch firm hawk their wares. Less expensive to make, it is quite imaginative and cute . Aside from the manipulative components of advertisng, it does demonstrate the sales and marketing management industry’s  talent for creating amusing and entertaining advertising  in sometimes very artistic  and imaginative ways.