The Royal Royal

Crown Royal and Royal Crown Cola. I was bumming around downtown Seattle with a friend and we were talking about what makes a billboard ad a good ad. We both scanned our environs and she directed me to a Jack Daniel's ad. The product was displayed attractively, caramel brown liquid with crystal clear ice cubes in a sweating old fashioned glass. "What's wrong with that one?" she asked. "You had to point it out to me."

The thing with this relatively minor campaign for Crown Royal and RC Cola is that all the different messages the ad presented fused and hit me all at once. First of all, it was topical. Everyone was talking about the royal wedding at the time. I still have no idea who married who, that's how little I care. But I it referenced something I had heard of and felt begrudgingly familiar with. Second, the pun wasn't a pun for pun's sake. It was derisive of the whole cultural phenomenon, and I immediately identified with it. Third, they're just advertising a whiskey coke. I've poured thousands of those working in a bar. But it took two brands that I never thought to combine and created an instant irony in their pairing.

"Look how much better this billboard is," I said. She instantly agreed. "Okay, I think I understand. It just clicks." Exactly. I have no idea what the campaign was for Jack Daniel's, I only remember it existing as a foil to the Crown Royal ad. They were on the same city block. It's been 6 months. That seems like a pretty good ad to me, especially for a billboard.