INFO
Design for the Amstel Autumn Campaign 1965
Ton Albers
1965
gouache on paper, collage, cardboard, plastic, felt, glue, adhesive tape
h 49.5 x w 35 cm
It’s all in the stars
From 1946 Ton Albers worked in the Amstel Brewery’s advertising studio on Amsterdam’s Mauritskade . He was the creator of Amstel’s most successful consumer campaign ever: ‘the beer mug campaign’ from 1958/1959 , which let beer drinkers save for six pastel-coloured beer mugs. The mug itself was also designed by him. However, for some unknown reason Albers’ campaign design for the 1965 Amstel Autumn Campaign was never carried out.
Albers provided his client with an eight-page folder of ideas for the autumn campaign. The contents show that the campaign was intended for ‘all sales sectors,’ illustrated with photos of shops, liquor stores and the hospitality industry. A woman in an elegant suit, carrying a shopping bag with the text ‘CONSUMER COMPAIGN/FOR THE FAMILY!,’ was meant to emphasize that all family members of the home consumer could save for a 1966 astrological calendar.
A calendar with an idea!
According to Albers, the calendar ‘is attractive, in six colours, exclusive and contains... AN IDEA!’ He provided three examples in his presentation folder. On the blue January page there is an Amstel beer-drinking ibex (Capricorn); the green March page has two fish (Pisces) and a bottle of Amstel beer; and the red *July page for the Zodiac sign of Cancer features a crab with two Amstel logos and the text: ‘AND WEEK IN WEEK OUT AMSTEL BIER.’
An entire crate
Albers explained the purpose of the campaign in an enclosed list of points: ‘Directly stimulating the sale of Amstel beer / Gaining new sales venues / Intensifying sales where Amstel is already part of the assortment / A strong advertising medium in hundreds of thousands of families for 365 days! / Getting consumers to buy an entire crate of beer at once.’
365 days of advertising
Further on in the folder, Albers explains the choice of a calendar as a savings target: ‘Information from bookshops and the like has clearly shown us that the public is very interested in calendars. (...) it appears that many calendars are used as gifts for the Feast of Saint Nicholas and Christmas. The advantage for us to come up with a consumer calendar (a novelty!!) is first that it means a permanent Amstel advertisement in the home for all of 365 days.’
Faith no objection
As for the horoscope idea, Albers did his homework. ‘This whole matter is extremely topical. It is known that they are eagerly read in daily and weekly newspapers, periodicals, and women’s magazines.’ Yet the designer also considered the Christian segment of the Dutch population that might object to the calendar topic. To this end, ‘the opinion of Reverend Van Voorthuyzen in Breda, among others, has been sought. He told us that (in this day and age) he saw no objection at all and even liked this advertisement idea very much.’
After all that effort, it was regrettable that Amstel did not realise the design: however, this was not the end of the world for Ton Albers. Much of his work was in fact executed, such as his cheerful poster design for Parbo beer that same year. Besides being an advertising man, Albers also made a name for himself as a watercolourist and was even given his own studio space in the brewery for this purpose. Some of his watercolours are in the Heineken Collection.
