Iron City Beer - “This is City living”

Pittsburgh Brewing Co. is a regional brand that’s been around since 1861. They were a staple among the blue collar workers that built pretty much everything for most of the 20th century, so the creative always leaned on the “iron” in Iron City Beer. Fast forward many decades later, the brewery was struggling. Even its light beer, I.C. Light, had outpaced its flagship label. So when the area’s steel economy collapsed and was replaced by tech, the brewery found itself out of touch.

The This Is City Living campaign stopped a 16-year sales slide by shifting the attention from the “iron” to the “city” in the brand’s locally iconic name.

Radio (of the award-winning variety)

This radio campaign killed at the award shows, including an Addy “Best In Show” and a Radio Mercury Award finalist. (Damn you, Jeff Goodby!!! [shakes fist])

It’s fine, really. It’s more important to forever know I’ve done award-winning caliber work than to actually bring the hardware home. The former is far more gratifying; the latter is fading.

Losing the $100,000 grand prize to a legend aside, it won a boatload.

Television

I got a letter from the Canadian government informing me that this spot was banned, citing, “It suggests that alcohol is useful as a coping mechanism.” Which, I felt, was — okay — fair enough, but kind of joyless. (After all, nobody in biology class ever brought the frog back to life after they dissected it.)

Print (Promotional insert)

Our client Pittsburgh Brewing Co. bought an insert for the local entertainment newspaper for the week of Thanksgiving. They wanted to run an ad posing as holiday wishes, like every other advertiser. I turned it into a Christmas postcard. Seemed to me that we could either produce a flier that would eventually end up in the trash or a holiday greeting that could actually be thrown into a mailbox.

I know one ended up in Minnesota for sure.