Sunday, May 09, 2010

Stoney's Beer Funky Radio Commercial


Stoney's Beer is based in Pittsburgh. I found this commercial on an Evatone Soundsheet demo from the late 70s. Was this a joke commercial, or a really politically incorrect real spot?

Listen to or download the spot here.

If you know anything about this commercial, leave it in the comments.

5 comments:

Timmy said...

A short but catchy one.

Anonymous said...

Yep,thats the way we roll out the Stoney's here in Southwest Pa!Keg partys!

Fred Arthur said...

Only about five years late with this, but just discovered your blog while researching an old client of ours, Stoney's Beer. Just wanted to see if they were still in business.
Regarding the commercial, it was produced by Fred Arthur Productions in Denver, CO sometime in the 70's as I recall. Don't quote me on that. The script was written by the agency, Sautel Advertising in Pittsburgh as what we called then a "slice of life" commercial, and in no way, intended to be funny. Originally, the last line in the spot said something like, "you turn out the lights, I'll lock up", followed by the announcer's tag. However, I was reminded of the punch line from an old joke, that went...."might as well...I'm gonna' catch hell when I get home anyway." Which I thought would make a great addition to our "goody reel", and something the agency would get a chuckle out of. So we recorded the spot both ways. Theirs for air, ours for yuks. And sent the tapes back to Pittsburgh, the one clearly marked..."caution...not for air", along with a note to further make sure it didn't accidentally get aired. And then we waited for the agency's response. And waited. And waited.
After a few weeks went by and we still hadn't heard word one from Pittsburgh I assumed the worst had happened, the agency had lost the account and we the agency's future business. When one day the phone rang and it was Lou Sautel to tell me he had another project for us. Of course I asked about the "out-take" immediately and he replied...."oh, didn't I tell you? That's been on the air for the past two weeks." Claimed he had bought time on some underground FM station and ran the spot only during the wee hours. Further, that some guy had heard the commercial on his way home from a tryst with his lover and began laughing so hard he ran off the road and now wanted to sue the brewery. That I don't believe, but it makes a good story. I used the spot to close talks that I gave before ad agencies throughout the country to the delight of the audience, and also as the lead spot on our demo reel, which somehow this gentleman found a copy of. We produced other spots for Stoney's as well as their subsidiary, Esquire Beer, all of which we wrote
as well as produced, the agency apparently having learned its lesson.
Fred Arthur, Fred Arthur Productions, Denver, CO

king arthur said...

Still attempting to post a comment regarding the Stoney's Beer spot. Realize it has been several years since you posted your original blog so either your site is no longer up and running or I am doing something wrong. Which is more likely. As the producer of and actor on that commercial, would love to fill you in on just how it happened on to our demo disk.

Cheers...
Fred Arthur (Fred Arthur Productions, Denver, CO)

cranched said...

I worked for a startup voiceover studio called Nashville Radio Workshop in 1979. We wanted to produce an Evatone soundsheet to insert in Nashville magazine to announce our grand opening. The Evatone rep sent us an envelope full of soundsheets, one of which contained the Stoney's spot that you hear on the blog!