Advertising changing language

Traditionally, advertising has changed the way we use language via copy and jingle. In a wider context, business has of course changed the words we use, the descriptors we use, in generic product cases like Hoover for vacuum cleaner, Tippex for correcting fluid and Sellotape for sticky-tape, or 'sticky-backed plastic' as they used to refer to it on Blue Peter.

The case for advertising of course has also extended to changing buyer behaviour, and buyer use. I'm a moderate cider drinker, and I still think back to the day I first bought Magner's. It was what you might call the diametric opposite of a cafe-bar, a traditional old place. I ordered this new product, having been used to a pint measure. The pint glass came, half-full of ice, and advertising had of course told me to pour the liquid over the ice, with the amount being to my taste. The stares suggested the scene from American Werewolf where the strangers enter the rural bar. We proceeded though, enjoying it. The next time we found ourselves in this bar, you know what happened - the majority were drinking Magner's, and this moment of theatre of cider over ice was being performed all around us. In real terms, the on-trade, and you'd think the off-trade cider market too, would never be the same.

Stella Artois aren't in this world of theatre, of product performance, but it's an intriguing move. The proposition 'reassuringly expensive' has continued and nicely mutated into what we drink it out of. Not a glass, but a chalice. Word association for chalice? Expensive, precious, wealth. Job done. And now you can win one. Your very own chalice with your name on it. Nice thinking. The beer's dear - that's the bottom line, but way too clumsy a line to use on the advertising. The chalice is a nice development - the beer's dear, so drink it out of a glass that does it justice. Bars have carried the special glass for ages, and now the off-trade is catching-up. That special glass can be used at home (assuming you win - you don't get nothing for nothing in such a sales promo). Reassuringly expensive, that lovely use of language, reimagined then, continuing in product extension. Not a Stella fan, but I sure would like a chalice.