May the Force of Cristal Beer be with you! A vintage Chilean beer advertising campaign, seamlessly integrated into the original Star Wars trilogy, just resurfaced online, sparking viral attention and legal scrutiny some two decades after its debut.
After 20 years following its first broadcast appearance, a controversial advertising campaign that cut Chilean beer commercials into key scenes from the original Star Wars trilogy resurfaced online.
Taking to her X (formerly known as Twitter) account on March 2, user Windy posted a clip of the ad accompanied by the following caption: “Around 2003 in Chile, when the original trilogy of Star Wars began airing on television there, they did this funny thing to avoid cutting to commercial breaks.”
“They stitched the commercials into the films themselves. Here is one of them, with the English dub added in.”
The post quickly went viral, amassing over 30.7 million views and thousands of reactions.
Initially, the clip gave the impression that it had been created by an enthusiastic Star Wars fan who strongly enjoyed beer.
A viral clip featuring commercials spliced into the Star Wars films garnered over 30.7 million views
However, the ad turned out to be authentic, as supported by legal documents discovered by Gizmodo Australia on the Chilean Consejo de Autorregulación y Ética Publicitaria (Self-Regulation and Advertising Ethics Council) website.
The documents also outlined the concerns of Lucasfilm, the American film and television production company founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971, notable for producing the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises.
The controversial advertising strategy for the Chilean Cerveza Cristal beer led to a legal confrontation between Lucas and Chile’s Channel 13.
The ad sparked a legal dispute between George Lucas and Chile’s Channel 13
Around 2003 in Chile, when the original trilogy of Star Wars began airing on television there, they did this funny thing to avoid cutting to commercial breaks. They stitched the commercials into the films themselves. Here is one of them, with the English dub added in. pic.twitter.com/wC7N2vPNvv
— Windy 🛸 (@heyitswindy) March 2, 2024
During the December 2003 broadcasts of several Star Wars films, viewers were treated to the unconventional advertising strategy by channel 13 in collaboration with Cerveza Cristal, one of Chile’s most popular beer brands, BNN Breaking reported.
At the time, the channel had inserted 30-second commercials directly into the movies, with ads crafted to appear as continuations of the scenes they interrupted, integrating them so smoothly that they seemed to be part of the original films, as per BNN.
One ad reportedly featured Star Wars’ Obi-Wan Kenobi opening a chest to reveal a stash of Cerveza Cristal, complete with rock music and the brand’s logo, while another showed Emperor Palpatine pulling out a beer bottle instead of a lightsaber.
You can watch some of the ads below:
Image credits: REC ONLINE
Image credits: emetwistable
According to a 2004 report by The Guardian, Cristal Beer’s agency, OMD Santiago, picked up the top award in the media category at that year’s Cannes International Advertising Festival for “managing to persuade Chile’s broadcasters to allow Cristal Beer to be placed in scenes within a series of major movies.”
The report further stated: “During Star Wars, for example, Luke Skywalker was seen to produce a can of Cristal when he reached for his lightsaber — an idea that would break the rules on product placement in the UK.”
Nevertheless, in the same year, Lucas filed a grievance with the Chilean Council for Self-Regulation and Advertising Ethics, leading to a judgment in Lucasfilms’ favor, BNN reported.
More Cerveza Cristal ads have since surfaced online, including one that shows Luke Skywalker receiving a beer in place of his father’s lightsaber and another that has Emperor Palpatine reaching for a cold one during his climactic confrontation with Luke near the end of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, IGN reported.
The resurfaced ad amused the internet
