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At a time when advertising for mainstream beer brands aimed

at younger men celebrates women who wrestle or were born as

twins, a smaller, imported brew is hoping a print campaign

with a more light-hearted approach to the battle of the sexes

will help stimulate sales.

The campaign, for Molson Canadian, sold by Molson USA, will

appear in May issues of four men's magazines and one women's

magazine. The ads cleverly send up the conventions of how

beer is advertised differently to men and women while at the

same time seeking to capitalize on those ploys.

The campaign is part of an ambitious effort to remake the

Molson Canadian image among male beer drinkers ages 21 to 29,

and it carries the theme "Let your Molson do the talking." It

is the brainchild of Crispin, Porter & Bogusky in Miami, the

hot creative agency known for rule-breaking work for

advertisers like Ikea, Mini Cooper and the American Legacy

Foundation (the "Truth" anti-smoking ads, produced with

Arnold Worldwide in Boston.).

Crispin, Porter was awarded the Molson USA account, with

billings estimated at $10 million, in April 2002, and six

months later had the company bring out Molson Canadian (and

Canadian Light) in bottles bearing "twin labels" a

conventional one on the front and a fanciful one on the back.

The back labels, initially in 84 varieties that have now

climbed to more than 225, proclaim sentiments that range from

"I'm not wearing underwear" and "One-man bachelorette party"

to "I put the super in superficial" and "Can I get your

number?" The wacky packaging is promoted in television

commercials.

The premise of "Let your Molson do the talking" is that if

imported beers are -- as beer drinkers have been assured for

decades by brewers and the agencies that work for them --

lifestyle products that say something about who buys them,

then Molson Canadian will now speak up on behalf of the buyer

on the subject he likely considers the most important in his

life: Topic A, as Preston Sturges calls it in the screwball

comedy "The Palm Beach Story," otherwise known as sex.

The campaign is indicative of what is known as postmodern

advertising, which presents consumers with ads that

acknowledge they are ads, ads that sell with a wink and a

nudge, ads that reference the ways ads try to peddle

products. Such tactics are particularly popular among

advertisers targeting younger consumers, who are deemed more

skeptical about marketing, and more educated consumers, who

have presumably read books like "The Hidden Persuaders" or

"No Logos."

"This approach is different," says Steve Breen, vice

president for marketing in Golden, Colo., for Molson USA, a

joint venture of the Canadian brewer Molson Inc. and the

Adolph Coors Company.

"It appeals to the import drinker," he adds, "who has been to

college, has got a job, is earning decent money, is a little

more mature."

For all that, the import drinker shares at least one interest

with his less-educated, less-affluent, less-mature

counterpart.

"In talking to consumers to see how we could make Molson

Canadian relevant to the young adult drinker," Mr. Breen

says, "the key thing they kept feeding back to us was: 'We're

in bars to meet women. Anything that helps us connect is

great.' So we can become relevant by helping them interact."

Yes, but it has to be in a way different from Miller Lite

beer, brewed by SABMiller, which has come under fire for a

commercial that features the wrestling women, or Coors Light

beer, sold by the Coors Brewing Company division of Coors,

which is also feeling some heat for spots that star sultry

twins.

So in the Molson Canadian commercial promoting the twin-label

bottles, as two actors playing friends talk at a bar, one of

them suddenly turns to look into the camera before delivering

his next line. He breaks the fourth wall with viewers as if

to say, "Yes, I know I'm in a commercial, and I know you

know, too."

That attitude is even more ardently embraced in the print

ads. The ad appearing in the women's magazine, Cosmopolitan,

presents male drinkers of Molson Canadian as hunky yet

sensitive, studly yet caring. It is a tongue-in-cheek version

of how male beer drinkers see themselves and how brewers see

them. There is a photograph of a buff blond in winter gear,

cradling two puppies as he holds a bottle of Molson Canadian,

turned to the camera so the brand logo on the front label is

readable.

There is text under the photograph. "His address: the

intersection of confidence and compassion. His beer: Molson

Canadian." The Cosmopolitan readers will be directed to a Web

site (http://www.molsonman.com/) where additional photos and

a biography of the hottie will be available soon.

The ad appearing in the men's magazines -- FHM, Gear, Playboy

and Ramp -- informs readers about the "hundreds of thousands

of women" seeing the Cosmopolitan ad and describes how they

may take advantage of that.

The Cosmopolitan ad, the readers of the men's magazines are

told, "is a perfectly tuned combination of words and images

designed by trained professionals. Women who are exposed to

it experience a very positive feeling. A feeling which they

will later project directly onto you. Triggering the process

is as simple as ordering a Molson Canadian."

"That's not just a crisp, clean import from Canada you're

tasting," the men's ad concludes in a mock triumphant tone.

"It's victory, my friend." The readers of the men's magazines

will also be directed to a Web site

(http://www.molsontwinadvertising.com/) where they will soon

find downloadable, wallet-sized versions of the photos of the

puppies, suitable for starting or continuing bar

conversations, as well as other helpful ways Molson Canadian

proves that "no other beer works as hard for you."

"Can other beers do that? I think not," says Bill Wright,

vice president and associate creative director at Crispin,

Porter, echoing the tone of the campaign. "While other beers

do funny commercials, we're actually doing something to give

our consumer the tools to connect with women in social

situations and at great expense, I might add."

Turning somewhat more serious, Mr. Wright observes: "Every

beer is a badge, meant to say something about you. You're

paying that beer a big compliment, because you're going to be

holding up that badge for the next 30 minutes, and you don't

let your fingers cover up the label."

"That was our original insight," he adds, "that this brand is

such a badge, and you demonstrate that every time you order

it."

Before Crispin, Porter, Molson Canadian was "the beer for

free-spirited wilderness adventurers," Mr. Wright says,

laughing, referring to previous ads. "When we got it, it was

pretty moribund. Now we want it to stand for something."

Sales of Molson Canadian have increased 30 percent in the six

months since the bottles started to be sold with the twin

labels. Mr. Breen describes it as "the fastest-growing

import" among the top 25 imported beers.

Additional ways to demonstrate how the beer can "do the

talking" are being considered. Mr. Wright says he would like

to try radio commercials similar to the print ads because the

idea can work "anywhere you can segment the media, and radio

segments listeners very well."