Passport scan opens Molson’s fridge

The idea isn’t new, but it certainly warrants repeating. In 1998 the songwriter/comic Tony Hawks travelled around Ireland for a month in the company of a fridge and turned his adventures into a bestselling book. In May this year Canadian brewer Molson told its advertising agency Rethink to set up red fridges at various locations around Europe as part of its reactivated campaign “I. Am. Canadian”, which was binned a decade ago.

The fridges were stocked with Molson’s beer. But there was a catch: you needed a Canadian citizen and his passport to open it. If this sounds like a stunt out of Candid Camera to you, well, honi soit qui mal y pense.

The fridges have already made an appearance in Canterbury, London, on the White Cliffs of Dover, in Cassel in northern France, in Brussels, and somewhere in rural Belgium. People quickly took up the search for a tourist who would insert his passport into the fridge, whereupon it would spring open and he could bequeath the beer to the crowd.

The fridge campaign will go further than the TV ads that will air throughout the summer. Molson is exploring bringing fridge to Sochi for the Winter Olympics, as well, Canadian media reported.

Ad industry insiders have already bickered that Molson’s fridge campaign reminds them of Coca-Cola’s Happiness Stunts from a few years back, which often featured fridges that could only be opened if punters performed certain tasks, like embracing the machine.

So what? There are probably more uses for a fridge than you and I can think of.

You can watch the Molson’s TV commercial at

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gper3YkzMg.