I hope my British friends and colleagues will forgive me for not noticing this before, because it’s been apparently going on for years now, but the folks at Shepherd Neame have been advertising their Spitfire Ale with a humorous campaign making fun of Wold War 2. Since the beer was named after the famous British military fighter plane, it does make sense. And if you think war isn’t something to be made fun of, all I can do is point you to Hogan’s Heroes and Roberto Benigi’s Life is Beautiful. Anyway, I thought they were humorous enough to share. Here’s a few of my favorites below, but there are many, many more at the Spitfire website.
If you think any of these are in poor taste, buy the book Shep’s produced on the campaign, which contains the ads deemed too near the knuckle to run.
I have argued in some quarters for the more vigorous readoption of laughing at the enemy in the present circumstances. As a kid of folks who were kids in the Blitz, the use of humour was a huge asset on the British side. These ads are just a continuation of their respect for this sort of expression of certainty in freedom.