A turnaround at CDM?

A turnaround at CDM?

CDM (Cervejas De Moçambique, owned by SAB) came under fire last year for some pretty racy advertising.  It wasn’t so much the amount of flesh on show in their adverts (there was none!) but the overtly sexual nature of their Laurentina Preta brand, comparing the beer to a ‘black nymph’.  The adverts drew harsh criticism from Women’s groups and were taken down, to be replaced by in your face provocations from CDM.  Someone however must have gotten their knuckles rapped inside CDM because the new adverts coming out of there are on a completely different track, and we applaud them for that.

The first advert I’d like to draw your attention to came out in @Verdade weekly free newspaper and on billboards around town.  They tout the revolutionary new bottle shape (I find it ugly, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder).  CDM however thinks this is hot shit!  The advert is almost like an iPad advert, with arrows showing the various improvements in the product.  However the MOST IMPORTANT PART of the advert is stuck somewhere in the bottom of the page, almost an orphan of the whole marketing effort.  It seems to have sneaked onto the page somehow..  And what is it?  The fact that the new glass bottles, which have been infesting landfill and sidewalks everywhere in Maputo, are now RETURNABLE!  Hurray for CDM. FINALLY they have seen the light, that their product was chocking up the streets of Maputo, thrown out whilly nilly from fast cars as they’re driving down the marginal, soon to be broken glass causing havoc for the Maputo cyclists.  In terms of social responsibility CDM is finally returning to pre-private investment measures.  That’s right, we ONLY had returnable bottles since AT LEAST 1992 (the year I came to town).  Finally private enterprise has matched what the colonial managers and then the socialist managers after them had been doing all along, albeit due to economic pressures and shortages of material.

But before we continue, another look at their ‘fantastic’ advertisement below..

Different on the outside but same taste on the inside – so far so good.  Good packaging always helps sell product, and if the product itself is fine then no need to fiddle with it (New Coke, are you listening?!).

TALL(er) (first bullet point) – Well, here the importance of being a tall beer bottle escapes me. Does it need to be taller than the competition?! Or did they make it specifically tall enough so it wouldn’t fit standing up in my fridge.. Yes, you guessed it, CDM assumes we have their tall fridges in our homes, and not bog-standard ones with pretty standard heights.  So guess what, I now keep less beer in my fridge.. and probably drink less of it as well.  Hooorayy for progress and taller bottles!

(More) MODERN – Ahem.. glass bottle modern?! Actually this bottle resembles the faux old Klein Constantia sweet wine that they made in commemoration of those old bottles Napoleon used to drink… oh, about 200 years ago.  As for glass, that was around in Roman times, around 2000 years ago (although the Chinese discovered it much later, one of the reasons their society stagnated, before becoming the powerhouse it is today).  So the modern bit fails to find traction.  But I digress…

(More) PRACTICAL – Well, that bump at the end I guess means I can slam the bottle on the counter that much harder without fear of breaking the bottle in my hand.  Or perhaps it’s to allow for a better grip, so it doesn’t slip through my drunken fingers and smash on the pavement like so many other bottles.. Dunno really, you’ll just have to ask CDM what they’re on about here.

Still, all in all a descent advertisement and a welcome change to the polarising adverts of yesteryear.

The next advert I’d like to discuss is CDM’s 80^th anniversary of the Laurentina Brand.  Yep, that’s right.. In 1932 this beer brand was born, and became known as LM’s beer of choice.  Countless SA students on their gap year who travelled through Mozambique can attest to the restorative properties of Mozambique Beer.  CdM has decided to embrace the heritage and tradition of its brand.  Too bad it sold off the iconic brewery building in central Maputo.. But I guess that was economics, and for them brewing 2M and Laurentina side by side makes perfect business sense, even if it does dilute the individuality of the two brands. However are we going to get the wild swings in alcohol content that was the prerogative of Laurentina beer?  Or the shortage in labels that meant you never knew what you were drinking.  The caps were gerenic ones made by Crown Cork, so it really was a case of blind luck.  But those days can now be remembered in a nostalgic setting, at the Scala Theatre.  Good on you CDM.  Keep it up.  Getting better, and one day you may actually get it right… Till then we’ll keep on drinking 2m.