Moosehead and Sleeman: My Animal is Bigger than Yours

Moosehead beer has a new campaign in Ontario that has partnered with Roots, the venerable Canadian clothing line, to provide co-branded promotional goods. The radio spots supporting this campaign pair an exec from each company who discuss the relative Canadian merits of the Moosehead and Roots brands. A final comment points out that a Moose, the obvious symbol of Moosehead Beer (with a logo that looks not dissimilar to the Caribou on the Canadian quarter) is “bigger” than a Beaver (appearing on the classic Roots brand icon, as well as on the lowly nickel).

The Canadian beer business has traditionally been pretty scrappy, and not usually adept at subtlety. However, the Roots “beaver” icon is striking similar to the trademarked icon seen on every single bottle of Sleeman beer. Sleeman was the neck-and-neck competitor for the title of “biggest independent brewery in Canada” until Sleeman was purchased by Japan’s Sapporo some years ago, and Sleeman would still be seen as a clear, direct competitor in the “super-premium” segment of the domestic Canadian brewing industry.

Is it possible that the Moosehead folks (or their creative agency) were able to lob such a subtle grenade into the brewing industry, striking at the heart of the icon displayed on every single bottle of their competitors’ brew? Could this light-hearted banter in a radio spot in fact be a shot across Sleeman’s bow? Both Moosehead and Sleeman boast “roots” that go back to the early days of this nation, and it seems somehow probable that the similarity between their icons and national coinage is not a co-incidence.

In the wild, a Moose is clearly bigger than a Beaver. If the fine folks at Moosehead did intellectualize this campaign down to the point of quietly hinting at their superiority to Sleeman, then huge kudos to the team - what a great way to rattle the consumer confidence of those who patronize the direct competition.