I have no trouble thinking Obi-Wan Kenobi could reach for a brewsky. Just some real space juice, some amber nectar, a tinnie. Turns out, I don’t have to imagine – Chile’s Channel 13 has done the hard work for me, and edited a crisp beer into Star Wars.
This was brought to my attention online, when clips of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope started to be posted on Twitter where a particular part was… A bit off. A beer brand called Cerveza kept showing up.
Here’s the original post that went viral. It’s the scene where Obi-Wan Kenobi (then, Ben Kenobi) gives young Luke Skywalker the lay of the (galaxy) and tells him about his totally not-a-murderer father. His father wanted him to have something special when he was old enough.
Around 2003 in Chile, when the original trilogy of Star Wars began airing on television there, they did this funny thing to avoid cutting to commercial breaks. They stitched the commercials into the films themselves. Here is one of them, with the English dub added in. pic.twitter.com/wC7N2vPNvv
— Windy 🛸 (@heyitswindy) March 2, 2024
!!!CERVEZA CRISTAAAAAAL!!!
I cannot begin to tell you how hard I laughed when I first saw this, I was out of it. This is better than the original scene. Screw that lightsaber that totally didn’t slaughter several generations of Jedi, whip out the cold ones.
On the side of reality, this was about satisfying viewers and advertisers. Traditional ad breaks didn’t run throughout the airings of Episodes IV, V, and VI, and instead Cerveza Cristal was inserted into the Star Wars universe by just making hands look like they begin to the characters.
BNN Breaking reported that George Lucas wasn’t too thrilled about how beer showed up in Star Wars, and ended up winning a case against Channel 13 over the matter – you can find the matter under ‘0601’ on the Conar website (the Council for Self-Regulation and Advertising Ethics). AdAge also briefly mentioned the incident in a 2004 article.
Dear reader, there’s more.
this is the funniest fucking thing ever oh my god https://t.co/XXDzkmxuON pic.twitter.com/spMRtArFvb
— Ren (@StanNajimi) March 3, 2024
And more.
i can’t find my favorite from the return of the jedi when R2 throws the lightsaber over the Sarlacc and it turns into a beer can in Luke’s hand. i remember talking with my classmates the monday after https://t.co/deUvvk3BD1 pic.twitter.com/n2nss4nbDJ
— Gabrielle Navoski (@Navoski) March 3, 2024
AND MORE.
I’d never heard of it, and it’s fantastic.
— The Spaceshipper 🚀 (@TheSpaceshipper) March 3, 2024
Above all, it explains how Palpatine somehow survived: with Cerveza Cristal. https://t.co/JtNd4jOE3e pic.twitter.com/kuX3Cn0Ls8
Honestly, I would rewatch the original trilogy for these ads, they’re hilarious. Apparently, according to Chilean website Vidaextra, Channel 13 also did ads like this for American Beauty and Gladiator. For the life of me, though, I cannot find these.
Anyway. Cerveza Cristal: The beer of choice across a galaxy far far away.
Image: Disney, Channel 13
Want more entertainment news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and DC releases, what’s coming to cinemas in Australia this year, and everything streaming this month across all platforms. Check out our dedicated Entertainment tab for more.