Stella Artois agency loses its fizz

Stella Artois and ad agency Lowe have parted company after 26 years.

Stella is understood to be set to hold a pitch to handle the lucrative Stella Artois contract. Lowe will not take part in this pitch, however.

The partnership, which won acclaim for its stylish Jean de Florette-style ads, was forged when Sir Frank Lowe founded the agency in the 1980s.

Stella’s parent company InBev recently handed the advertising contract for its new 4% ABV Stella Artois variant to rival firm Mother.

This year also marked the end of Stella Artois’ 30-year sponsorship of the eponymous tennis tournament at the Queen’s Club.

Lowe came up the idea for the sponsorship, but the Stella brand name has been dropped from the association in recent years, due to the lager’s perceived links with binge-drinking culture. The company has elected to promote the “Artois family” of beers at the tournament instead.

Amid accusations of it fuelling the nation’s binge-drinking problem, Lowe drew on the continental roots of Stella Artois in its ads, to maintain its premium brand image.

The agency still retains the global advertising account for InBev’s Becks beer brand.

Mediaphilia will miss the cinematic Stella ads. Not that watching Frenchmen gad about in a whimsically stylised provincial France has ever made us want to rush out and buy a pint of Wifebeater. But perhaps that’s just as well.