The popular Dutch brewing company on Thursday launched its first, brand new, virtual beer, Heineken Silver, at a metaverse launch event within the immersive digital platform, Decentraland. Promoting the product as a legitimate virtual product, the company invited real journalists to the launch event of the fake beer and treated everyone to pixilated lobster and caviar. There was also a virtual DJ and dancers dressed in Heineken gear. Describing the product launch as “an ironic joke” for themselves as well as other brands, the virtual beer, Heineken Silver is brewed with 100% purified pixels, tripled-filtered through firewalls, and uploaded with 5 million megabits per second. It is made out of the freshest pixels: no malt, no hops, no yeast, no water, and also, no beer. “At Heineken, we believe that connecting with people is vital to human existence, like the air we breathe or the water we drink, and we know that the metaverse brings people together in a light-hearted and immersive way that is really exciting – but it’s just not the best place to taste a new beer,” said Bram Westenbrink, Global Head of Heineken. “Our new virtual beer, Heineken Silver is an ironic joke. It is a self-aware idea that pokes fun at us and many other brands that are jumping into the metaverse with products that are best enjoyed in the real world. For now, you can’t taste pixels and bytes. So, we want to make a joke about that and remind everyone that nothing beats the taste of a refreshing beer, including our new virtual Heineken Silver, in the real world.” Check out the promotional video of the product launch:
To add a little more flavour to the metaverse and the virtual Heineken Silver, the company has partnered with Spanish self-taught street artist, J. Demsky to help design parts of the virtual home of Heineken Silver. J. Demsky said, “As a long-time lover of Heikenen, I was excited to be involved with this fun and unique launch that brings the brand, and virtual Heineken Silver, to life in a really unique way. To be able to give people a way to artistically understand that a virtual drink could taste like, especially when you combine all the pixels and technology together, fits perfectly with who I am and the art I like to create – so I hope people love my interpretation of what virtual Heineken Silver could be like if it had flavour.” Those interested in trying out the Heineken Silver virtual beer can do so in the Heneiken’s virtual brewery in Decentraland on their desktop or laptop or use its new AR filter on the popular social platform, Snapchat.
