TUBORG
Carlsberg UK
Denmark, 4.5%
Big news for UK drinkers: Tuborg is back, back, back! And we hadn’t even realised it had gone away! Yes, Carlsberg UK, brewer of Carlsberg, a Danish medium bitter pilsner, have relaunched Tuborg, another Danish medium bitter pilsner. Carlsberg say they are both very different, with the Carlsberg brand tasting of ‘summer apples and pine’, and Tuborg tasting of ‘flowers and lemon’. I’m not so sure about that – to these cynical tastebuds, they both taste like quite a lot like Skol, another Danish lager from Carlsberg. Like Skol, Tuborg was last seen as a 1980s no-frills watered-down version of European lagers. The new version has a beefed-up 4.5% ABV, but can it really be expected to compete in a marketplace bossed largely by a very similar stable-mate? Tuborg was first brewed in 1873, so it pre-dates Carlsberg, but is that enough to make UK drinkers clasp it to their bosoms? What Carlsberg hope will differentiate the Tuborg brand is the marketing angle. Carlsberg have chosen to align the new Tuborg with live music, sponsoring a stack of UK festivals. Tuborg is already linked with live music in Europe, having sponsored Denmark’s Roskilde Festival. And even in its previous life as a 1980s ‘standard lager’, Tuborg danced to a musical beat, with TV ads including a particularly 80s big-haired spot featuring Bruce Hornsby and the Range-style piano-noodling, and a memorable ‘Tu-Tu-Tu-Tuborg’ bargain basement rip-off of Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer video (with voiceover from Chris ‘Tiswas’ Tarrant). PB
