Ron Stablehorn is the fictitious Vice President of Marketing at

Rolling Rock Rolling Rock is a 4.4% abv American lager launched in 1939 by the Latrobe Brewing Company. Although founded as a local beer in Western Pennsylvania, it was marketed aggressively and eventually became a national product. The brand was sold to Anh ...

beer. He usually appears as part of

viral marketing Viral marketing is a business strategy that uses existing social networks to promote a product mainly on various social media platforms. Its name refers to how consumers spread information about a product with other people, much in the same way tha ...

campaigns for the company. The

Effie Award Effie is a feminine given name, sometimes a short form ( hypocorism) of Euphemia ( Greek: Εὐφημία). Notable people with the name include: Women * Effie Bancroft (1840–1921), English actress and theatre manager * Effie Boggess (1927-20 ...

winning campaign was created by the advertising company

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (also known as GSP) is an advertising agency based in San Francisco. History The agency was founded on April 15, 1983 as Goodby, Berlin & Silverstein by Jeff Goodby, Andy Berlin and Rich Silverstein. Andy Berlin lef ...

. Often, he will speak to the audience in a

television commercial A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

, stating that Rolling Rock has come under fire by loyal fans. In 2006, Ron appeared to denounce an ad where "an ape parachutes into a pool party, and dances in a suggestive manner with a sexy lady." At the commercial's end, a text statement reads "This totally unsincere apology posted by Friends of Rolling Rock". In 2007, Ron appeared a week before

Super Bowl XLI Super Bowl XLI was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Indianapolis Colts and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Chicago Bears to decide the National Football League (NFL) champ ...

to warn viewers about a possible Super Bowl ad featuring "grown men in thongs in the workplace." Ron apologized to viewers, and states that Rolling Rock is attempting to pull the upcoming ad. However, if they cannot, he hopes that it will not "in any way tarnish their great name". He appears in a follow-up commercial the next week, stating they finished the 61st or 62nd in the commercials from that day. Ron Stablehorn has a blog on the Rolling Rock website where he personally defends his ad campaign and offers an apology to anyone who was offended by the recent ads. In reality, the Stablehorn character is actually meant to promote the ads. His appearances, along with other advertisements denouncing upcoming ads, are part of a

campaign to draw attention to the ads.

References

External links

* Drink advertising characters Male characters in advertising Viral marketing {{fict-char-stub