Billboards For Drinks

All of sudden it seems like many of the billboards around Iasi are for drinks- beer, soda, tea. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that June in Iasi pretty much equals 90 degree temperatures every day, and all you want to do is drink a cold beverage. Maybe.

But they're so so funny to me, I don't know why. Perhaps just because of how the drinks are advertised, it's just unlike what I'm used to in America. 

The majority are for beer, and here are a few of the main ones:

In the big print- "All our passion for beer, in every beer." 

And the line at the bottom- "Golden Brau. From the professional (or maybe more like connoisseur, I think) to the professional/connoisseur." So what you're saying is that your company and customers are all 35 year old Jewish men who moved to the Irish countryside?

This literally says "We cut the prices so they cannot be seen." Which is of course just the Romanian way of saying, "This is really really cheap." But of course to me it's a funny expression.

But check this. The price is 4.79 lei, which is about $1.50. For 2.5 LITRES of beer. Amazing.

There are several SKOL beer billboards around the city, all of which have the same second line but different first lines. They all have to do with having a hard day, but this one is my favorite- "After an agitating day in the city, refresh yourself with Skol." Indeed.

Then there is the soda/tea category. These are even better, if I do say so myself:

I don't know if y'all know about Fanta sodas in America, but they're basically the best thing ever. For the most part. The new one is not so excellent, the first here in the "Fanta World" series. This one is supposed to be Fanta South Africa. First of all, you could never have a billboard like this in America. I mean, a lion and a black man for "Africa"? You'd definitely have a lot of people saying all kinds of something about that.

The headline is a little hard to translate (well, that big long word) but basically means "Flavor Unlike Anything You've Ever Tasted" and the second line just says "New Fanta World in Limited Edition." I haven't met anyone who has tried it and liked it, so maybe they should have made it more like SOMETHING we've ever taste. 

These are brand new adds for a new Cappy Orange Juice. There is one I like better than this, but I was never walking with my camera near it. This one says "Oranges not just squeezed, but made with everything." I think the idea (based on the other billboard for it) is that it's orange juice with pulp (not super common here), but who knows, maybe the skin too? That would certainly be new!

Ah, and finally. My favorite of all the billboard drink adverts. Yes, that is Hugh Jackman, your eyes are not deceiving you. And yes he is advertising Lipton tea. And yes that says "Drink Positive." In English. What's even better, is that there is a commercial for this ad that I saw as a "preview" before a movie, and it's, well... special. Hugh makes me love it, but everything else about it is just weird. Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I would guess this is NOT running in America. But I do very much enjoy a little glimpse of Hugh hither and thither around my little Romanian homestead.

So as you can see, I've been very entertained walking around the city of late. And I best be entertained by something, because it's very not entertaining how much I've been sweating walking around in this heat. I suppose as with anything, when you start getting into the realm of slang and idioms, translating into your native tongue is just really funny. I suppose kind of thing was around last summer, but I was probably way too overwhelmed with way too many other things and didn't have enough language knowledge to really pay any attention. But now the real fun has begun.