Estrella Damm's ad arouses very different opinions

On June 4, the brewing company, Damm, released its long-awaited commercial of every summer, entitled 'The same as always'. In which it promotes its Estrella Damm. This year, it was recorded in our home, in Menorca. With a duration of about three minutes, the ad has aroused many reactions throughout the island. From sectors that celebrate the promotion of our landscapes; to those who believe that the bucolic image presented has nothing to do with reality, and that, in addition, it promotes a territory that exceeds the limit numbers every year.

This second block is what has stood out this year through comments on social networks, showing a specific response to the ad. However, not everyone thinks the same, and it is worth analyzing how a commercial from a private company can arouse so many divisions.

A BUCOLIC POSTCARD
It is clear, and as both the CAEB Restaurant and Bar Association and the public administrations have highlighted, that this is a private initiative, and that, therefore, they must record what they consider, and how they consider it –which is why, from the administrations, they have not wanted to make any statement-. Although what is shown can be considered fiction. But beyond all this, some Menorcans, users of social networks such as Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, have remarked that given the promotion that, whether they want it or not, has been made of the island, the effects it can generate are very real.

The Mallorcan writer, popularizer and professor, with whom we have spoken on other occasions, Antoni Janer Torrens, on his Twitter opines that: “Another year Estrella Damm gives the capitalist summer a boost in the service of #happycràcia [happy = happiness]. This time it receives Menorca, presented as a charming postcard that is not at all massed. Nothing to do with reality. Enough of the promotional ads for the Balearic Islands!”.

With this same idea, these days many comments have been seen on the networks, which highlight the lack of realism through the empty settings, such as Es Migjorn Gran; or the lack of local people. “The usual for those who can afford to rent a house with a pool in Menorca, I suppose. And all the empty locations in the video? People live in Menorca!”, stated an Instagram user. Or “Yes, but in the Balearic Islands we are a little tired of being the same as always. Next Estrella Damm ad in empty Spain”, as another commented on Twitter.

In this sense, the actor from Es Migjorn Àlvar Triay, comments that perhaps it would have been interesting if some Menorcan professionals in the sector had been able to participate in the ad. And although, he understands that what this ad seeks is to continue showing Mediterranean landscapes, due to the commitment that the concept of ‘Mediterranean’ has already taken with its audience; he also knows the harm that this can do to our island, and that this only reinforces the image that the Menorcan who lives here all year round is a servant of the tourist. “If we are in an autonomous community where tourism produces the majority of GDP, and we are fleeing seasonality, trying to get more people to come the rest of the year... then I don't think this ad favors winter tourism, which the administrations are working on. In addition, this video already shows it, that in some way we have created a type of tourism, which despite being of quality, is not a tourism of coexistence, of sharing with the locals”. However, and being a private initiative, he believes that the work is up to the administrations when it comes to maintaining control and granting filming permits on the island. That Estrella Damm, obviously, records what it wants.

THE PROMOTION OF THE ISLAND
On the other hand, however, there are sectors, as well as users of these same networks, who consider the Estrella Damm ad a privilege, a way of showing our beautiful island, and of promoting it. Among the comments that can be seen on sites like Facebook, we find: “Who are we to decide where to film an advertisement?”, continuing with the same idea that it is a private initiative and, therefore, they film where and how they want. And also others like “I like the advertisements that make Menorca look so nice” or “We should be proud that the money is left on the island, otherwise what would most of them eat!”.

It should be noted, in this sense, that Estrella Damm has not published its video on Facebook, but has reached the social network through the different news items of the island's local newspaper. Therefore, the comments are on its publications, not on those of the official company. And many are from Menorcans.

We also find the comment of a user who highlights the fact that: “Are you convinced that so many tourists come because they see the beer advertisement? It is criticizing because it is. The overcrowding is not Damm's fault, others are responsible.”

ARTISTICALLY ADMIRAL
The ad has also aroused admiration from various Menorcan professionals in the sector. Like Ivan Khanet, art director and graphic designer, who considers the ad an “excellent piece. Both in the use of color, warm and evocative, the very Mediterranean light, with a narrative rhythm that goes well with the emotional state of the characters... it is cinema. It has a very careful art direction, the clothes, the decoration, the elements that appear... end up presenting a recognizable Menorca, but very stylized, idealized. In the end it is fiction. It is what is used in cinema, they are not selling reality, they are making fiction. It is a beer ad, not a tourist promotion”.

A Menorca, therefore, idealized. But recognizable. In this sense, it is true that, at no point in the ad is Menorca mentioned, it is not said that it is our island that appears in the spot. It is simply a point in the Mediterranean. However, on the day it was released, many Catalan-speaking media outlets, as well as local newspapers, stated which place it was, some even mentioning almost all the Menorcan landscapes and scenes that appear in it.

At the same time, other professionals, such as Juliana Canet, a collaborator of Estrella Damm, and of the Catalunya Ràdio program, ‘Que no surti d’aquí’, when asked where the ad had been recorded, preferred not to say. Claiming that: “I think that there is no need to participate any longer in the tourist overcrowding that many places in our country suffer from”.

The professional Khanet idò, believes, like many others who have commented on the networks, that the ad is of enormous artistic quality. It looks like a film, which goes beyond what is an advertising spot. Following this idea, Rita Pons, a Menorcan graphic designer, confirms that “on a creative level, I think it’s one of the best ads that have been made in recent years. It’s very well-connected, very well-acted, the song works very well... it’s very well-shot. And in terms of quality, I really appreciated it.”

However, when their professional perspective is put aside, both, as Menorcans, are aware that perhaps such an ad was not what the island needed at the moment. “On a personal note, with all the admiration I have for the study that has been done on the ad, if they asked me what I would improve... maybe I would have liked them to show more of the fragility of Menorca, a nod to the conservation of the island... but well, we also have to be very clear that we cannot demand the same from a beer brand as from a public institution, and this sustainable promotion of the island is the job of the latter,” says Khanet.

For her part, Rita Pons comments that “the ‘Mediterràniament’ advertisements have served in recent years as tourist spots for any point in the Mediterranean that they have shown. I think no one can deny that they promote tourism, and they have been doing so for years. And I think that it should be possible to regulate it in some way. Because even if they don’t say it’s Menorca, it’s clearly visible. Furthermore, it’s an advertisement that ends up being very paradoxical in terms of the concept it presents. It can’t be that they’re telling us the same old story, when everyone knows that this idea has long since ceased to exist in Menorca. Neither for tourists nor for locals.”

A REAL PROBLEM
However, how important is it that a private company chooses Menorca to advertise? Why have so many people come out complaining, even though many others defend and admire it? “We are in a situation in Menorca in which we are no longer interested in promoting the island. Year after year we break records for tourist arrivals, and we have a whole series of parameters that already show that we are surpassing them: the water problem is more serious every year; the beaches are well above the maximums we set; the nautical problem has exceeded the capacity that was defined years ago... a series of limits are being exceeded, and situations are occurring that mean that Menorca no longer has any interest in bringing in even more people than it already does,” affirms the GOB Menorca. “But beyond that, the ad focuses on summer, the beach, coming to Menorca at the time when we have the most people, and when the island is most saturated... and what's more, it's full of images that don't correspond to reality. Using the Menorca setting repeatedly, to show something that is actually false... I think it doesn't correspond to what the island needs now”.

Therefore, according to the GOB, and as other Menorcans, professionals or users of social networks also affirm, Menorca does not need more promotion than it already has. Than the one that is worked on from public institutions, from Menorca all year round, from Menorca that was a European gastronomic region, which has reopened a theater as important as the Teatre des Born, or which presents an internationally renowned gallery like Hauser & Wirth. An island that is committed to culture and local produce, and the promotion of what makes us different: our essence, our tradition.

“We must try to reduce the pressure of the peaks of the high season, which is when there is more human pressure on the island, and this means more water consumption, energy, more waste production... we must reorient tourism. Getting it to be distributed over the rest of the year. And this happens by stopping promoting the island, for summer, for the beach”, affirm the GOB Menorca.

THE NEGATIVE REACTION
The Estrella Damm 2025 idò advertisement has aroused very different opinions. But the negative comments have been many. According to Rita Pons: “This year this advertisement has had a much greater reaction. And the fact is that in the middle of 2025 you cannot make spots like this, with the problems we have due to the tourist overcrowding”.

However, it is also true, and as other Menorcans have told us, that Estrella Damm has decided to remove some of these comments that are not so in favor of their ad, and even block the profiles. One of the deleted comments was: “We are fed up with the overcrowding, and your ads every summer only make it worse. Menorca does not need promotion, it needs respect. Take the cameras somewhere else”. And this same person was blocked shortly after and his comment was deleted.

Now he comments that: “The image of Menorca is used as a set to sell a utopia that has nothing to do with reality. Menorca can’t take it anymore, we are living in an unsustainable overcrowding, fueled by this type of advertising that sells an island disconnected from its people and its problems”. Furthermore, and in view of the company’s response to his comment, he adds that: “Silencing local voices will not make the problem disappear. Menorca is not a postcard. It is our home”.