Heineken's 'Ghosted Bar' campaign fights against overworking culture with Park Hyung Sik

Heineken has launched a new campaign called "The Ghosted Bar" featuring South Korean actor Park Hyung Sik, shedding light on the overworking culture in Singapore and Malaysia.

The campaign was inspired by the results of a YouGov survey commissioned by Heineken that one of the most common reasons (45%) why people "ghost" their friends in Singapore and Malaysia is due to their work commitments. The survey results also showed that 46.5% of employees in Singapore and Malaysia have “ghosted” their friends due to work obligations, 64.5% feel burned out at work, while 42.5% revealed that work has caused strains in their relationship with their friends and partners.

59% of employees in Singapore and Malaysia agree that while their employers value work-life balance and encourage them to take time off, they still do not see improvement in their social life and often find themselves "ghosting" their friends because of work. This is because employees (68.5%) find themselves unable to reject extra work given to them and 73% are afraid to reject extra work that their managers assign to them, with 41% doing so out of fear that it will affect their promotions for seeming "lazy".

Done with collaboration with global agency Publicis Group, the campaign ad featuring Park showed paranormal activity in a bar — beer glasses moving on their own, chairs sliding across the room. It highlighted how a friend stuck in the office is a ghost at the bar, leaving friends hanging out with their "ghosts" instead.

Together with Park, Heineken wants to encourage a refreshed mindset towards this culture of overworking in Singapore and Malaysia, and remind employees of the importance of working responsibly and not letting their friends down by "ghosting" them so often because of work.

"Through this meaningful project by Heineken, we want to encourage employees to start working responsibly,” said Park. “We should enjoy our social life and not let it be impacted by our work,” he added.

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Apart from Park sharing the video ad, which achieved more than four million views in 24 hours, influencers from Singapore and Malaysia also amplified the content of the global Korean actor by sharing it on their Instagram and Tik Tok profiles, as seen by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.

With activations in Singapore and Malaysia, the campaign reminds employees to finish work on time and socialise with friends at a new "haunt" in town. In Singapore, Heineken is hosting a "ghosted bar" experience on 19 April. In Malaysia, 40 paranormal "ghosted bar" experiences will take place across the country, gently spooking people into working responsibly and not ghosting their friends. Heineken and Le Pub have also created an online Ghost Generator, which can be used to remind friends to leave work on time by vaporising them into ghosts. 

“Ghosted Bar is an amazing new chapter dedicated to the #WorkResponsibly platform that is raising awareness of the sensitive work-life balance issue around the world. Heineken has always encouraged and fostered socialisation and healthy human connections as we feel that workers need to embrace more social and leisure time. We’re thrilled to bring this platform to Singapore and Malaysia as a reminder to leave your duties on time and not let your social life fall behind,” says Bram Westenbrink, global head of Heineken Brand.

Meanwhile, Bruno Bertelli, global CEO of Le Pub, global CCO of Publicis Worldwide and CCO of Publicis Group Italy said that the campaign is all about reminding people to clock off work on time, to prioritise and acknowledge self-care, and rebuild work culture from the perspective of well-being. “When you don't leave work on time for fear of letting down your coworkers or because of societal pressures, you let someone else down: your friends,” he added.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Heineken for additional information. 

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