Heineken pokes fun at its own virtual beer in the metaverse

Heineken has launched its first, brand new, virtual beer, Heineken Silver, exclusively in its virtual brewery within the immersive digital platform, Decentraland. Poking fun at its own product, the brand said Heineken has always been passionate about natural ingredients, but in the metaverse, it's all about the finest, 100% computer-generated ingredients.

It added, “Our special A-yeast, usually brewed in horizontal tanks, has been replaced with A-Pixels. Forget hops harvested in fields, virtual Heineken Silver is brewed with Binary Coded Hops grown by NPC (non-player character) farmers.”

The virtual beer was unveiled at a product launch event in Heineken's virtual brewery, where guests were able to learn about how the beer is made in seconds, while enjoying pixelated lobster and caviar and rubbing shoulders with Heineken ambassadors, including Thierry Henry.  

Bram Westenbrink, Global Head Heineken Brand, said: " Our new virtual beer, Heineken Silver is an ironic joke. It is a self-aware idea that pokes fun at us and many other brands that are jumping into the metaverse with products that are best enjoyed in the real world.”

“For now, you can't taste pixels and bytes. So, we want to make a joke about that and remind everyone that nothing beats the taste of a refreshing beer, including our new virtual Heineken® Silver, in the real world," he added.

To add a little more flavour to the metaverse and the virtual Heineken® Silver, Heineken has partnered with Spanish self-taught street artist, J. Demsky to help design parts of the virtual home of Heineken Silver.

J.Demsky said: "As a long-time lover of Heineken, I was excited to be involved with this fun and unique launch that brings the brand, and virtual Heineken Silver, to life in a really unique way. To be able to give people a way to artistically understand what a virtual drink could taste like, especially when you combine all the pixels and technology together, fits perfectly with who I am and the art I like to create – so I hope people love my interpretation of what virtual Heineken® Silver could be like if it had a flavour."

Last month, McDonald's also registered 10 trademarks in the virtual space, doubling down on its strategy to venture into the metaverse. According to the application filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, McDonald's will be providing downloadable multimedia files for its artwork audio, video files, and NFTs.

The company's plans to venture into the metaverse were first made known on 9 February, after trademark lawyer, Josh Gerben tweeted images of McDonald's trademark applications. The McDonald's filing on 4 February indicated it plans to "operate a virtual restaurant featuring actual and virtual goods". It also included plans of "operating a virtual restaurant online, featuring home delivery". 

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