Corona Reclaims La Cerveza Mas Fina Through Mexican History
Corona's 2019 campaign The History of La Cerveza Más Fina is a four-episode stop-motion film produced for the Mexican market by Observatory Marketing, narrated by actor Gael García Bernal, depicting Corona's relationship with Mexico across four distinct periods of the country's history.
The campaign launched on March 27, 2019, according to Clapboard's own records, and was created for Corona — owned internationally by Grupo Modelo, which became part of AB InBev in 2013, as documented by The Drum. Rather than relying on the beach-and-sunset imagery long associated with the brand internationally, this Spanish-language campaign rooted Corona squarely in Mexican cultural identity. The strategy represented a deliberate pivot toward heritage storytelling, using the visual language of Mexican art as its primary vehicle.
In Mexico, the campaign operated as a premium brand-building exercise rather than a direct product promotion. Observatory Marketing — the Los Angeles-based creative agency behind the work — structured the narrative around four historical periods, each rendered through miniature stop-motion sets that evoke the sweep of Mexican civilisation alongside the brand's own arc. Production company Nexus Studios, operating across London and Los Angeles, executed the physical production, which according to Muse by Clio involved 128 people and eight miniature sets. The campaign contains two media assets and sits within the Alcoholic Drinks category. Clapboard rates this campaign 61 out of 100.
The choice to anchor the work in Mexico — rather than produce a globally transferable brand film — signals a strategic commitment to local resonance over international scalability, a posture that distinguishes this effort from many of Corona's broader portfolio campaigns of the same era.
Observatory Marketing identified a specific tension at the heart of Corona's positioning in its home market. The brand carried the slogan La Cerveza Más Fina — the finest beer — yet its most globally visible advertising had long leaned on escapist, coastal imagery created for international audiences. In Mexico, that gap between global brand identity and local cultural ownership created an opportunity.
Todd Hunter, Co-Chief Creative Officer at Observatory, articulated the strategic premise directly. As reported by Muse by Clio on March 27, 2019, Hunter stated: "Corona's story is a tale that reflects the spirit of the Mexican people." He further explained that the agency was "inspired by a medium that has captured Mexican history for centuries — its art — and brought it to life through a beautiful stop-motion film." The decision to ground the campaign in Mexican artistic tradition rather than contemporary lifestyle imagery gave the brand a form of cultural authority that paid media alone cannot manufacture.
Competitively, Corona's positioning within Mexico sits in the premium lager segment, distinct from mainstream domestic beer brands. Internationally, the 2016 campaign This Is Living, created by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam as documented by Campaign Live, had positioned the brand around leisure and outdoor escape. The History of La Cerveza Más Fina operates in a different register entirely — asserting historical legitimacy rather than aspirational lifestyle. A separate 2019 Corona campaign, Pay With Plastic, produced with Wieden+Kennedy and the environmental organisation Parley for the Oceans, ran across Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Italy, and Colombia according to Ads of the World, demonstrating that the brand was simultaneously pursuing distinct strategic narratives across different markets and agency relationships during the same year.
The Mexican market context made the heritage approach logical. In Mexico, cultural identity and national history carry significant weight as brand signals, and a film that positions Corona as a witness to Mexican history rather than merely a product sold within it reaches for a deeper form of loyalty.
Director Nicolas Ménard led the creative execution of The History of La Cerveza Más Fina. Ménard, working through Nexus Studios, brought a visual sensibility widely noted for its architectural precision and storybook warmth — qualities that made him a fitting choice for a project requiring historical tableaux to feel simultaneously grand and intimate.
The production scale was exceptional by any measure. According to Muse by Clio, the film required 128 people and eight miniature sets to realise four distinct historical periods across the four episodes. Each set was constructed to represent a different era of Mexican history, with Corona appearing as a recurring presence across centuries — a device that transforms the brand from a product into a kind of cultural constant. The stop-motion medium itself carries specific meaning in this context: it is a craft form associated with patience, handwork, and artisanal attention, values that align directly with the La Cerveza Más Fina — the finest beer — proposition.
The visual approach drew comparisons to the precise, symmetrical composition associated with Wes Anderson's film work, as noted by The Drum's creative works editor Kyle O'Brien, who selected the campaign as an Ad We Like on March 27, 2019. That aesthetic reference — orderly, slightly whimsical, deeply detailed — gives each episode a quality of studied craftsmanship that differentiates the film from conventional beer advertising in Mexico or elsewhere.
Artist Pedro Friedeberg, a significant figure in Mexican visual culture, contributed to the campaign and created a public mural in Mexico City in connection with the work, according to Clapboard's records. His involvement extended the campaign from a film asset into the physical public space of the Mexican capital, giving the heritage narrative a tangible, site-specific dimension. Narration by Gael García Bernal, delivered in Spanish, provided a voice of cultural credibility that reinforced every visual choice made by Ménard and the Nexus Studios team.
No verified third-party performance data for The History of La Cerveza Más Fina — including view counts, brand lift figures, or sales attribution — is publicly available at the time of writing. Assessment of the campaign's effectiveness therefore rests on its structural qualities, industry reception, and editorial recognition.
On the reception front, the signals were positive. The Drum, in a piece by creative works editor Kyle O'Brien published March 27, 2019, named the film an Ad We Like, specifically highlighting its stop-motion execution and its focus on the Mexican market. Campaign magazine, as reported in its March 29, 2019 coverage, characterised the film as an episodic work of notable craft ambition. These are editorially selective endorsements from publications that review a substantial volume of creative work weekly, and their notice reflects the campaign's standing within the industry at launch.
Structurally, the campaign demonstrates several conditions associated with durable brand-building effectiveness. The use of a culturally embedded medium — stop-motion rendered with materials and aesthetics linked to Mexican artistic tradition — creates a form of memorability that persists beyond the media buy. Pedro Friedeberg's mural in Mexico City extended the campaign into earned public attention. Gael García Bernal's narration in Spanish gave the work a local authenticity signal difficult to replicate with a production designed for international markets. The involvement of 128 people and eight miniature sets, as documented by Muse by Clio, produced a visual richness that invites repeat viewing and generates organic conversation.
Clapboard scores this campaign 61 out of 100, reflecting a production of genuine craft ambition and clear strategic logic, with room for stronger measurable commercial impact to have been evidenced publicly.
The History of La Cerveza Más Fina is a four-episode stop-motion film Corona released in Mexico in March 2019. Created by Observatory Marketing and produced by Nexus Studios, it depicts Corona's relationship with Mexico across four historical periods and is narrated in Spanish by actor Gael García Bernal.
Nicolas Ménard directed The History of La Cerveza Más Fina. Ménard worked through Nexus Studios, whose teams built eight miniature sets and employed 128 people to realise the four-episode film, according to Muse by Clio. His visual style brought architectural precision and a storybook quality to each historical period depicted.
Observatory Marketing, a Los Angeles-based creative agency, created The History of La Cerveza Más Fina for Corona in 2019. Co-Chief Creative Officer Todd Hunter described the work as inspired by art that has captured Mexican history for centuries, as reported by Muse by Clio on March 27, 2019.
Observatory Marketing chose stop-motion to connect Corona with Mexican artistic tradition. The medium's handcrafted quality aligned with the La Cerveza Más Fina — the finest beer — positioning. Its visual precision also drew editorial comparison to Wes Anderson's compositional style, according to The Drum's creative works editor Kyle O'Brien.
Pedro Friedeberg is a significant figure in Mexican visual culture who contributed to The History of La Cerveza Más Fina campaign. He created a public mural in Mexico City in connection with the work, extending the campaign from a film asset into the physical public space of the Mexican capital, according to Clapboard's records.
Clapboard rates The History of La Cerveza Más Fina 61 out of 100. The score reflects the campaign's genuine craft ambition, clear cultural strategy, and strong industry reception in Mexico, while acknowledging that no verified third-party performance or commercial impact data has been made publicly available for the work.
.webp)
Creative Collaboration Platform: The Backbone of Modern Creative WorkWhat is a creative collaboration platform?Clapboard defines a creative collaboration platform as the operational core for today’s distributed creative teams. This is not a collection of digital collaboration tools stitched together; Clapboard’s system
Understanding the Creative Production MarketplaceWhat is a Creative Production Marketplace?Clapboard defines a creative production marketplace as a structured ecosystem where brands, agencies, and production talent converge to execute video, advertising, and branded content at scale. Unlike the legacy agency or freelanREAD FULL ARTICLE
The Urgent Need for a Creative Production Operating SystemWhy Traditional Creative Production Models Break DownClapboard sees the creative production landscape shifting under pressure. Content velocity is no longer a buzzword—it’s a mandate. Modern advertising demands relentless output across dozens of channels, each wREAD FULL ARTICLE
.jpg&w=256&q=75)
