Ad Campaign Shows How Sound Frequencies Can Change The Taste Of Beer

Beck’s in Brazil has developed an ad campaign around the affect sound frequencies can have on the taste of beer.

Working with AKQA São Paulo, the brewery’s marketing team conducted on-camera taste tests, where participants grooved to tracks mixed at 73 Hz by Brazilian DJs including Borato, Badista and Amanda Mussi. The low-frequency versions seemed to enhance the brew’s bitterness, while tracks played at 1046 Hz reversed the effect.

The goal was to prove that Beck’s could taste far more bitter than it already does. It’s a novel idea that AKQA hopes will drive brand interest and engagement.

The entire production company’s team involved in the shoot ended up trying out the frequency for themselves and were amazed that it actually did change their perception of bitterness. To be honest, even with all our positivity and pre-testing, we weren’t 100 percent sure if the frequency would have the same effect on everyone that was invited to be a part of the experiment on the day of the shoot, and how their reactions would work on camera.

However, it worked better than we imagined, and all eight people that did the test felt that the beer became more bitter when the DJ played the ‘Beck’s Frequency’ (73 Hz) on their headphones,” he says. “One of the guys even stood up and walked away because he thought he was being punked.

AKQA creative director Chris Vellutini 

Beck’s test is not the first to focus on sound frequencies when it comes to sensory enhancement. A few months back Mother London developed a content series for Castello cheese, exploring how sounds, shapes and colours affect the palate.