Why Chile’s Star Wars Beer Commercials Made George Lucas Take Legal Action
Though the original run of Cerveza Cristal Star Wars broadcasts aired 20 years ago, they’ve only now gotten the fandom’s collective attention. X user @heyitswindy shared an example of the silly ad spots on March 2 and explained their cultural context. Since then, tons of fans have taken to the social media platform to share their own custom parody videos and images spoofing the commercials.
One fan, @shotsofpadron, shows Anakin and Obi-Wan’s battle on Mustafar, only with the Jedi Master pulling out an ice-cold Cerveza Cristal instead of his lightsaber to begin the fight. Another from @marcolapolis includes an altered version of a famous “Star Wars” comic panel in which Darth Vader declares to a group of rebel soldiers, “All I am surrounded by is fear and dead men.” Of course, “dead men” is replaced with “Cerveza Cristal.” “Star Wars” influencer @jtimsuggs shared a series of images showing Rey and Kylo Ren fighting over the Skywalker lightsaber in “The Last Jedi,” but with a shattering bottle of the delicious beer instead of the iconic hilt.
The memes have even reached beyond the galaxy far, far away. X user @kennetzio shared a video of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) facing the Gom Jabbar box test in “Dune”. We’ll let you figure out for yourself what particular beverage is in his hand when he pulls it out.