The Swedish Bikini Team Legend


Strange but true
A first– ad characters get a 'Playboy' cover and pictorial

Seventeen years ago, five scantily-clad women rode into the American consciousness and became lightning rods for political correctness. I am proud to say I had a hand in creating these advertising icons; the famous, the infamous Old Milwaukee Beer Swedish Bikini Team.

What began as a joke ended as a joke. The SBT died in peace. I regret we never got the chance to properly bury these vixens of beerdom. This is the story of what could have been.

In 1991, I was a group creative director at Hal Riney & Partners/San Francisco working on the Old Milwaukee account. The clients said they wanted a new campaign to appeal to young beer drinkers. They were open to fresh ideas for changing their long-running campaign as long as we kept the equities of said campaign:

l. Appeal to blue collar men

2. Feature outdoor activities

3. Maintain high energy

5. Keep the slogan “It doesn’t get any better than this…”

6. Be fun

Exhaustive research was conducted indicating young men like women, rock ‘n roll and partying/drinking lots and lots of beer. Thank goodness for research.

The premise of the Swedish Bikini Team campaign was to pick-up the action where the previous Old Milwaukee spots ended: a gathering of guys toasting the moment, saying, “It doesn’t get any better than this…” but then we’d show how it did indeed get better.

It got better with the tried and true trappings one found in any dumb beer commercial at that time: with the addition of rock ‘n roll, sexy women who have an aversion to fabric, food, and fun, fun, fun. Your basic youth fantasy.

Here’s a taste of the SBT:


The campaign was a spoof of all beer advertising, even Old Milwaukee’s. The Swedish Bikini Team was a Monty Pythonesque notion: five women who magically appear in beer spots. They were a send-up of beer commercial babes. They were a running joke, the only constant in the campaign.

The campaign was a blockbuster from the moment it hit the airwaves. It was written up in TV Guide as “this year’s Energizer Bunny.” The phrase ‘Swedish Bikini Team’ was used by Leno and Letterman in monologues, the Team appeared on “Married With Children”–– twice, and wonder of wonder, the women who played the Team agreed to do a pictorial for Playboy appearing sans uniforms. Imagine seeing a figment of your imagination on the cover of Playboy. It was surreal.

But fame soon turned to infamy. The Stroh Brewing Company was hit with a sexual harassment suit. The female attorney made the case the SBT advertising promoted an ‘atmosphere that encouraged sexual harassment.’ It was the year of the Kennedy rape trial and the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court Justice hearing, with randy action accusations made by Anita Hill. The media had a sexy new story to turn its spotlights on.

Soon the SBT came to represent the evil that lurks in all men’s loins. Maury Povich and other talk show pundits jumped on the bandwagon and took the moral high road against the SBT. These five women now represented Satan and all that is evil in the world. Other brewers vowed no more sex (in new spots, men would ogle beautiful women in slinky dresses that rode high on thighs–– but no sexist swimwear!).

In the thick of the controversy, I even got a call from a woman in Michigan upset because the Bikini Team members were from Sweden. “What’s wrong with American women?” she asked. “There’s plenty of beautiful women in this country!”

Now we were getting knocked for being unpatriotic.

Of course, the clients became concerned. While it was great to have buzz, it was awful to have notoriety. We proposed a final spot to make lemonade of the lemons we’d been pelted with.

This last spot would be a :60 opus on the Super Bowl to properly bury the Swedish Bikini Team while fanning the flames of publicity. It would have guys gathered around a campfire by a stream. One man would raise his can of Old Milwaukee and say, “Guys, it doesn’t get any better than this.” Then, an announcer would tell us how it could get better. A trout jumps from the stream into a frying pan over the campfire. Then the announcer would say, “And when the Swedish Bikini Team bungee corded into camp… “ but nothing would happen. Suddenly, the commercial director would barge into the scene demanding to know where the Team was. A production assistant appears holding bikinis and blonde wigs and shrugs. The director slumps down and sobs into a wig saying, “They’ll never work in this town again!”

The announcer speaks again: “And so, the Swedish Bikini Team, America’s favorite import, was never heard from again.” Cut to a scene of a frozen tundra at dusk. A super reads Somewhere in Sweden. The camera rolls across the tundra toward a cabin in the horizon. Rock music plays louder and louder the closer the camera gets to the cabin. The announcer says, Although legend has it on cold nights out on the Swedish tundra, you can still hear the call of the wild.” The camera zooms in on a window where a shade is drawn and a silhouette of the SBT dancing appears. The spot ends with an Old Milwaukee logo and “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

It would have been big. We even envisioned a promotional campaign themed “Whatever happened to the Swedish Bikini Team?”

But none of it came to pass. The client was nervous and pulled the plug. Instead, a new campaign was rolled out and the Swedish Bikini Team joined Mr. Whipple and Josephine the Plumber in the unemployment line for advertising icons. Boo hoo.

A few years back, Ad Age ran a survey on the most popular beer campaigns of all time. Amazingly, the Swedish Bikini Team came in second place, behind the first place Jocks campaign for Miller Lite in the 70’s and 80’s. Jocks ran for ten years and used a variety of celebrities and sports heroes. The SBT ran for seven months and used a bunch of unknown women who wore bad wigs and fairly conservative bikinis.

I suspect the campaign will eventually be immortalized as an answer in Trivial Pursuit, if it isn’t already. And for creating an ad campaign, I suppose it doesn’t get any better than that.

If you’re the CMO of a beer account, I’d love another at bat. Swimwear optional.


14 responses to “The Swedish Bikini Team Legend”

  1. Those SBT ads were fabulous, Pat. Very clever and entertaining. It’s a shame they came to such an ignominous end. Political correctness has ruined so many forms of humor. And that’s the naked truth!

  2. No problem. Please let me know if you ever want me to tweet something/promote for you…

    Are you going to CLIO his year?

  3. Allow me to serve you some hops and barley, sir. Were you aware that Heineken has offices in Alpharetta (and White Plains NY)?

    Mr. Michael Grimes
    Manager, Marketing
    Heineken
    30000 Mill Creek Avenue, Suite 200
    Alpharetta, GA 30022

    And another, if you can take it, in Athens:

    Terrapin Beer Company, LLC265 Newton Bridge Road
    Athens, GA 30607 USA
    (706) 549-3377

    Mr. Steve Hayes
    Retail Brand Manager
    steve@terrapinbeer.com

    Mr. Dustin Watts
    Vice President, Sales & Mtg
    dustin@terrapinbeer.com

    I hate to be suggestive, but like to suggest we all talk about this over a beer.

  4. Perhaps you guys need another “Beer Summit” with Clinton [insert laugh lines here, or just sniker] maybe The SBT could “serve” {insert cameo role joke here] the table like those long-shots at the other “Beer Summit” [sorry I’m coming up empty on what the subject of the summit could be, hmm lost beer spokespeople?]
    Thanks for the fun.

  5. Hi there, Pat– hope you are doing well…I remember a lot about all of this…it was indeed an interesting time.

  6. Indeed, Michael. Like Jerry Garcia said, “What a long, strange trip it’s been.” But I enjoyed riding along it with you. Best wishes and please keep collecting Lint. It’s good for you!

  7. Hey didn’t the SBT win you all kinds of creative awards, then get you fired? Such is admotizin’. Like the McDonald’s spot I did for the Superbowl while in the United group at Burnett. It interrupted an existing spot, setting network precedent (before the Energizer Bunny) and caused a poopstorm of political posturing at the agency.

  8. The S.B.T. never did much at award shows. It was toxic at the time. The P.C. nature of the day ruled.

    The shitstorm of bad press become a blemish to the sterling reputation of HRP. I became a leper of sorts and was eventually cast aside. Wah wah wahhhhh.

    The campaign lives on in infamy and was even mentioned in the obituary of Hal Riney. I suspect he spun a bit in his grave.

  9. I sincerely won’t drink old Milwaukee it taste like old milurine to me.
    But got dang watching this girls doing this commercials they look fun made me kind of want to go get a six of old Milwaukee.

    If the people of old Milwaukee have any cense they should bring this character back.

    Even though it might be like resituating the old bud- wise- er. Frogs

    I want to see the sbt back in action

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