While many people are content to trust human-staffed delivery services to dispatch food and beverages to their home, one Canadian brewery has decided to leave that job for the birds — or, more specifically, for a Vancouver Island-based bald eagle named Hercules (video below).
In a promotional stunt for the debut of a new Pilsner by Phillips Brewery, the company recently launched a one-time contest called “Beer From a Bird.” Three guesses as to what the lucky winner of the contest will receive.
Here’s a hint: it’s a beverage that rhymes with shmeer, and it’ll be delivered aerially by a shmald shmeagle.
“This is actually happening,” reads the Phillips Brewery website. “A bald eagle is going to deliver fresh cans of Phillips Pilsner to some very lucky craft beer lovers. In an era where innovation often means digitization, we’re ditching the drone and going analogue.”
According to CTV News, Phillips Brewery has partnered with Duncan-based Pacific Northwest Raptors, an organization which aims to raise awareness and promote conservation for birds of pray, for the contest.
The Pacific Northwest Raptors are supplying the brewery with the four-year-old bald eagle named Hercules to deliver the beer to the winner, reports CTV News.
“We wanted to be involved because our goal is to get people closer to these incredible birds,” said Pacific Northwest Raptors' operations manager Robyn Radcliffe. “So they’ll hopefully feel more inspired to protect them in their natural habitats, to learn more about ways that they can do that and to get more involved in conservation.”
If you are like me and have watched Hitchcock’s film, “The Birds,” then you too are already less-than enthusiastic about the premise of avian creatures being trained to locate and track human beings from above.
As it transpires, the B.C. Legislature harbors similar — albeit more relevant — reservations about the contest. CTV News reports that PNR’s permit states that in accordance with the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, eagles can only be free-flown for bird abatement, or educational flight demonstration at the Duncan facility.
“If the promotional activity does occur as currently planned, it will be in violation of the permit and the Ministry of Environment’s Conservation Officer Service will be asked to investigate the incident,” it said in a statement, as reported by CTV News.
Matt Phillips maintains that his company’s campaign serves a purpose other than to sell beer, and that although his company hasn’t yet spoken with the ministry, a compromise might be reached.
“We definitely have a pretty serious educational component along with this campaign,” he said. “We can’t think of a better way to demonstrate the intelligence, the strength and the agility of these birds than to see them doing something people can connect with.”
For now, Hercules is expected to deliver the beer in early June to the contest winner.
Check out the Phillips Beer promotional video for yourself below: