A Friend Calls at 3AM, Needing $400 For A Gambling Debt To Some Thugs. Do You Help?

Carlsberg / YouTubeCarlsberg hired Duval Guillaume Modem — the Belgian agency famed for its elaborate public hoaxes — to create this new ad, which puts a group of best friends to the test when one of them calls late at night begging for money.

The premise is simple. Your phone goes off between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m., and your buddy tells you that he's has just lost 300 euros (about $400) in a card game, and won't be allowed out of the poker den unless you can come up with the money immediately.

The execution — as always, when it comes to Duval Guillaume's ads — is complicated. (The agency also did TNT's "dramatic surprise" ad and Coke's 007 foot chase video). The put-upon friend (who the agency says do not know they're being filmed) arrives in the dodgiest neighborhood in town and must navigate a bare-knuckle boxing contest, a cock fight, and a several bouncers before being admitted to a back-room filled with scary characters holding the buddy hostage.

Only when the money is placed on the table does a curtain fall — revealing that it's a giant beer promotion.