Just as all those vaguely believable rumours of Meghan Markle heading to the UK for a starring role in The Gentlemen have died out, along come scenes of David Beckham in a moody setting full of dodgy-looking characters that could easily be mistaken for a sneak preview of the Netflix drama’s new series.
Stand down, gossip mongers. Of course it’s an advertisement. Beckham doesn’t need an acting job when he’s a one-man global brand behemoth.
The classy-looking advertisement for Stella Artois – he’s the brand ambassador – is titled The Gentlemen’s Serve, and is one element in a multimarket collaboration between Netflix and the lager’s owner Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Just when you think Netflix has found every way possible to sweat the commercial potential of its shows – even Bridgerton came loaded down with brand collaborations and merchandise – the streamer has identified a new offering for advertisers that lets it get in on the storytelling. Also featuring Theo James, the titular star of gangster geezer series, the advertising campaign cleverly blurs the line between drama and advertising.
The so-called hero film of the campaign, titled The Auction, opens with Theo James, in character as posh boy turned drug baron Eddie Horniman, competing in a gritty auction with a similarly suited and booted Beckham. The comedic, slightly bizarre scene (there’s a live bull!) has all the production values and crucially, creative tone of the Guy Ritchie series.
The narrative running through the ad showcases what the brand calls its “five-step pouring ritual”, presented as an underworld power move.
When he gets the nod from his boss, one of Horniman’s henchmen approaches Beckham with a glass of Stella. Before handing it over, he looks him in the eye while using a knife to flatten the head of the lager. Message received, Beckham raises a perfectly shaped eyebrow, the only acting required, and backs out of the bidding, allowing Horniman to win.
It’s fun, stylish and, as Marcel Marcondes, global chief marketing officer of Stella Artois parent company AB InBev, explains, the idea is to make the ad indistinguishable from the series. “Having Theo in character resulted in a series of films that feel like an extension of the storytelling of The Gentlemen,” says Marcondes.
And to show how on-board James is with the collaboration, the press release includes a quote attributed to the actor that is straight from the toe-curling celebrity endorsement playbook: “The Gentlemen deals with rituals of aristocracy at the highest stakes and partnering with Stella Artois, a brand internationally recognised for its commitment to excellence and taste, allows us to bring that to life in a whole new way.”
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Developed by creative agency GUT Amsterdam in collaboration with Netflix Brand Studio, The Auction provides material for a series of cut-downs, all with names that could easily be episode titles from the slick gangster drama, including The Clean-Up, The Sacrifice, The Angle, The Cut and The Judgement.
Beckham added Stella Artois to his bulging portfolio of brand endorsements in 2024. Commenting at the time on signing “the global sport and lifestyle icon”, Marcondes called him “the epitome of modern premium”. The campaign that launched the partnership set a charming, humorous tone that has characterised the advertisements that followed.
Beckham, one of the world’s most recognisable men, is shown sitting in a pub sipping a Stella while customers ignore him to head for the bar. For the brand’s 2025 Super Bowl campaign, he travels to the US to meet his long-lost twin brother, played by Matt Damon and for the Fifa World Cup 2026 campaign, he sits in a packed bar watching a match and, when the place erupts after a goal is scored, remains seated protecting his glass of beer.
Those were standard ad-break commercials, quite unlike this multiyear global Netflix partnership, which will be rolled out across multiple markets including the US, UK, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea.
The collaboration between the brewer and the streamer, leveraging both the narrative and the star of the series, represents a further expansion of Netflix’s marketing menu for big brands. Every blockbuster series now comes with lucrative commercial opportunities, typically involving a mix of product placement and branded merchandise.
The commercial opportunities offered by Stranger Things demonstrate how the streamer’s brand partnerships have developed. When the retro sci-fi drama launched in 2016, viewers could buy a modest selection of merchandise such as T-shirts, mugs and toys, with Netflix largely relying on licensees to produce them.
In 2019, it established its own consumer products division and, two years later, launched its own licensed online store.
By the launch of the fifth and final season of Stranger Things last November, Netflix was announcing dozens of partnerships ranging from toys and collectibles, including Lego, to clothing deals with Nike and Crocs, as well as collaborations with brands such as Starbucks and Doritos. It’s difficult to think of a product category that hasn’t been tapped for a Stranger Things commercial tie-in, with deals ranging from detergents to a Fiat car.
To launch the second season of The Gentlemen – it debuts on September 3rd – Netflix will later this week take over the historic Marlborough Pub in London, transform it into a setting inspired by The Gentlemen, and invite visitors to hunt for hidden messages from the show, order a Stella Artois and pick up merchandise including a branded glass, which the beer maker has long called “a chalice”.
