It appears it was time for Heineken-owned Amstel to switch out of the upper-class and over to their dark, sexy, provocative and popular Amsterdam heritage.

A new ad campaign by Richards Group (Dallas) has taken what used to be a message to the yacht clubs of America created by former agency Publicis (”Live Tastefully”) and created a complete about face in the new and hipper “Dam good bier” campaign which focuses on the hard-partying and proud Dutch Amsterdam lifestyle; this, complete with scenes from bars in the “district” and red overtones in the editing room.

A friend of mine who has been in spirits advertising for over a decade said that he’s pretty sure this will put Amstel Light into the stratosphere when it comes to nightlife, but that the brand will take a massive hit on the upper middle-class segment it used to dominate in the light beer category. I’m not too sure that’ll hold true, but I will say it’s one hell of a gamble.

Heineken already produces, and appears ready to start hard-core pushing, a light beer called Heineken Premium Light. One can only assume they’ve made the decision to separate the dads from the boys and go into brand segmentation; not something you can quickly bounce back from if it fails.

The jury is still out on this move, but in the immortal words of Garth Algar, “Party on, Wayne.”