If you’ve ever wanted an excuse to drink, CP&B just answered your prayers.

It’s a bottle of beer, but not as you’ve known it. This bottle of beer helps people think outside the square to solve their problems (allegedly). The idea came from a bunch of creatives at Crispin Porter & Bogusky’s Copenhagen office.

They’d found a study from the University of Illinois at Chicago, which demonstrated that when the average person reaches an alcohol level of 0.075%, he produces the most creative thinking. (NB: that’s .005% below being legally drunk). The scientists found that men who either drank two pints of beer or two glasses of wine before solving brain teasers not only got more questions right, they also were quicker in delivering correct answers, compared to men who answered the questions sober.

So, Professor Jennifer Wiley’s theory states that alcohol may enhance creativity problem solving by reducing the mind’s working memory capacity, which is the ability to concentrate on something in particular – to remember one thing while you’re thinking about something else.

Moreover, previous research had found that increased working memory capacity actually led to better analytical problem-solving performance.

So the CP&B creatives developed a beer bottle that enables you to reach the exact point which, they reckon, “is considered the ideal state for problem solving, inventing and general “out of the box” thinking.”

They worked with Rocket Brewing to craft a beer that would enable the average person to reach the desired 0.075%. The Problem Solver is a craft IPA whose bottle contains an indicator so you can “find your creative peak”. You use your weight to assess how much of the beer will get you to 0.075%.

Of course, there’s a rider: “Enjoying the right amount will enhance your creative thinking. Drinking more will probably do exactly the opposite.”

CP+B Copenhagen managing director, Mathias Birkvad commented, “We have often experienced that the best creative ideas, that we have come up with, are not necessarily done within the agency walls, but often at after-hours social gatherings at our local pub. As an agency we believe that creative thinking can solve any problem. So why not take the idea a step further and use the beer to do something good?”

PS: The Indian pale ale is currently served during after-hours workshops at the agency, at a local Copenhagen beer store and at sessions called “The Problem Solvers” in which community and charity groups are invited to the agency to brainstorm ideas over a beer. Join it virtually, if you like.

Creative credits:

Agency: Crispin Porter & Bogusky Copenhagen
Strategy director: Mathias Birkvad
Creative director: Kristoffer Gandsager
Managing director: Mathias Birkvad
Art director: (senior) Mark Rif Torbensen, (juniors) Mikael Brorsson & David Surland