Why is a South American beer brand going viral? The answer's simple: Star Wars

• The Force is with Chilean beer brand Cerveza Cristal.
• In 2003, the brand edited ads into a broadcast of the Star Wars trilogy. Now they've gone viral.
• Sure, it looks tacky, but it did win a prestigious ad award at the time.

The latest brand getting attention on social media isn't Stanley — it's a South American beer creatively edited into a Star Wars broadcast 20 years ago.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, users started sharing clips from the original Star Wars trilogy last week.

The clips look normal — until a bottle or can of Cerveza Cristal beer suddenly appears in the shot.

One example: In the scene where Obi-Wan Kenobi gives Luke Skywalker his father's lightsaber, Obi-Wan walks over to another corner of the room and opens a trunk while saying, "Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough."

But instead of the trilogy's most iconic weapon, the viewer sees bottles of Cerveza Cristal on ice and hears the brand's jingle fade in:

Around 2003 in Chile, when the original trilogy of Star Wars began airing on television there, they did this funny thing to avoid cutting to commercial breaks. They stitched the commercials into the films themselves. Here is one of them, with the English dub added in. pic.twitter.com/wC7N2vPNvv

In another, Emperor Palpatine appears to conjure up a can of Cristal into his hand:

I'd never heard of it, and it's fantastic.

Above all, it explains how Palpatine somehow survived: with Cerveza Cristal. https://t.co/JtNd4jOE3e pic.twitter.com/kuX3Cn0Ls8

The odd edits go back to 2003 when the Star Wars trilogy was broadcast on TV in Chile.

Rather than break up the movies with traditional commercials, the ad agency working with Cristal decided to edit spots for the beer directly into the action.

While it may look jarring, the approach earned the ad agency kudos, including a grand prix award the following year at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in France, AdAge reported at the time.

The judges who handed the prize to OMD Santiago, the ad agency, praised the "genius" of the strategy, according to the Guardian. Their reasoning: consumers had become numb to normal ads, and OMD's approach caught their attention.

The campaign resurfaced in an article on Spanish-language news website Vida Extra, which could be why the clips are getting new fame.

And of course, fans are editing Cerveza Cristal into other parts of the Star Wars franchise — and other movies entirely:

The plot for the Mandalorian and Grogu movie has leaked . Saving the last Cerveza Cristal pic.twitter.com/sc2dGWCkxx

Was rewatching my favorite movie with a friend from Chile and his copy was kinda weird
🎶CERVEZA CRISTAL🎶 pic.twitter.com/UeqtfHjsKU

Caught Iron Man on TV in Chile last night
🎶CERVEZA CRISTAL🎶 pic.twitter.com/Q3Y9oPsR6K

The Late Show even got in on the gag on Tuesday night:

The beer has responded to the memes on X, retweeting some using its account and replying to others.

"From Chile to the entire galaxy," the account's reply to one of the photoshopped images reads.

De Chile para toda la galaxia 😮‍💨✨

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