The understated image campaign for Stella Artois 5%, which is running through August, is complimented with a commercial, La Preparation:

To be sure, it's in using video that the AB InBev-owned brand has truly captured the mood of the era and brand values it's trying to evoke.

The "Thing of Beauty" poster and TV commercial, running through the end of August, are the “first elements of a broader, global campaign” the brand is rolling out this year, according to an InBev spokesperson.

"The campaign takes as its cues Stella Artois’ nine-step pouring ritual, and compares the ritual and presentation of Stella Artois with that of a beautiful woman, and shows the quality and care that go into both."

Working with Mother London, last year Stella took home a gold at the 2009 Cannes Lion advertising awards for 8 Kilometres, a beautifully shot black-and-white short that's a dead ringer for the cinema of the era and the brand's penchant for Riviera chic.

(Also noteworthy: the two companion videos, both in color, called 24 hrs and Dial Hard, respectively.)

The brand's YouTube channel is a showcase for another B&W nod to 60s Gallic culture, this time that of French television.

The time: 1963. Your host: Alain du Monde, who's in love with Mother Nature and entertaining a gaggle of jetsetters who also embrace green living.

Instead of YouTube, it's Le Toube. And years before "carbon footprint" and eco-chic became chic, these time-travelers tout environmental issues before their time.

Besides the color green, why would Stella tout eco-green? The Recyclage de Luxe variety show is presented inside the brand's new lightweight bottle, for the "most carbon efficient television show of the 1960s."

The clever series also featured contemporary musicians, including Marina and the Diamonds, Florence and the Machine and the Mystery Jets, into the fun.

Not content to rest on those laurels, Stella has just commissioned Oscar-winning film director Wim Wenders to shoot its latest video to bring to life the "She's a thing of beauty" tagline.

Now with a mid-1960s flair, the spot is an ode to all the objects lovingly named by men, ending with — of course — Stella itself.

InBev just named a new U.K. marketing chief, James Watson, who will be tasked with helping the brand capture more upmarket drinkers with a premium label, Stella Artois Black.

Marketing Week UK writes that it will be a "premium-plus" addition ("complete with bespoke font, glassware and a reverential pouring ritual") to its current 4% and 5% offerings, available in limited distribution later this year.

The magazine also notes that the "brewer has spent a number of years trying to shake off negative perceptions of the Stella brand and its segmentation with Stella Artois 4% has helped work towards this goal."

With a tagline of "Matured for longer," Stella Artois Black may also, apparently, "be the first in a series of variants launched by the brewer."

With an ABV of 4.9%, it will be slightly less alcoholic than the original 5% lager, but also darker. Its branding, featuring white text on a black background, is also designed to appeal to 20- to 30-year-olds seeking a more sophisticated beer.

It may also be more brooding. AB InBev president Stuart MacFarlane has said that the lager is likely to be consumed during "down-tempo, reflective" occasions.

"A twenty-something consumer has grown up with six or seven different types of Coca-Cola," he commented. "They have grown up in a world where you can have one brand that stands for different occasions and different flavour profiles. Why can't we do what Coke did?"

With Mother handling the creative and new marketer Watson at the helm, we can't wait to see what Stella comes up with to wow us next.

Chan Yew Fei is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn, NY.