CHICAGO & ST. LOUIS -- This spring, MillerCoors CEO Gavin Hattersley said one of the major problems facing low-calorie beer—sales of light beers have been declining for several years—is the major brewers’ advertising strategy, often showing bikini-clad women romping on a beach.
“Light beers have alienated a good number of our target market,” he said in April during the Beverage Forum in Chicago. “Women largely have been ignored.”
A major part of MillerCoors' effort to get its leading light beers—Coors Light and Miller Lite—back on track has been to reverse the trend, focusing its Coors Light advertising on refreshing taste and Miller Lite on its heritage as the “original” low-calorie beer.
“Our job is to make sure our brands are strong,” Hattersley said.
This summer, Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light will take the reversal even further with the newest addition to its tongue-in-cheek Bud Light Party ad campaign.
In the new spot, titled “Equal Pay,” spokesmen Amy Schumer and Seth Rogan point out that women are paid 79% that of men and, therefore, “their work month would have ended this past Thursday, June 23.”
“Bud Light proudly supports equal pay,” Schumer says in the spot. “That’s why Bud Light costs the same no matter if you’re a dude or a lady.”
And in a serious turn, A-B/Bud Light will donate $1 to Catalyst, a nonprofit organization that promotes inclusive workplaces for women, for every social-media post that uses the hashtag #CheersToEqualPay from June 27 through July 1, 2016.
“The Bud Light Party is about bringing people together and sparking national conversations around timely topics,” said Alex Lambrecht, vice president of Bud Light for St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch. “In our newest spot, Seth and Amy have a colorful banter surrounding the matter of equal pay—which the Bud Light Party proudly supports.”
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