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NSFW: Coors Light's event marketing

5/31/2015

 
When it comes to insensitivity and bad taste, remember the days BigBeer was pretty much completely tone-deaf?
Some years back (before Miller and Coors were joined), this Miller Lite commercial was justified with "It's targeted to young men who like this sort of thing." When the ad aired nationally, it caused an uproar among women's groups. They chastised the brewer and got it pulled. 
Bikini wrestling
And then there was this Old Milwaukee gem, a classic in bad taste and insensitivity to women.

Along the way, there have been plenty of other lapses. But we're in the new millennium. BigBeer has certainly learned to show sensitivity to hot-button issues and social concerns, right?
Even more bikinis!
NSFW

These four letters are the accepted internet caution when content is potentially objectionable. In this case, forget "potentially." Here comes two minutes of urban event-marketing run amok. Sponsored and all logo-ed up, courtesy of Coors Light. 

Brace yourself. (We're not kidding about the NSFW.)

2 Chainz x Coors Light in Orlando from Nick Brazinsky on Vimeo.

---Editor's note---
The above-linked video of a Coors Light-sponsored Orlando event featuring the artist "2Chainz" and the unsavory language described later in this article has had its privacy setting changed.
An internet search for "2Chainz lyrics" will show similar language which we will not re-print here.
An internet search will also list the videos below, all of which have been deleted now, or converted to "private."
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Wiped clean: All these videos have been deleted from the internet.
We have chosen to leave the text of our article as originally written.
It continues below.

What were they thinking? 

No doubt, the marketing brain trust's immediate backpedal would be a version of the bikini-wrestling defense. Something like: "This is targeted to urban African-Americans who are comfortable with this sort of language." Does MillerCoors really buy that? 

To be sure, popular artistic expression embraces all sorts of off-color and oddball exhibitions. But hawking beer is not art, it's commerce. A beer brand choosing to align itself with decidedly racist characterizations, sexist rants, and foul language by way of a sponsorship is endorsing those social values, or lack thereof. How can it be interpreted otherwise? 

The senior marketer who approved this "2 Chainz" (the artist formerly named "Tity Boi") branded event may have been persuaded it was "only event marketing," and confined to Orlando. If so, he's an idiot. In an age when anyone with a cell phone is a potential content-provider to network television, absolutely nothing is exempt from national exposure. What happens in Orlando won't stay in Orlando.

A brand chasing the marketing false god of hipness in the fashion Coors Light appears to be engaging in here, can easily forfeit equity it took decades to build. Gone in the time it takes for a click.

That's worse than idiotic, it's suicidal.

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Budweiser takes on beer-pairing... and wins

5/17/2015

 
The King of Beer's craft-beer-inspired "brewed the hard way" strategy continues to drive its advertising. And in a bit of  jiu-jitsu creativity, Budweiser is now using a precious craft-beer practice to register its own everyman distinctiveness.
PictureBeer pairing: Up to now, a geeky pursuit
"Pairing"---bringing together particular food items with complementary beers--has been in vogue with craft-beer aficianados for some time. People identifying themselves as "cicerones" cannot contain their excitement at rendering beer-food recommendations. What's somewhat less delightful is the know-it-all geekiness that seems to go hand-in-hand. Who really wants to be lectured about which raspberry ale will go best with a slice of brie? 

It's not enough the un-annointed experts are insufferable about beer, must they double-down and be insufferable about food, too?

Nevertheless, the distinctiveness of a beer paired with the distinctiveness of a particular food does in fact have some merit. Beer goes great with food. But for the majority of drinkers, those food choices are most likely to be a slice of pizza or a burger. And for Budweiser, that simple insight spelled opportunity. See for yourself...

Though it doesn't use the cicerone-y word, here's an ad about pairing Budweiser and burgers. "The official beer of beer, meets the official food of food. Quality 'meats' quality." Nice.

The best part? The sharp elbow for the crafties that removes a beer-snifter glass ("goblet" to the cognoscenti) bearing very dark-colored, implicitly heavy-tasting beer, and replaces it with a refreshing-looking, tall glass emblazoned with the Budweiser logo. This is a compelling visual statement of competitive distinctiveness, and it's based on fact. Budweiser's lighter-than-craft-beer taste actually is a better companion for a burger, an assertion most beer drinkers would endorse and accept. 

Distinctiveness, the basis of Budweier's "brewed the hard way" strategy, is cleverly brought to life... with a burger on the side.

Anything missing?

As we've noted before, Budweiser could gain some traction for their distinctiveness effort by better defining the beer's taste-experience in a way that's true to the beer, desirable, and different from craft beers. We offered one idea. There are certainly others. But regardless, distinctiveness is the underlying driver for Budweiser, and they're doing a good job of it.

Including this tasty effort.

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    The Author

    Dan Fox is a real beer guy.

    For more than half his 30-year career at ad agency, Foote, Cone & Belding, he ran the Coors Brewing account. Leading a group of dozens of advertising professionals, Dan also personally wrote the Pete Coors "Somewhere near Golden, Colorado" commercials, designed the Coors NASCAR graphics, authored sales-convention speeches, and most important of all, formulated marketing strategy for virtually every Coors brand, including Coors Light, Keystone, Killian's Irish Red and more. His proudest achievement? "Our team had every Coors brand growing at once."

    Over his advertising career, Dan was personally involved in the analysis, planning and creation of thousands of ads for a variety of products and services. By way of this blog, he freely shares his expertise about what works, and what doesn't, when it comes to selling beer.

    If you're in the beer-marketing business--or just interested in the subject--you may want to read what "HeyBeerDan" has to say.

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