We now have one answer to the pressing question: "What's wrong with Bud Light's advertising?"
| This week's press brings us what the guy responsible for the brand's advertising thinks is behind its loss of nearly a million barrels of volume in just the past two years. (That's 330 million 12-ounce cans!) Says Bud Light's marketing VP: |  |
"The big issue I saw was that we were making fun of our drinker. Instead of laughing with, we were laughing at (him)."
And to solve this, here are two of the ads they've come up with:
(Editor's note: The two Bud Light "Hold my beer" commercials have been removed from youTube and so are no longer available here. More details here. Our commentary below has been left in place.)
And to solve this, here are two of the ads they've come up with:
(Editor's note: The two Bud Light "Hold my beer" commercials have been removed from youTube and so are no longer available here. More details here. Our commentary below has been left in place.)
| | |
Funnier? Yup.
The "big issue" with Bud Light's advertising solved?
Far from it.
Some time back, we published the "Seven Deadly Sins of Beer Advertising." Bud Light advertising is a serial violator of at least five of these. At best, their new "Hold my beer" ads address only one: They stop portraying the brand's drinkers in an unflattering way. The lay person will be excused if he wonders how highly paid advertising folks missed that in the first place.
Here's what the new Bud Light ads don't do: They don't accomplish the #1 job of beer advertising, namely make the brand special. This is an issue of brand strategy, not comedy-writing execution.
Bud Light may have created great ads for selling beer, but that #1 job of advertising requires developing a strategy that makes the brand special and distinctive, and so sells a particular brand of beer, Bud Light. These new commercials fail to answer the critical, and much more difficult question for Bud Light's marketing VP: "Why should drinkers choose Bud Light?"
And there's nothing funny about that.
The "big issue" with Bud Light's advertising solved?
Far from it.
Some time back, we published the "Seven Deadly Sins of Beer Advertising." Bud Light advertising is a serial violator of at least five of these. At best, their new "Hold my beer" ads address only one: They stop portraying the brand's drinkers in an unflattering way. The lay person will be excused if he wonders how highly paid advertising folks missed that in the first place.
Here's what the new Bud Light ads don't do: They don't accomplish the #1 job of beer advertising, namely make the brand special. This is an issue of brand strategy, not comedy-writing execution.
Bud Light may have created great ads for selling beer, but that #1 job of advertising requires developing a strategy that makes the brand special and distinctive, and so sells a particular brand of beer, Bud Light. These new commercials fail to answer the critical, and much more difficult question for Bud Light's marketing VP: "Why should drinkers choose Bud Light?"
And there's nothing funny about that.
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