One year ago when Miller President Norman Adami expressed regret over past campaigns -- "We were promoting sameness and increasingly going lowbrow. It is as if we were promoting beer as the official beverage of the knuckleheads" -- I thought it was his way of getting us all excited for the upcoming Man Laws. I mean, whether you liked Man Laws or not, it was a nice departure from girls wrestling in fountains. Wasn't it?
Now though the AdAge article makes Adami out to be a villain in the CPB departure. Could it really be Adami's idea to sell beer by comparing "Lite's carbs and calories to Bud Light, Heineken Premium Light and, in commercials still in production, wine and cocktails?" Well. Good luck with that.
[via Yonder Ponder]
2 comments:
Here's the big dilemma. Beer distributors, who sling an unwieldy amount of weight in this whole equation, LOVE LOWBROW SAMENESS. They thought the catfight was the pinnacle of all advertising EVER. Finally an ad that fulfilled forty years of pent-up frustration: catfight turned wet t-shirt contest.
As much as the ManLaws was getting back to the good ol' days of celebrity "Tastes Great, Less Filling" (still the high water mark of 'effective' Miller Lite advertising after 25 years) it wasn't going for the throat of "BUY MORE MILLER LITE".
Fact is, Bud Light, HPL, and most wine and cocktails have something going for them: a BRAND. Miller Lite still says the wrong thing about people holding one: "I drink beer regardless of the brand. Preferably 12-18 at a time."
If Man Laws couldn't do it, product-centric "better brewing" ads sure as fuck won't.
I've seen this movie before. Only I thought it was about car dealers and I thought the main character was named Joe Isuzu.
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