A checklist for the new Bud Light, Coors Light and Heineken ads

Before long, three of the country’s biggest beer brands will all unveil new ads.

In each case, they’ll be created by recently appointed ad agencies with no history on the brand.

That’s a lot of inexperience!

​Of course, inexperience was not why these ad agencies were chosen. It was their creative promise. In other words, the beer brands are looking for some magic. Alas, lack of experience with a promise of magic is pretty risky footing upon which to reach for success.

Coming soon: New ads

Inexperience + inexperience = ?

Beer-marketing executives will soon be unveiling these new ads. They’ll claim they’ve found great advertising. But that’s a judgement based on even more inexperience. Their own. The truth is, not one of these executives has ever approved a truly “great” beer ad in their entire career. (If you doubt this and you get a chance, just ask them to cite their last great beer ad.) So how do they know they’ve spotted it now? “Creative magic”–the transformative force that can reverse the fortunes of a beer brand–is pretty rare.

We can help.

There’s one instance of creativity performing its magic on a beer brand upon which virtually every beer historian can agree.

These Miller Lite ads vaulted an obscure low-calorie beer brand into prominence and category-dominating leadership. Once polled on which beer ads they thought were “great,” a large group of distributors with collectively over a thousand years of experience selling beer all agreed the Miller Lite athletes campaign stood at the very top of the list. No other beer ads were even close.

What made these Miller Lite ads great?

First, they cleverly–and humorously–used retired athletes as presenters to allay beer drinkers’ fears that low-calorie meant diet beer for women.

Second, the provocative difference in the beer–great taste while being less filling–was the very center of every ad.

Third. There is no third.

So, let’s use these ads as a template to generate our own simple, two-question checklist for great beer ads.

Just two items. That should make it easier for beer executives, ad agency creative people, and the rest of us to determine whether Bud Light, Coors Light and Heineken uncover greatness in their new ads.

Which is exactly what it’s going to take for them to sell more beer.

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