We’ve always known Miller Light to be described as tasting great and being easy on the calories, but recently they may be better known as unethical. Miller Light has been advertising their new taste protector cap; the only problem is that their cap is no different from any other can of beer. So allow me to pose this question to you; is renaming a standard feature to make it sound exciting and new ok?
Coors Light has seen the best sales trends of any mass-marketed premium light beer with the promotion of their can that changes colors when it is cold (a new feature to the world of canned beer). Miller Light has attempted to mimic this model of making their cans seem new and advanced, but the folks at the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus have an ethical problem with this. In NAD’s report they noted, “that while advertisers can change marketing strategies to promote the different features of their product, they must do so truthfully to avoid any potential overstatement or consumer confusion.” (full article)
MillerCoors, the brewing company for both Miller Light and Coors Light, has said that while it disagrees with some of NAD’s contentions, they have agreed to take their recommendations into consideration in future campaigns. It seems Miller Light has dodged a bullet here. They are walking away with a mere slap on the hand and not a multi-million dollar lawsuit. But with their ethics now called into question, who’s to say how much money they’ll lose in decreased sales. This goes to show that when putting together a campaign, what you say is as important as how you say it.
