It’s fair to say that Anheuser-Busch’s “Here’s To Beer” campaign has not exactly been embraced by the craft beer community, and certainly not blogs (like this one) that have commented on it.
But compare it to Miller’s “Man Laws” commercials and website. Which is about beer?
First, in defense of both “Man Laws” and the “Here’s To Beer” spots like the one with Mike Imperioli and Bogey, these commercials remind us that when you drink a beer it’s not always just about the beer. For instance, I have an uncle who considers Beck’s Dark about as good as it gets – and by golly it happens to taste pretty good to me when I have a beer with him. My father, rest his soul, didn’t ask me to drink Miller Lite with him. That might have been the real test.
But when I watched the “Man Laws” commercials or visited the website (with the most obnoxious age verification ever seen) I see no mention of flavor [although it appears that Miller with be attacking A-B on that front using another set of commercials.]
At least the “Here’s To Beer” site is about beer. On the last visit – speaking of age verification, how come the site can’t rememeber me and I have to log in every time? – I saw a suggestion to serve an imperial stout with a chocolate stout. Last time I looked A-B didn’t brew an imperial stout, to they weren’t just pimping their own beer.
Now here’s why I’m writing about this. The Milwaukee Journal Sentintel (yes, Miller’s hometown newspaper) had a story about the success of “Man Laws” that’s appeared in several newspapers.
It reports that since being activated in May, www.manlaws.com has recorded nearly 14 million visits, including more than 542,000 unique visits.
Meanwhile, a press release from A-B in late July stated that since February www.herestobeer.com received “more than 300,000 hits.”
Looks line “Man Laws” is a pretty clear winner. Can’t see why I would think that is good.