Miller Lite

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Miller Lite
The official Miller Lite logo
Miller Lite logo
TypePilsner-style light American lager
ManufacturerMiller Brewing Company
Introduced1975; 49 years ago (1975)
Alcohol by volume 4.2%[1]
Websitehttps://www.millerlite.com/
Miller Lite
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy113 kJ (27 kcal)
.9
0.0
<1
†Percentages estimated using US recommendations for adults,[2] except for potassium, which is estimated based on expert recommendation from the National Academies.[3]

Miller Lite is a 4.2%

Bud Light. Miller Lite is the official beer sponsor of the Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Brewers, Milwaukee Bucks, Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens, Chicago Bears, and Bellator MMA.[5][6][7][8][9]

History

Calorie-reduced

San Diego, California,[14] in 1973, and heavily marketed using masculine pro sports players and other "macho" figures of the day in an effort to sell to the key beer-drinking male demographic. Miller Lite was introduced nationally in 1975.[15] and became the first successful mainstream light beer in the United States.[16]

Miller's youth-oriented, heavy-advertising approach worked where the two previous light beers had failed, and Miller's early production totals of 12.8 million barrels quickly increased to 24.2 million barrels by 1977 as Miller rose to 2nd place in the American brewing marketplace. Other brewers responded, in particular Anheuser-Busch with its heavily advertised

Bud Light in 1982, which eventually overtook Lite in sales by 1994. Anheuser-Busch played on the branding style of "Lite", boasting that next to Bud Light "everything else is just a light". In 1992, light beers became the biggest domestic beer in America, and in 1998, Miller relabeled its "Lite" brand as "Miller Lite".[17]

In 2008, Miller Brewing Company test-marketed three new recipes – an amber, a blonde ale, and a wheat – under the Miller Lite brand, marketed as Miller Lite Brewers Collection.[18]

At the 2010 and 2014

Miller Genuine Draft.[citation needed] The beer ranked #1 on the list of top 100 beers by the Cold Cans podcast.[19]

Promotion

Advertising

The Miller Lite logo, 2003-2014.

Miller Lite's long-running "Tastes Great!...Less Filling!"

voice-over from actor Eddie Barth, who read the slogan, "Lite Beer from Miller: Everything you've always wanted in a beer. And less."[21]

The then-recently retired New York Jets running back Matt Snell was the first person to appear in Miller Lite's first commercial in 1973.[citation needed]

To attract 'Joe Sixpack' to a light beer, these commercials started to feature both elite ex-athletes such as

The Producers), and comedian Rodney Dangerfield
. As the series of commercials went on, it began featuring athletes and celebrities of all sorts. Some commercials from this era include:

  • Former Major League catcher and Milwaukee Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker being moved from his seat at a ballgame, and escorted away by an usher. Uecker exclaims "I must be in the front row," but ends up in the back row of the stands. This gave rise to the term "Bob Uecker seats".[22]
  • Heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier walking into a full bar as part of a barbershop quartet while the on-screen caption says "Joe Frazier, Famous Heavyweight Singer". The quartet sings "do like Smokin' Joe" and the song goes on to praise Miller Lite's advantages.[23]
  • Former Baltimore Orioles first baseman Boog Powell and former umpire Jim Honochick doing a spot together, with Honochick unaware who he is standing next to, until he puts his glasses on at the end, and exclaims, "Hey, you're Boog Powell!"[24][citation needed]
  • Footballer and actor Bubba Smith proclaims at the end of a spot, "I also love the easy-opening can", then tears off the top third of an aluminum Miller Lite can.[25] In a later ad, pro ten-pin bowler Don Carter laments that bowlers are athletes too, and attempts to prove it by repeating Smith's feat, but struggles to do so.[26]
  • When Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner were in the middle of their 1970s feuds[clarification needed], they did an ad with Martin saying, "Tastes great, George", and Steinbrenner replying, "Less filling, Billy!", back and forth until Steinbrenner finally says, "You're fired!" (changed to "You're hired!" when Martin was re-hired by Steinbrenner in real life). Martin replies, "Not Again!"[citation needed]
  • Former baseball player Marv Throneberry also starred in ads, usually making deadpan comment about being featured in the ad, despite his being known as an inept baseball player, quipping, "I don't know why they asked me to do this commercial."
A delivery truck bearing Miller Lite's iconic "Tastes great. Less filling." slogan

As the popularity of the ads and the number of athletes and celebrities that appeared in them grew, Miller produced occasional "alumni" ads featuring all of the stars, generally in some sort of competition between the 'Less Fillings' and the 'Taste Greats'. The ads usually ended with Rodney Dangerfield somehow being the goat of the losing team. In one of the last spots to feature Dangerfield, the Miller Lite alumni are competing in a bowling match. It is the last frame of a tie game, and Ben Davidson grumbles to Dangerfield, "All we need is one pin, Rodney." Dangerfield rolls the ball down the lane, only to have it bounce horizontally off the head pin and into the gutter, knocking down zero pins.

As part of this campaign, Miller Brewing ran a series of television commercials in the winter of 1993–1994 showing several fictitious "extreme sports" such as "Wiener Dog Drag Racing" (which featured two wiener dogs racing each other at a drag racing strip), "Sumo High Dive" (which depicted a Japanese sumo wrestler diving off a platform) and "The Miss Perfect Face-Off" (which featured beauty pageant contestants playing ice hockey). The tag line that followed was, "If you can combine great taste with less filling, you can combine anything." and the question "Can your beer do this?"

In 1995-1996, Miller Lite ran the "Life Is Good" campaign, which showed Miller Lite drinkers' aspirational transition to more fun via a Miller Lite bottle tap, like "Beach Rewind", where three men on a beach admired three beautiful women walking by, and could rewind, and enjoy, the scene repeatedly. The campaign was developed by

Leo Burnett Company, and received the American Marketing Association EFFIE award for outstanding advertising effectiveness. The campaign included celebrities such as Larry Bird, Keith Jackson, and Richard Karn.[27]

Beginning January 12, 1997, a series of surrealistic Miller Lite ads, purportedly made by a man named "Dick", began to air. They were hallmarked as such either at the beginning or the end of the commercial. The campaign was developed by Minneapolis-based ad agency Fallon. The series of "Dick" commercials was directed by Gerald Casale of the new wave band Devo. Such commercials include one where a middle-aged man sees the message "twist to open" on a Miller Lite bottle cap, and he proceeds to do the Twist.[28]

The ad campaign changed back to using high-profile celebrities who were either on opposite ends of the spectrum or had bragging rights to exchange with the other, which leads to them arguing about whether Miller Lite was better because of how "smooth" it tastes, or because of "the choice hops". Notable pairings included the following:

  • Baseball Hall of Fame
    in 1999 with 98 and 77 percent of the vote respectively while Yount won two MVP awards to Brett's one.
  • Edgar Winter and George Hamilton. Winter's albinism was a stark contrast to the tanned look of Hamilton on screen.
  • Ken Stabler and Dan Fouts. Stabler needles Fouts about never getting to or winning a Super Bowl while Fouts lets Stabler know about his inferior passing statistics.

In 2003, "Catfight", another high-profile commercial in the long-running "Great Taste...Less Filling" campaign, was denounced by critics as depicting women as sexual objects.[29] The commercial featured two beautiful young women, a blonde (Tanya Ballinger) and a brunette (Kitana Baker), discussing the classic "Great Taste/Less Filling" debate, except they engaged in a catfight, hence the ad's title. The fight moving from a fountain to a mud pit, with the girls stripping each other of their clothing in the process. An uncensored version of the commercial ended with the women, stripped down to their underwear, sharing a passionate kiss. The girls received much publicity from the commercial, and later starred in a few related commercials, videos and events.

In 2006, Miller Lite had an advertising campaign called

Crispin Porter + Bogusky/Miami, and were directed by comedy film director Peter Farrelly.[30]

In June 2010, commercials premiered featuring actresses

Nadine Heimann
as bartenders.

Marketing

In December 2013, as part of a

Pepsi Throwback & Mountain Dew Throwback lines in tapping into the retro-themed packaging market. The unexpected sales increase, combined with wanting to differentiate the packaging from Bud Light, were factors in the decision, with some consumers even stating that Miller actually improved on the taste when nothing changed in the beer itself.[31][32]

Sponsorship

Motorsport

Sprint Cup Series
title that year

Miller Brewing Company began their

Keystone Light since 2021.[33]

Other promotion in

Miller Genuine Draft
. Additionally, Miller Brewing sponsored the Unlimited hydroplane of R.B. "Bob" Taylor in 1984 with the U-7 "Lite All-Star", driven by Tom D'Eath. The following year, Miller switched teams and brands with the "Miller American" Unlimited hydroplane owned by Fran Muncey and Jim Lucero—which resulted in the 1985 National Championship, and APBA Gold Cup wins in 1985, 1986, and 1987, driven by Chip Hanauer.

For the first time in a video game, it was featured in NASCAR '15: Victory Edition and NASCAR Heat Evolution as a sponsor available to users verified to be over 21 years of age.

References

  1. ^ a b "Beer Nutrition Facts and Codes". MillerCoors. Retrieved October 12, 2008.
  2. ^ United States Food and Drug Administration (2024). "Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels". Retrieved March 28, 2024.
  3. PMID 30844154.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  4. ^ "MillerCoors History - MillerCoors". Archived from the original on September 16, 2012.
  5. ^ "Miller Lite renews partnership as exclusive beer sponsor of Milwaukee Brewers". MLB.com News. February 26, 2013.
  6. ^ Docter, Cary (July 17, 2012). "Packers, MillerCoors extend partnership with ten-year deal". Fox 6.
  7. ^ Nishimura, Scott (May 27, 2008). "Miller Beer continues run as exclusive Dallas Cowboys beer sponsor". Star-Telegram.
  8. ^ "Miller Brewing Company Introduced As Founding Partner Of New Bucks Arena". NBA.com News. February 22, 2018.
  9. ^ Heitner, Darren (January 17, 2013). "Bellator MMA Set To Air On Spike TV With Surplus Of Sponsors In Place". Forbes.
  10. ^ "U.S. Patent 3,379,534 issued to Hersch Gablinger April 23, 1968 (patent application filed in U.S. Aug. 17, 1965 and in Switzerland Aug. 28, 1964)" (PDF). patentimages.storage.googleapis.com. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  11. ^ "The First Beer With No Carbohydrates", Hartford Courant, Jan. 5, 1967, p. 44
  12. ^ Saxon, Wolfgang (December 22, 2005). "Joseph L. Owades, Developer of Recipe for Light Beer, Is Dead at 86". The New York Times. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
  13. ^ Grimm, Lisa. "A Brief History of Beer in Chicago". Serious Eats. Retrieved August 21, 2017.
  14. ^ Brooks, Erik. "BORN IN CHICAGO, RAISED IN MILWAUKEE: A NEW LOOK AT THE ORIGINS OF MILLER LITE". Behind the Beer. Archived from the original on October 16, 2018. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
  15. ^ "B.S.B. Loses Miller Lite Account to Burnett". The New York Times. February 14, 1991. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
  16. ^ Walker, Rob (December 29, 2002). "THE LIVES THEY LIVED; Let There Be Lite". The New York Times. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
  17. ^ Master, The Brew Zen. "Lite vs. Light: Is There a Difference? - Brew Zen Master - Beer". Retrieved May 26, 2021.
  18. ^ Official Miller Lite Brewers Collection website Archived 2008-07-05 at the Wayback Machine
  19. ^ Cold Cans
  20. ^ "TOP 100 ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS." Archived December 18, 2005, at the Wayback Machine Advertising Age. Accessed on July 2, 2006
  21. ^ Barnes, Mike (June 4, 2010). "Teshome Actor Eddie Barth dies; Voiceover artist known for 1980s Miller Lite commercials". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on June 8, 2010. Retrieved July 3, 2010.
  22. ^ "Archives". Los Angeles Times. August 17, 1985.
  23. ^ YouTube
  24. ^ Groller, Keith. "Hey, Didn't You Guys Used to Be...," The Morning Call (Allentown, PA), Tuesday, August 11, 1992. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
  25. ^ Benson, Lee. "About Utah: Bubba Smith always knew right words," Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT), Friday, August 19, 2011. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
  26. ^ "Don Carter , Miller Lite commercial". youtube.com. Retrieved July 31, 2023.
  27. ^ "Miller revives "Miller Time" theme for Lite". Modern Brewery Age. 2000.
  28. ^ "See Dick Make Ads" Archived 2006-11-06 at the Wayback Machine. University of Iowa Department of Communication. Accessed on July 2, 2006
  29. ^ "Miller Lite's 'Catfight' ad angers some viewers." USA Today. Accessed on July 2, 2006
  30. ^ Miller Lite | "Unopened Beer". AdWeek. Accessed on July 2, 2006
  31. ^ Miller Lite Brings Back Its White Label, Possibly Also Its Mojo Bloomberg Businessweek (09/02/2014)
  32. ^ People Really Think Miller Lite In Vintage-Style Cans Tastes Better Consumerist (09/02/2014)
  33. ^ "Miller Lite out, Keystone Light in for Keselowski". January 28, 2021.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Miller Lite.
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