Friday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from 1939. “Enjoy Life with Miller High Life.” Tennis … golf … baseball … “Wherever there’s action — wherever people are doing things — you’ll find Miller High Life.” Is there actually ever a time when people aren’t doing things?
Monday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from 1963. The ad is fairly simple, just a glass of beer and a half-emptied bottle of High Life next to it, with a plate of food behind it, and slightly out of focus. Is that lobster? It feels like the ad may have been cut off, like there should be more below the headline, but maybe not, it was done in the minimalist 1960s.
Tuesday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from 1961. “Enjoy Life with Miller High Life.” Certainly the man is enjoying his, he gets the rocking chair and a book, while the little woman sits at his feet peeling carrots. I guess she shouldn’t complain, he did allow her to have a beer, too.
Super Sunday’s ad is for Miller Lite, from 1981. Featuring a number of former football players, including Fred “The Hammer” Williamson and Billy Kilmer, at a bar claiming that “In Football, We Went Head To Head. But When It Comes To Lite Beer, We See Eye To Eye.” I’m not sure that will happen anytime soon for either the Seattle Seahawks or the New England Patriots, especially after the brawl that erupted in the very last seconds of this year’s Super Bowl earlier tonight.
Monday’s ad is Miller Lite, from 1982. Today is also the birthday of Mr. Baseball, Bob Uecker, who arguably was at least partially responsible for the success of lower-calorie diet beers with his wildly successful ads for the beer in the 1980s. It was a marvel of modern advertising and I’m still amazed to this day that it worked in convincing people to drink an even more watered-down version of the macro lagers of the day. But Uecker was certainly great in the ads, and I loved him in the “Major League” movies, too.
Sunday’s holiday ad is for Miller High Life, from 1950. In the days after Christmas, with all of your presents laid out, having been played with or used, one apparently emerges as the favorite. Just like “The Highlander,” I guess “there can be only one.” This guy (I’m presuming it was a guy) did pretty well. He appears to have received a rifle (or rifle case), a thermos, bowling ball, fishing basket, along with a rod and reel, binoculars, camera, books, a barometer and a set of golf clubs. But the ad would have us believe it was the Miller High Life that emerged as the favorite beer.
Thursday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from the 1950s. Miller did a series of these ads with sparse, minimalist decoration. In this one, it looks like the wall at the back was designed by Piet Mondrian, the Dutch modern artist. It sure looks like it’s going to be a great party, especially once someone picks up that acoustic guitar leaning against the staircase, next to some floor pillows, and starts jamming.
Thursday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from the 1950s. Another of Miller’s minimalist ads, this one is set in a backyard barbecue. They’re making kabobs, but I especially love that they converted a wicker cart into a cooler.
Thursday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from 1961. After the Sochi Olympics, a little skiing just made sense. This was, I believe, before Miller started using the Tetra hop that is resistant to getting lightstruck. So who knows how this beer would have tasted coming off the slopes.
After much speculation, I got a press release this morning from MillerCoors clarifying what we all thought to be the case regarding their newest creation, Miller Fortune. Here’s what they had to say:
Earlier this week, Bloomberg News Service wrote a story (“MillerCoors Seeks Spirits Fans With Bourbon-Like Lager”) about a new beer from MillerCoors called Miller Fortune, that we are launching the week of February 10.
Since that story ran, there have been several follow-up stories that inaccurately portray Miller Fortune as being a bourbon-flavored beer. That is simply not true and we’d like to set the record straight for anyone interested in writing a story in the future.
WHAT IS MILLER FORTUNE?
Miller Fortune is an exciting new beer with a 6.9% ABV. It features a rich golden color, brewed with caramel malt and cascade hops to achieve layers of flavor and a distinctly smooth finish. Our beer was brewed to deliver the complexity and depth that appeals to spirit drinkers. Spirit inspired…yes. Spirit infused…no. As many of you know, the beer industry as a whole has lost seven share points to spirits (five) and wine (two) in the last 10 years. Miller Fortune was created to fight against these losses and take back legal-drinking age spirits drinkers/occasions. So, you can say it has been inspired by the success of spirits competition and it is a darker beer that may look more bourbon-like in a glass.WHAT MILLER FORTUNE IS NOT?
Miller Fortune is not bourbon-like or a bourbon-flavored beer.
I almost feel sorry for MillerCoors. That they would have to send out this release says a lot about the state of mainstream journalism, because that’s who got the story so wrong. What I think this reveals is that the mainstream and business press is not capable of covering the beer industry any longer. For so many years, they talked about numbers, about market share, about marketing; almost everything to do with the business, except for the beer itself, its flavor. But now that beer with flavor is kind of a big deal, they no longer know what to do. The business press booted it all over the place on this one, though Time magazine’s assigning it to a health reporter was even worse.
If I may be so bold as to suggest, the mainstream press needs to hire people who know something about beer to cover it effectively and accurately. Not business writers, not wine writers, not health writers: beer writers. I know of at least 130 members of the North American Guild of Beer Writers who would be pleased to accept a paid assignment from Bloomberg, Business Insider, Time or any number of news outlets who for years have been, for the most part, not covering beer very well, assigning beer stories to reporters who did not, and apparently still do not, really understand it. With over 2,700 American breweries, and even more internationally, there’s plenty to keep us busy. Just call one of us next time. We know the difference between a bourbon beer and one inspired by it.
