Advertising Age reports that Miller is ready to “put the gruff back into High Life beer.”
What that means is the brewing giant will abandon efforts to position Miller High Life as a more upscale, more feminine beer with hopes of reclaiming blue collar loyalty.
Still-in-development spots shown to the brewer’s distributors at regional meetings last week seem to repudiate the disowned direction, showing Miller delivery drivers forcibly removing High Life from trendy, upscale restaurants and nightclubs. The scenes strike a creative chord not seen since Miller scrapped Wieden & Kennedy’s 1950s-era manly man for the fussier, feminine push. Sales cratered with the Girl in the Moon ads and lessons apparently were learned.
“I don’t know what the hell they were thinking,” said one Southern distributor who was happy to see the new creative effort.
Notice the discussion is about changing the marketing/advertising (and that continues when the topic shifts to Miller Lite). To Miller’s credit, they think highly enough of their beer that they don’t mention the product itself could be the problem.
But isn’t their a chance people have quit buying it because of what’s inside (or not inside) the bottle?