Fight ! Fight! Fight! over Bud Light Fan Cans
Would you buy Bud Light cans because they were clad in the colors of your favorite football team?
Lots of beer drinkers are, and that has raised the hackles of some college officials who worry that linking beer and college football could promote underage drinking. Using some 27 combinations, the cans carry the colors of various football teams throughout the nation. The Bud Light marketing campaign urges football fans to "show your true colors " on game day.
Neither the name of the team nor its logo is displayed. The teams have no connection to the Bud Light campaign. Nonetheless some colleges are complaining.
The Wall Street Journal reports that 25 colleges have formally asked Anheuser-Busch, brewer of Bud Light, to drop the campaign near their campuses, The University of Michigan demanded that Anheuser-Busch not sell the "maize and blue cans in the state," the Journal reported. The University of Colorado, Oklahoma State University, Texas A&M University and Boston College have also told the company to stop distribution near their campuses, citing trademark issues and concern about student alcohol use, the newspaper said.
Nebraska is upset as well. Former Husker coach and now athletic director Tom Osborne noted that alcohol is not permitted in Memorial Stadium and has asked Bud Light to drop the campaign in Nebraska. According to a report in the Belleville News-Democrat most distributors are complying.
Meanwhile in Baltimore the Bud Light cans are purple, the color of the Ravens. Picking the colors of a professional, rather than a college team, seems to have served Bud Light well.
"Those cans are a hot item," Joe Falcone beer manager at Wells Discount Liquors told me. Falcone said the purple cans, which come in a loose package of 24, "have been flying out of the door" since they arrived in the market a few weeks ago.
The case, which sells for about $16, has the usual Bud Light colors on the exterior but the cans are purple, he said. Not all the Bud Light cans have the Ravens colors. So fans and enemies of the Ravens, can look through an opening at handle of the package to determine what color cans they are buying, he said.
Would you buy cans of Bud Light that sport the color of your favorite team?
Do you think the colleges are overreacting? Or are they right?
Photo: AP
Comments
So the thinking is that a 20yr old would never think to buy beer, but when he sees a pretty can in a liquor store he can't legally buy, he'll somehow buy a dozen of them and binge drink them?
And a legal college age drinker will drink more beer due to the color of the can?
This is silly.
Posted by: Jed | August 28, 2009 10:01 AM
Jed is right. Pretty colors didn't influence me to drink beer in college. This is not Spuds McKenzie redux.
Posted by: Jay Trucker | August 28, 2009 3:26 PM
Of course this is ludicris, but it wouldn't be the first time for the NCAA.
Want to fix the problem? Give the college a cut of the profit. Problem solved. Heck, they'll be serving the Bud Light in the student union.
Posted by: Tony N | August 29, 2009 6:09 PM
Does it really matter what they put on the outside when it's the same boring stuff inside? I try to drink local craft brews during Ravens games, and my personal favorite, Loose Canon, happens to come with a purple label. And all though "The Raven" has no purple motif, you'd be hard pressed to find a game day beer closer to the team without being an NFL logo somewhere on it.
Posted by: David | August 30, 2009 12:28 AM
Jed is not right. If using the school colors on the can would not encourage a 20 year old to buy the beer, the company wouldn't bother to do it. And yes, a legal drinker might absolutely think it was really cool to drink beer in such a can. If you think these kids can't be influenced by promotions like this you're totally naive.
Posted by: Mark | August 30, 2009 5:45 PM
I do think some kids will be enticed to drink more if it had their school colors, but this isn't like using cartoon characters for tobacco products.
Only about half of the college students in the US are under 21, and let's not forget all the adult alumni and fans of the school who still live in the area. Why should they be denied cans that can be used to show off their school spirit at tailgating events and picnics?
I can understand a school not wanting this sold near them, and I don't think if I was a marketing drone I would have let this past my desk, but only because we're living at a time when people are really sensitive to this type of thing. At some point we'll relax again, and people will be able to look at this promotion simply as a way to celebrate local institutions.
Posted by: Rick | August 31, 2009 3:20 PM
"If using the school colors on the can would not encourage a 20 year old to buy the beer, the company wouldn't bother to do it. And yes, a legal drinker might absolutely think it was really cool to drink beer in such a can. If you think these kids can't be influenced by promotions like this you're totally naive."
That's all valid. What I'm saying is that while college kids might buy this can over another can, they won't decide to drink vs. not drink based on what a can has on it.
So maybe they go to the store and buy a case of bud instead of pabst...my point is nobody is going to take up drinking because the can is purple.
Posted by: Jed | September 1, 2009 2:03 AM
its hypocritically funny how it's ok to partner with the nfl, which a lot of kids watch and not ok to use school colors (without logos) and be within legal guidelines for marketing, then use the platform in this article that it's advertising to kids under 21 in college. if the nfl can partner with a beer company from a legal standpoint, another beer company can't be accused of going after college kids under 21 years of age simply by making their cans the school colors. i'm pretty sure that 70-80% (guestimate) of the total people watching and cheering for Michigan football are over the age of 21. I'm pretty sure the Alma Matta is significantly larger than the current underage attendance at Michigan. it's all or nothing. make overall beer presence in football illegal or all legal. if this is ruled wrong for college, then overall beer sponsors in sports should fall in line. like i said before, it's a brilliant move by BL. anything great is usually edgy and will have some sort of backlash. greatness does not come easy and does not happen without some sort of resistance or controversy. play it conservative and slowly watch high share brands die. can someone get me a schlitz?
are colleges now going to evolve their ownership rights from logos, to the colors too. i can see it now. notre dame is going to claim gold as their color and if anyone uses it without their permission, they will sue you. if colleges start deciding who gets to use their team colors in addition to logo rights.... does this mean they need to strike a deal with crayola first? or god for owning the rights to rainbows? if colleges own the rights to colors, will pro teams have to pay college teams money to use their colors? or vice versa with the deepest pockets winning? what about high schools, middle schools, grade schools, private schools, catholic schools, etc? what about college teams that share the same colors? does D3 have to pay D1? will fashion companies have to pay syracuse if they want to use orange?
the point is....
Can anyone really own the rights to colors? That's the part of the article that crosses over the line of ridiculous. no kid is going to get drunker at college because of this. Let live in reality and find the root of drinking problems, not some leaf on the tree that really has no significance. Chalk it up to BL for doing something great in the cluttered world of marketing and move on.
Posted by: Chip | September 1, 2009 11:54 AM