Gourt Home::Gourt :: Miller Lite
Miller Lite is the name of a popular pilsner beer sold by Miller Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Sibling beers include Miller Genuine Draft and Miller High Life.
History
Essentially the first mainstream light beer, Miller Lite has a colorful history. After its first inception as "Gablinger's Diet Beer" the recipe was literally given by the inventor of the light beer process to one of Miller's competing breweries, Chicago's Meister Brau, which came out with the Meister Brau "Lite" brand in the early 70's. When Miller acquired Meister Brau the recipe was reformulated and relaunched as "Miller Lite" in 1975, 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's 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, especially Anheuser-Busch with its heavily advertised Bud Light in 1982, which eventually overtook Lite in 1994. In 1992 light beer became the biggest domestic beer in America.
Advertising
Miller Lite is known for its long-running "Tastes great, Less filling" advertising campaign, which was ranked by Advertising Age magazine as the 8th best advertising campaign in history. The campaign was developed by the ad agency, McCann-Erickson Worldwide. "TOP 100 ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS." Adveritising Age. Accessed on July 2, 2006]
As part of this campaign, Miller Brewing ran a series of highly distinctive television commercials in the winter of 1993–1994 showing several fictitious "extreme sports" such as "Wiener Dog Drag Racing" (which featured two wiener dogs facing 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."
Starting on January 12, 1997, a series of surreal Miller Lite ads began to be produced, purportedly made by a guy named "Dick". They were hallmarked as such either at the beginning or the end of the commercial. Such commercials include one where a middle-aged guy sees the message "twist to open" on a Miller Lite bottlecap, and he proceeds to do the Twist. "See Dick Make Ads". University of Iowa Department of Communication. Accessed on July 2, 2006
In 2002, "Catfight", another high-profile commercial in the long-running "Tastes great, Less filling" campaign, was denounced by critics as depicting women as sexual objects."Miller Lite's 'Catfight' ad angers some viewers." USA Today. Accessed on July 2, 2006
In 2006, Miller Lite had an advertising campaign featuring celebrities that include actor Burt Reynolds, professional wrestler Triple H, comedian Eddie Griffin, and former American football player Jerome Bettis. The celebrities and along with other actors were in a "Men of the Square Table", a group meeting where they discuss different situations that should be included in the "Man Law". The ads were developed by the ad agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky/Miami, and were directed by comedy film director, Peter Farrelly.Miller Lite | "Unopened Beer". AdWeek. Accessed on July 2, 2006
Notes
References
- Important dates in the history of Miller Brewing Co. San Antonio Express-News.
External links
- Video of the Wiener Dog Drag Racing commercial from 1993 courtesy of Wiener Takes All
- Official Miller Lite website
- Men of The Square Table
Beer and breweries in the United States | 1975 introductions | NASCAR sponsors
"Miller Lite"