Regulator says they must stop saying the beers taste like water

The Challenge of Adversarial Journalism: How Beer Brands Become More Creative in Selling Products that Aren’t Solved by Humor

“Humor is really difficult to break through,” Wolf said about the brand’s former ads, adding that they weren’t “direct enough” in educating people about Bud Light Seltzer. The brand is the first one to have a consistent message since it was launched, with the new ad emphasizing the 100% Hard Seltzer, 2% Beer slogan.

To that end, Bud Light Seltzer is rolling out a new, year-long ad campaign with the slogan “100% Hard Seltzer, 0% Beer.” A Bud Light Seltzer delivery truck rolls through a desert with colorful bubbles in the back of it. The bubbles are an powerful way to show the variety of flavors that our product brings, said Wolf.

An Anheuser- Busch spoke out against misleading attacks on beer brands and said the beer industry should be working together to strengthen the category.

NAD’s decisions aren’t legally binding, however most advertisers comply with their decision. If an ad does not comply, a complaint is made to the Federal Trade Commission.

The more time Bud Light spends trying to convince hard drinkers that there is no beer in it, the less it has the ability to discuss the important things like flavor.

It’s a big change from Bud Light Seltzer’s previous ads that used humor. In one ad shown during the 2020 Super Bowl, Bud Light Seltzer enlisted rapper Post Malone and showed the inside of his brain trying to decide to either buy Bud Light or Bud Light Seltzer from a convenience store. He buys both. Another TV ad featured a toll-free phone number for confused customers to call to answer their questions about the spiked seltzer.

“Some have worked well, but typically only for a short period of time as consumers continue to seek something new and different,” she said. A third of volume loss is due to shifting to spirits-based cocktails and other categories, as many buyers are spending less on seltzers.

The novelty has gone away and the top selling brands have started to introduce spirit-based cocktails and redesigns. For example, drinkers would rather drink a tequila-based canned margarita over a a malt-based, margarita flavored seltzer.

White Claw, Truly, and Bud Light Seltzer are in the top three selling brands according to a market research firm. Bud Light Seltzer sales fell by about a quarter last year which is worse than the category as a whole.

Sales of seltzers are “maturing,” according to Kaleigh Theriault, a thought leadership manager at NIQ. She told CNN that there are 361 brands fighting for attention in the seltzer category and many are trying to entice drinkers with new flavors.