Bud Light said 20,418 packs will be sold in the Philly area, corresponding to the Super Bowl dateBUD LIGHT
Bud Light and the Eagles will release limited-edition “Philly Philly” commemorative packs that will "go on sale for $29.99 each on Aug. 16," the date of the Eagles’ preseason game against the Patriots, according to Michael Klein of the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER. The name is "inspired by the name of the 'Philly Special' play ... and Bud Light’s 'Dilly Dilly' Super Bowl ad campaign." Each pack will be "individually numbered and will include a 25-ounce aluminum bottle and two Bud Light glasses etched with a diagram of the play." The diagram also "appears on the back of the box" and "on the back of some delivery trucks for Penn Beer, Bud Light’s Philadelphia-area distributor." Eight of the packs will "contain a ticket granting tickets to the Eagles’ season opener on Sept. 6." Bud Light said that 20,418 packs "will be sold in the Philadelphia metro area, corresponding to the Super Bowl date." One year ago, Eagles OT Lane Johnson "promised beer for everybody if the Eagles won the Super Bowl." Bud Light, an NFL sponsor, quickly replied on Twitter: “Let’s make a bet. Win it all and the party is on us. Deal?” Days later, representatives "handed out tokens for free beers, redeemable at bars along the route of the Eagles’ victory parade." Bud Light VP/Marketing Andy Goeler declined to disclose "how many beers were given away" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 8/2).
STRANGE BREWS: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Chaudhuri & Gasparro in a front-page piece note alcohol drinkers in the U.S. last year more often "chose a glass of wine or a cocktail" instead of a beer for the first time. According to the Beer Institute, drinkers "chose beer just 49.7% of the time last year, down from 60.8% in the mid-’90s." Among those aged 21-27, the decline "has been sharper." AB InBev found that in '16, just 43% of alcohol consumed by young drinkers "was beer." In '06, it was 65%. Mass-market beer makers are "losing drinkers to an explosion of spirits brands, such as Tito’s vodka." Craft beer brewers "rode that wave, too, but their volumes haven’t come close to making up for declines in mainstream beer." More recently, craft-beer sales "also have slowed." And Miller Lite, Coors Light, Bud and Bud Light have all "lost share to upstart labels." Industry research has "shown young white males still prefer beer, but their numbers are declining as a percentage of the population." Research shows that African-Americans "favor spirits, and the percentage of liquor consumers that are Hispanic is rising." Women’s per capita alcohol consumption "has risen, but they prefer wine and cocktails." Early this year, top execs from AB InBev, Heineken and Molson Coors gathered in Arlington, Va., to "discuss ways to pool resources and market beer more generally" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 8/2).
