Bud Light came up with the idea of victory fridges internally along with its PR agency 3PMBUD LIGHT
Bud Light's "Victory Fridges" distributed throughout Cleveland to celebrate the next Browns win have garnered a ton of coverage, and a Bud Light spokesperson said that the stunt "earned the brand more impressions than all but three of the brand's campaigns in the past year," according to Schultz, Pasquarelli & Wohl of AD AGE. Bud Light "came up with the idea internally along with its PR agency 3PM." St. Louis-based experiential agency Fusion Marketing, part of Endeavor Global Marketing, "made the fridges," and Wieden & Kennedy, N.Y., "helped on the execution" (ADAGE.com, 8/15). FORBES' Will Burns wrote the stunt is a "hilarious and brilliant marketing strategy for Bud Light, for the Browns, for the local bars carrying such a fridge and for the long-suffering fans." The fridges will "build good local talk value before the games hunting down the bars that have them, during the games as patrons watch, and after the games as they anticipate next week." When the Browns eventually do win and the fridges open up, there will be "wonderful mayhem," as "zillions of pictures will be taken in bars and at the stadium of the branded fridges and of happy Cleveland fans pounding Bud Light." Social media will be "ablaze with these photos giving Bud Light a flurry of more free media" (FORBES.com, 8/15). CBS' Stephen Colbert noted Bud Light is calling them "Victory Fridges," but he said, "I am sure history will remember them as 'Lawsuit Coolers.'" Colbert: "Thousands of football fans bum-rushing 10 fridges full of not enough beer will be memorable, alright. It's going to be kind of like that limited-edition lifeboat giveaway on the Titanic" ("The Late Show," CBS, 8/15).
RIGHT MOVE? USA TODAY's Josh Peter writes Bud Light should have "done some research before launching a promotion that, inadvertently or not, minimizes the Browns’ history of alcohol-related problems." Former NFLer Donte Stallworth was a member of the Browns in '09 when he "killed a man while driving drunk." Among the other Browns who have been involved in alcohol-related incidents are Bernie Kosar, Armonty Bryant, Josh Gordon and Alvin Bailey (USA TODAY, 8/16).
