When I used to work on a big beer account, I was never comfortable with our need to target beer distributors first and consumers second. The thinking was no floor space means no beer sales, which does make sense despite being counter-intuitive for a creative. At any rate, beer distributors have a huge say when it comes to critiquing brand advertising.
According to Ad Age, Miller distributors are pleased with new Miller High Life spots from Crispin.
In the first work on the brand from Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Miami, Miller High Life is thumbing its nose at its ill-conceived attempt to metrosexualize the beer and trying to reclaim the blue-collar positioning it owned with the much-celebrated, gruff-talking High Life Man it ditched for a classier approach starring the Girl in the Moon label icon.
Still-in-development spots shown to the brewer’s distributors at regional meetings last week seem to repudiate the disowned direction, showing Miller delivery drivers forcibly removing High Life from trendy, upscale restaurants and nightclubs. The scenes strike a creative chord not seen since Miller scrapped Wieden & Kennedy’s 1950s-era manly man for the fussier, feminine push. Sales cratered with the Girl in the Moon ads and lessons apparently were learned.
“I don’t know what the hell they were thinking,” said one Southern distributor who was happy to see the new creative effort.
