Bud Light: Drinkability

First of all...yes, I'm up before 10:00 on a Saturday morning.

Second of all, with ESPN on in the background, I just saw the first of Bud Light's brand new $50 million ad campaign. This campaign is focusing on its "drinkability," a term that they have used in their previous ad campaigns, as in "superior drinkability." The other descriptors have been eliminated though. Now it's strictly "drinkability." I know beer ads haven't exactly positioned themselves as the intelligent ones in the bunch (Miller even spells their beer "Lite"), but macrobreweries are the joke of the microbrew arena anyways, so I don't care if that reflects the intelligence of a beer drinker. But let's go back to this drinkability business. To me, as I noted in my last post regarding my own beer that's brewing, drinkability comes off as "able to be consumed." When I go to a restaurant, I don't ask if a dish is eatable. I suppose though, when it comes down to it, it's kind of an honest word to describe Bud Light...noone is drinking Bud Light for its flavor. But Bud Light is not using "drinkability" in its true definition...it's basically saying you can pound a 6-pack in an afternoon and end the day like a champ.

It seems that light beer advertisements are focusing a little less on strictly humor and more on their competition. Miller Light has Dr. Cox acting as the Miller Light beer commissioner, popping up whenever someone trys to drink a light beer other than Miller Light. Coors Light...well, actually Coors Light is in their own world. While Bud Light used to have the funniest commercials on television, Coors Light was driving trains through football fields to the tune of "Love Train." Now they're playing on the crappy work situation and hyping up happy hour while also creating fake press conferences with football coaches. God Bless them. And the Bud Light ad that I just saw started by someone saying something like "yea whatever, all light beers are the same."

The interesting thing is a Google search on "drinkability" sees no Bud Light anywhere (except people who are writing articles about them like me...I'll probably be on or around page 37 of the search results). Anyway, unless you're on a tight budget or you're planning on pounding a 6-pack in the afternoon, don't settle for drinkable.

Update: Page 1 of blog search results for "drinkability" Woo hoo!