Summer is better with perks. To take advantage of that, Miller Lite is spending these sun-soaked months offering “kick backs”—a fun series of unexpected rewards—to people across the country. Who says service is dead?
Silver Man—a dude in a top hat and glasses, every inch of him coated in silver paint—really shines in TBWAChiatDay’s new campaign for Miller Lite.
But he’s just one of many characters, oddball and otherwise, who visit a typical neighborhood bodega to pick up some suds and chat with wise, friendly Fred, the bilingual owner of the store. Other customers include a pair of muscular twins who say the same things at the same time; One Tripper (he doesn’t need help, dammit, toting a mountain of snacks and brewskies out the door); and a karaoke singer whose rendition of “Carry On Wayward Son” doesn’t quite match the sonic impact of the original.
Tagged “As long as you are you, it’s Miller Time,” the campaign includes ads in English and Spanish, targeting millennial and Hispanic audiences at a time when craft brews have eroded the sales of big-name beers. These eight spots have a relaxed, indie-film feel, inspired by the convenience-store settings in movies by Jim Jarmusch and the team of Wayne Wang and Paul Auster.
“The market seems to be rich with plenty of, let’s just say, less subtle beer advertising,” Arts & Sciences director Matt Aselton tells Fast Company, “so it seemed like a nice way of telling personal stories and not jock-rock archetypal stories. It’s like Sesame Street—the people in your neighborhood—except with a light beer.”
In real life, all sorts of people drop in and out of bodegas, so “anything is possible,” says Aselton. This makes the stream of strange customers in the commercials seem plausible, with the low-key and slightly askew humor hitting home every time. (The Silver Man, presumably a street performer, is a highlight, particularly when he’s joined by a glittery sidekick for an impromptu pose-down.)
Through it all, Fred serves as a calm, all-knowing foil, doling out advice and yakking it up with the clientele. Smartly underplayed by Eastbound & Down actor Marco Rodriguez, he keeps the proceedings firmly centered. The silver men may steal the show, but Fred is pure gold, one of the most welcome pitch-characters to hit screens in recent memory.
CREDITS
Client: Miller Lite
Campaign: “Bodega”
Andy England: Chief Marketing Officer
Gannon Jones: VP of Brand Marketing, Miller Family of Brands
Ryan Reis: Senior Director, Miller Family of Brands
Greg Butler: Director, Miller Lite
Jeanne-ette Boshoff: Senior Marketing Manager, Miller Lite
Julia Watson: Marketing Manager, Miller Lite Multicultural
Agency: TBWAChiatDay LA
Stephen Butler: Chief Creative Officer
Fabio Costa: Executive Creative Director
Mark Peters: Creative Director
Jason Karley: Creative Director
Rick Utzinger: Creative Director
Bob Rayburn: Creative Director
Matthew Woodhams-Roberts: Creative Director
David Horton: Creative Director
Jeff Dryer: Senior Art Director
Chris Rodriguez: Senior Art Director (Last Minute Gift)
Guy Helm: Senior Copywriter (Last Minute Gift)
Harris Wilkinson: Creative Director (Twins)
John Stobie: Art Director (Twins)
Brian O’Rourke: Director of Production
Anh-Thu Le: Executive Producer
Stephanie Dziczek: Producer
Jill Nykoliation: Business Lead
Chris Hunter: Group Account Director
Scott McMaster: Group Planning Director
Bryan Reugebrink: Account Director
Alice Pavlisko: Project Manager
Linda Daubson: Director of Business Affairs
Nora Cicuto: Business Affairs Manager
Dorn Reppert: Business Affairs Manager
Dessiah Maxwell: Director, Traffic Operations
Judy Brill: Senior Traffic Operations Manager
Agency: Team Ignition
Erick Rodriguez: Senior Art Director
Raul Mendez: Senior Copywriter
Giovanni Chiappardi: Account Director
Elsa Gonzalez: Account Planner
Production Company: Arts & Sciences
Matt Aselton: Director
Mal Ward: Managing Director/Partner
Marc Marrie: Executive Producer/Managing Partner
Zoe Odlum: Producer
Sal Totino: Director of Photography
David Wilson: Production Designer
Editorial: Spot Welders
Haines Hall: Editor (Advice, Silverman)
Kevin Zimmerman: Editor (One Tripper ENG, Twins, Karaoke)
JC Nunez: Editor (Rivals, One Tripper SPAN)
Oli Hecks: Editor (Last Minute Gift, Present)
Carolina Sanborn: Executive Producer
Evan Cunningham: Producer
VFX: MPC
Karen Anderson: Executive Producer
Abisayo Adejare: Producer
Mark Gethin: Colorist
Mark Holden: VFX Lead
Benji Davidson, Dylan Brown, William Cox, Sandra Ross: VFX
Music Supervision: Good Ear Music Supervision
SFX: Barking Owl
Michael Anastasi: Sound Designer
Kelly Bayett: Creative Director
Whitney Fromholtz: Head of Production
Mix: Lime Studios
Mark Meyuhas: Mixer
Matt Miller: Assistant Mixer
Executive Producer: Jessica Locke
Just two months after launching its “Wonderful World” anthem ad for Miller Lite, TBWA/Chiat/Day Los Angeles returns with a bevy of spots for the brew brand that take place in the most ideal of locations: the convenience store. Helmed by Arts & Sciences director Matt Aselton and starring Eastbound & Down alum Marco Rodriguez–who’ll still always be the “supermarket killer” from Stallone’s classic Cobra to us–the campaign introduces us to a variety of quirky characters whose evening is officially set with a six-pack of Miller Lite and a bit of inspiration from Rodriguez’s bodega clerk.
Whether they be the chardonnay party crasher, muscular like-minded twins, the karaoke enthusiast or the “one-tripper,” Rodriguez is there to help throughout the eight (!) spots unveiled by TBWA/Chiat/Day LA, which of course took over as creative AOR for Miller Lite last fall. Considering the theme, scenarios and settings of this rather ambitious campaign, it should be familiar to the partygoer in all of us–though the choice of beer may vary. You can check out the rest of the spots here.
Marketing Manager, Miller Lite Multicultural: Julia Watson
Never underestimate the power of packaging and design to influence consumer attitudes—and if you’re lucky, move product.
This lesson is brought to you by Miller Lite, which enjoyed a sales spike after it began shipping its beer in ’80s-style cans last year, originally as part of a tie-in with Anchorman 2. A large number of folks apparently prefer their beer wrapped in retro white labels instead of blue, which has been the brand’s primary hue for the past dozen years.
Maybe the throwback cans simply struck a nostalgic chord, or perhaps the shiny labels stand out on retail shelves. Whatever the case, it’s had the curious effect of making consumers think the product itself has improved—which it hasn’t.
“A lot of people said, ‘I think the beer even tastes better,’ ” Miller exec Ryan Reis tells Bloomberg Businessweek.
Wisely, the brewer has decided to make the white labeling permanent, even extending the color scheme to its bottles and bar taps. Alas, after initially bubbling up, sales of Miller Lite have settled. In fact, they’re down 1 percent for the 12 months that ended Aug. 10.
Also never forget how quickly fads can fade?
Via Consumerist.
Earlier this year, Coca-Cola rolled out its first TV spot made completely with user-generated content. Now, it’s Miller Lite’s turn to shine the spotlight on its fans.
In May, the beer brand launched an #ItsMillerTime campaign, in which it used packaging, promoted tweets and its social channels to ask people for their best summer photos—with cameos by the retro-cool Miller Lite cans, of course.
The brand says nearly 180,000 photos were submitted. (It further claims that #ItsMillerTime has been the No. 2 branded hashtag on Twitter since May 7, trailing only Adidas’s #allin).
The brand liked seven of the fan photos in particular and featured them prominently in the new national TV spot below, which breaks early this week. (A few dozen shots more are compiled in a collage at the end of the ad, but only the seven get full-screen treatment.)
They’re all fun snapshots—not particularly compelling, but “relatable,” as they say. And as for the wedding couple—more power to you.
Miller Lite was invented in the late ’60s, around the time baby boomers started to date, couple, marry and copulate (though not always in that order). As this new ad points out, this could hypothetically have led to your conception when your parents did it, probably under the influence.
It doesn’t specifically say that. It more says that Lite beer let men keep their abs, which let them get dates, which led to marriages, which led to honeymoons, which led to you. But right when they’re talking about your conception, you’re seeing swingin’ ’70s styled people toasting the camera with some frosty Lite beer.
So, maybe your mom was really shallow and picked you dad based on some choice fur-covered abs, or maybe she just got blitzed on Miller Lite and made poor choices. Either way, you’re here now. And the new retro Lite can looks super cool, so crack open a cold one and celebrate!
I was enjoying Telemundo the other day when Danny Trejo interrupted a trio of cellphone-using friends to save Miller Time.
I don't speak Spanish, but you don't need to in order to appreciate the presence of Trejo. Casanova Pendrill made an excellent choice by casting the toughest of toughs. Without nothing more than a stone cold stare, he castigates the inconsiderate friends who are paying more attention to their technology than to sacred beer time. He inclines his head slightly, his heavy-lidded eyes drifting downward in an unspoken threat. Drop the phones, his face says, before you disappoint me. All three quickly dunk their phones in the Miller Lite ice bucket. Trejo lets a smile flit across his face before turning, his hair whipping back in an unseen wind, presumably running off to protect Miller Time elsewhere.
From New Belgium's app that shuts down your phone when you're drinking to the Offline Glass, which stands up straight only if it's resting on your cellphone, bars and beer companies are taking a stand against social media's social-killing effect. Of course, none of them stand quite as tall as Trejo.
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