MillerCoors sues over Bud Light corn syrup ads, calls them ‘deliberate deception’ (2024)
MillerCoors sued Anheuser-Busch, maker of Bud Light, over the advertising campaign it launched during last month’s Super Bowl, taking the so-called Corn Syrup War to court.
The Chicago-based beer-maker alleges the commercials deceive consumers over MillerCoors’ use of corn syrup in the brewing process. While Miller Lite and Coors Light use corn syrup as a fermentation aid, the corn syrup is not present in the beer once brewing is finished, MillerCoors says.
The lawsuit further alleges that Anheuser-Busch knew consumers try not to ingest high-fructose corn syrup and would confuse the sweetener with corn syrup.
Bud Light fired the first salvo in the Corn Syrup War last month with an ad depicting a mythical king on a quest to return the corn syrup mistakenly delivered to his castle to Miller Lite’s and Coors Light’s castles.
“MillerCoors seeks to set the record straight” with the lawsuit, according to the complaint, filed Thursday in Wisconsin federal court. The company uses corn syrup only to feed the yeast in the fermentation process for Coors Light and Miller Lite, and does not use high-fructose corn syrup at any point, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit accuses Anheuser-Busch of false advertising by suggesting otherwise, and of diluting the Coors Lite and Miller Lite trademarks.
“Anheuser-Busch is fearmongering over a common beer ingredient it uses in many of its own beers, as a fermentation aid that is not even present in the final product,” said Marty Maloney, manager of media relations at MillerCoors, in a statement. “This deliberate deception is bad for the entire beer category. We are showing the world the truth.”
Anheuser-Busch maintains that the Bud Light campaign is truthful. Gemma Hart, vice president of communications, said in a statement said that the ads are meant “to point out a key difference from Miller Lite and Coors Light.”
“MillerCoors’ lawsuit is baseless and will not deter Bud Light from providing consumers with the transparency they demand,” the statement said. “We stand behind the Bud Light transparency campaign and have no plans to change the advertising.”
This not the first time MillerCoors has demonstrated its distaste with the ads.
Weeks after Bud Light first aired its corn syrup ads, MillerCoors pulled out of a beer industry advertising collaboration with Anheuser-Busch. Additionally, MillerCoors is planning to strike back with two ads set to air during March Madness broadcasts. They will show a mock look at the costumed knights and crew behind the scenes of the Bud Light Super Bowl ads cracking open cans of Miller Lite.
The Chicago-based beer-maker alleges the commercials deceive consumers over MillerCoors
Coors
The Coors Brewing Company is an American brewery and beer company based in Golden, Colorado that was founded in 1873. In 2005, Adolph Coors Company, the holding company that owned Coors Brewing, merged with Molson, Inc. to become Molson Coors.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Coors_Brewing_Company
' use of corn syrup in the brewing process. While Miller Lite and Coors Light
Coors Light
Coors Light is a 4.2% ABV light American lager beer sold by Coors (currently Molson Coors) of Chicago, Illinois. It was first produced in 1978 by the Coors Brewing Company.
Its effects were greater than what some analysts anticipated, upending the U.S beer industry and dislodging Bud Light as the nation's best-selling beer. Molson Coors executives, during their earnings call in February, said the company delivered "six years of profit growth" in 2023.
Although the company acknowledged that it uses corn syrup as a fermentation aid during the brewing process, it stated the sweetener is broken down during the process and, thus, isn't in the beer itself.
According to the court documents, the Budweiser employee printed out screen shots of the recipes, folded them up and removed them from the brewery. The employee then texted photographs of the recipes to the Miller Coors employee.
During brewing, yeast break down sugar, converting it into alcohol and carbon dioxide through fermentation. The yeast is then removed along with any excess sugar. Miller Light and Coors Light both use corn syrup as their main sugar source during brewing.
Coors Light's primary competitors are Miller Lite and Keystone Light, both also owned by Molson Coors, and Bud Light, owned by AB InBev, Molson Coors's rival and fellow global beer giant.
AB InBev, which owns Budweiser and Bud Light, said overall global sales topped $14.5 billion, but sales in the U.S. declined 9.1% during the Jan. -March 2024 period. Sales to retailers were down 13.7%, "primarily due to volume decline of Bud Light," the company said.
American co*ke is made with high-fructose corn syrup and Mexican co*ke is crafted with cane sugar. Cane sugar is less processed than high-fructose corn syrup, so it offers a more natural — some would say purer or more clean-tasting — version of the drink.
Since 2014, the United States FDA has determined that HFCS is safe (GRAS) as an ingredient for food and beverage manufacturing, and there is no evidence that retail HFCS products differ in safety from those containing alternative nutritive sweeteners.
Bud Light touts that it does not brew its beer with corn syrup, but does that mean it's healthier than beers that do? Not necessarily, according to David Ludwig, professor of nutrition at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
Manning owns shares in two Anheuser-Busch InBev wholesalers in his native Louisiana, according to Beer Business Daily, an industry publication. Will Peyton Manning retire with a Super Bowl title? 4. This wasn't the first time Manning brought up Bud after a victory.
MillerCoors, American brewing company formed in 2008 through the merger of SABMiller PLC and Molson Coors. In addition to its signature Miller and Coors brands, MillerCoors produces numerous popular beverage lines, including Milwaukee's Best, Blue Moon, and Leinenkugel's.
MILK CHOCOLATE (SUGAR, CHOCOLATE, SKIM MILK, COCOA BUTTER, LACTOSE, MILKFAT, SOY LECITHIN, SALT, ARTIFICIAL AND NATURAL FLAVORS), SUGAR, CORNSTARCH, LESS THAN 1%-CORN SYRUP, DEXTRIN, COLORING (INCLUDES BLUE 1 LAKE, YELLOW 6, RED 40, YELLOW 5, BLUE 1, YELLOW 6 LAKE, RED 40 LAKE, YELLOW 5 LAKE, BLUE 2 LAKE, BLUE 2), ...
Pabst products are brewed using a blend of malted barley and special corn syrup—(Not high fructose corn syrup.) hops, filtered water, and cultured yeast.
Coors Light and Miller Light captured a majority - but not all - of sales that Bud Light lost. Over the last four-week period, Bud Light sales are down 27.1% from a year ago, whereas Miller Lite is up 7.8% and Coors Light grew 15.3%, according to data from Bump Williams Consulting.
Molson Coors Beverage Company is rebranding Coors Light to Coors from March 2021, as part of a multimillion-pound marketing campaign in the UK. The company says the move intends to drive ongoing growth in the premium 4% beer category, strengthening the brand's position in the premium segment of the market.
Molson Coors in 2021 celebrates the fifth year of our national Tap Into Change program, in which a portion of sales proceeds from Miller Lite, Coors Light and other Molson Coors brands in 10 cities are donated to the Equality Federation and local LGBTQ+ organizations.
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