Coors spots clear, not clever

ADVERTISING | Brewer's 'refreshment' campaign sticks with a basic message

There is no more brutal battle in all of advertising than the beer wars. Americans love beer, and the three biggest brewers -- Anheuser Busch, Miller and Coors -- bombard us with ads designed either to get us to shift loyalty from one brand to another or to ensure we remain loyal to the one we already like.

A few of the ads are pretty creative. And a lot are just juvenile. But beer ads are always there. Demanding our attention.

Coors -- third-largest American brewer -- is rolling out a large round of new ads from DraftFCB/Chicago this month to carry us into the peak summer beer-drinking season. For better or worse, Coors advertising in recent years hasn't been as punch-line-driven as dominant Anheuser-Busch, which spends the largest chunk of its ad budget on Bud Light. Nor has Coors been busy poking fun at Anheuser-Busch -- something No. 2 Miller can't resist, it seems, even as Miller tries to keep focused on what it believes to be the superior attributes ("Good call") of its popular Miller Light.

This year, Coors is simply trying to hit home hard with the single message that its Coors Light brand is all about refreshment. "Refreshment isn't everything; it's the only thing," according to the voiceover copy in one commercial. It's not a startling message. Nor is the message presented in a startling fashion. And it's certainly not a message that is going to cause competitors to immediately start reformulating their ad campaigns to counteract the Coors onslaught.

But at least Coors has found a message and is trying to stick to it. Most of the imagery in this round of ads is fairly run-of-the-mill. Lots of close-up bottle or can shots. More shots of happy young adults cracking open a can of beer and enjoying it -- stuff that borders on being painfully generic. But at least the message remains relatively clear and straightforward throughout.

These ads do distinguish Coors from the competition. Would that they were more creatively distinguished as well.

I read your piece on the new Porsche advertising from Cramer-Krasselt/Chicago with some interest as I worked on the business at Carmichael Lynch/Minneapolis for five years as a group creative director. In my experience, advertising for Porsche Cars North America, as a subservient part of Porsche's overly coordinated global advertising, will never really be controlled by their American ad agency. Global marketing at Porsche dictates both layout and photo style. Or at least tries to. They also prefer to use the same copy across all languages. Television is a different matter. The United States is their main television market, and the Germans are more willing to defer to their American counterparts. My guess is that Cramer-Krasselt is fighting for their own print work and getting hobbled by the Porsche executives at the automaker's Stuttgart headquarters. It will be the television (work) that tells what C-K can do.

Jud Smith

Why did it take over a month for Dutchie Caray or anyone at Harry Caray's restaurant to voice their disgust with the AT&T commercials featuring John Caponera's impression of the late Harry Caray? Didn't anyone at Harry Caray's, especially general manager and media manipulator Grant DePorter, see how badly made the commercials were? It seems that only after fans and media types spoke up did anyone seem to care. Was this damage control to say Harry's image? Whatever the case, Harry Caray (the ultimate pitchman) is smiling somewhere about the all the fuss and free advertising.

Walter Brzeski