MillerCoors touts alcohol content of its Ice brand
Company says it’s just being transparent; critics think otherwise.
MILWAUKEE — The billboards along freeways in Milwaukee are hard to miss.
They announce in red letters, more than two feet high, that Milwaukee’s Best Ice is now “6.9 percent ALC/VOL.”
In announcing the new alcohol content of one of its cheapest beers, MillerCoors says it is “committed to leading the industry in transparency so that our consumers can make fully informed choices.”
But some beer industry experts are surprised that MillerCoors is making alcohol content its primary pitch.
“I have to say I can’t recall ever seeing anybody advertising (the strength of a beer) and saying now that’s the feature of this brand that we’re featuring,” said Eric Shepard, executive editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights and a staff member at the widely read trade publication since 1977. “It’s not standard procedure.”
John Szymankiewicz, a North Carolina attorney who specializes in the craft beer industry, said he would never advise his clients to do such a thing.
Menus at restaurants and other spots serving craft brews often state the alcoholic content of each beer, but Szymankiewicz views that as essentially providing relevant information to customers, who presumably will understand that drinking a bottle of imperial stout at 8.8 percent alcohol differs from downing a 4.7 percent pilsner.
The MillerCoors billboards, he believes, have a different purpose.
“You’re showcasing the increase in alcohol content as a feature and a reason you should buy it,” he said.
That also concerned two academics who have studied alcohol-related issues.
“Clearly they are promoting this beverage based on its higher alcohol content,” Traci Toomey, a professor of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota, said in an email. “The higher the alcohol content, the more quickly people become impaired and the more likely a community/state will experience and pay for more alcohol-related problems.”
The typical alcohol content for most popular domestic beers is between 4.1 percent to 5.0 percent. Ice beers are brewed differently from their mainstream domestic counterparts and typically have higher alcohol content. Natural Ice, brewed by Anheuser-Busch InBev, and Keystone Ice, another MillerCoors economy brand, both stand at the former level of Milwaukee’s Best Ice — 5.9 percent.
Milwaukee’s Best Ice is now 6.9 percent, a 17 percent increase.
Besides saying MillerCoors is committed to transparency, company spokesman Marty Maloney said by email that “the company has exhibited a long-standing commitment to the fight against alcohol abuse, including guidelines on responsibly marketing our beers only to those 21 and older.”