Irish males lured to Bud Light

This post might prove a little more political than most, but that can be squarely put down to my horrifically sleep deprived state, thanks to a terrible night in the lab last night, and also my irritation at a Bud Light campaign that is playing endlessly on Irish radio at the moment. Budweiser (soon to be In Bev) and Diageo, who brew it under license, are fiercely pushing Bud Light in Ireland at the moment and making depressingly good headway in cetain quarters. It seems to me that the obvious target for a low carbohydrate beer in Ireland is diet conscious women, but this is not enough for Bud who want to capture the souls of the average Irish male too. I haven't got the hard figures to back up my claim, but this marketing campaign will fail in this respect. Not because of a lack of marketing expertise (who could fail with a budget like that?) but rather because the Irish male is very conservative with respect his preferred tipple and a titanic shift in attitudes would be required.

Aside from this, my main concern is the way that Bud Light is marketed. The radio ads take the form of a humorous set up, followed by the tag line 'typical male types choose Bud Light because it is 4.1%'. Their main concern appears to be that Irish males will stay away from Bud Light because they mistakenly believe it is lower in alcohol than other beers on the market, and God forbid the Irish male might get cheated out of his alcohol quota of a Friday night. No doubt this conclusion was drawn from numerous market research interviews with Irish males and reflects the up hill struggle that we have in our attempt to reign in our destructive drinking culture.