Yesterday, news spread like a plague through mainstream media that Budweiser would relabel its cans as “America” through Election Day. The news dominated the beer Twitterverse, was peppered in newscasts, and even made it into a interview with a presidential candidate within 24 hours. It’s the latest in a long line of attempts to direct attention to a dying brand that’s lost a third of its market share in the last decade and continued to suffer this year in spite of an aggressive ad campaign that painted Budweiser as a bold, “not backing down” brand.
But if a small brewery sees ABInbev products as a threat, here’s the best thing they can do to respond to this latest publicity ploy: ignore it.