I get that all TV series require long lead times from the completion of an episode until it is aired. But the History Channel really blew it with this one. Or at the very least they fell victim to it.
The episode chronicled the vicious rivalry between the Miller Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Anheuser-Busch of St. Louis, Missouri, with particular focus on the rivalry, starting with the 1970s and what became a personal rivalry between John A. Murphy, an executive from R. J. Reynolds Tobacco, the parent company of Miller Brewing who took over the brewery upon the sudden deaths in a plane crash of the last members of the original Miller family on the brewery's board of directors, and August Anheuser "Augie"Busch III who took over as the CEO of the family company by leveraging own father, August Anheuser "Gussie" Busch Jr., into an early retirement. Both Murphy and Augie Busch saw the futures of their respective breweries as being dependent on changing with the times and the trends of the consumers.
The episode covered Murphy's shift of emphasis in advertising of their initial sole product, Miller High Life, from "The Champagne of Beers" to that of the everyman's beer, which allowed Miller to skyrocket in sales and close the gap in sales with Anheuser-Busch's flagship beer, Budweiser, followed by Augie Busch's advertising campaigns to keep Miller from surpassing Budweiser.
Still changing with the times, Murphy shifted focus on the trend toward healthier lifestyles which included lower calorie food and drink. He discovered a "diet beer" from one of the bankrupt breweries that Miller had bought up, but which was a failure in and of itself because of its taste or rather its lack thereof. Murphy saw the opportunity and embraced the concept, directing Miller's brewmasters and chemists to create a low calorie beer as close in taste to MIller High Life as possible. After they did so over the course of nearly a year, Murphy targeted his advertising, initially labeled Lite Beer from Miller, at the largest single demographic of beer drinkers: sports fans.
The rise of Lite Beer from Miller was so meteoric that it blindsided Augie Busch as it approached the sales of Budweiser; he quickly instructed Anheuser Busch's brewmasters to come up with a light beer of their own. Their first attempt was called Natural Light, and it was slow to catch on; Augie didn't want to attach the Budweiser name to the new product lest it taint the brand name and the entire brewery. Determined to beat Miller Brewing and John Murphy, he directed his brewmasters to work on an improved light beer, the goal being "A light beer good enough to be called Budweiser."
Anheuser-Busch's product did not arrive in time to keep Lite Beer from MIller from taking the top sales spot. During this time, Murphy had used almost the entrer full power of the advertising funds of parent company R. J. Reynolds. From that point forward, it was a full-blown advertising war between the two breweries, with Miller sponsoring all major league sports broadcasts and Anheuser Busch purchasing majority shares of virtually all major league sports teams themselves, then gaining a monopoly of advertising on the newly formed ESPN cable sports network, naming their improved offering Bud Light. The episode concludes by pointing out that the combined sales of Bud Light, Miller Lite and the light versions of many other mainstream brands far eclipsed those of older traditional beer types, but that Bud Light prompty surpassed the sales of Miller Lite which never regained its lead after that, and almost grudgingly acknowledged that while Anheuser-Busch continued to be by far the top selling brewery worldwide, John Murphy's forward thinking and the creation of Miller Lite had triggered the competition that brought the change in the world's beer market landscape.
Here's the caveat and the elephant in the room: that may have been true as recently as several months ago when this episode was filmed, but by then both John Murphy and Augie Busch had both been retired for well over a decade, Murphy having risen to CEO of Miller's parent company R. J. Reynolds and Augie Busch having handed the reins of Anheuser-Busch to his son August A. Busch IV who within a few years would sell the company off to a multinational corporation and out of the family's control after 160 years of existence, so neither man had any responsibility. But just a few months before this episode aired, a general unorganized grassroots boycott of Bud Light, in a backlash over the direction the advertising campaign and selection of a spokesperson had taken, had sent Bud Light's sales and Anheuser-Busch's stock prices crashing down and well out of first place. I won't elaborate on the specifics of the ad campaign; they're out there on the internet for anyone who hasn't heard about it to get caught up. Did the History Channel deliberately try to bury the lead story, or was it just coincidental bad timing? In any case, Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light were no longer Number One when the episode aired! Live by the Ad Campaign, die by the Ad Campaign!
The episode chronicled the vicious rivalry between the Miller Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Anheuser-Busch of St. Louis, Missouri, with particular focus on the rivalry, starting with the 1970s and what became a personal rivalry between John A. Murphy, an executive from R. J. Reynolds Tobacco, the parent company of Miller Brewing who took over the brewery upon the sudden deaths in a plane crash of the last members of the original Miller family on the brewery's board of directors, and August Anheuser "Augie"Busch III who took over as the CEO of the family company by leveraging own father, August Anheuser "Gussie" Busch Jr., into an early retirement. Both Murphy and Augie Busch saw the futures of their respective breweries as being dependent on changing with the times and the trends of the consumers.
The episode covered Murphy's shift of emphasis in advertising of their initial sole product, Miller High Life, from "The Champagne of Beers" to that of the everyman's beer, which allowed Miller to skyrocket in sales and close the gap in sales with Anheuser-Busch's flagship beer, Budweiser, followed by Augie Busch's advertising campaigns to keep Miller from surpassing Budweiser.
Still changing with the times, Murphy shifted focus on the trend toward healthier lifestyles which included lower calorie food and drink. He discovered a "diet beer" from one of the bankrupt breweries that Miller had bought up, but which was a failure in and of itself because of its taste or rather its lack thereof. Murphy saw the opportunity and embraced the concept, directing Miller's brewmasters and chemists to create a low calorie beer as close in taste to MIller High Life as possible. After they did so over the course of nearly a year, Murphy targeted his advertising, initially labeled Lite Beer from Miller, at the largest single demographic of beer drinkers: sports fans.
The rise of Lite Beer from Miller was so meteoric that it blindsided Augie Busch as it approached the sales of Budweiser; he quickly instructed Anheuser Busch's brewmasters to come up with a light beer of their own. Their first attempt was called Natural Light, and it was slow to catch on; Augie didn't want to attach the Budweiser name to the new product lest it taint the brand name and the entire brewery. Determined to beat Miller Brewing and John Murphy, he directed his brewmasters to work on an improved light beer, the goal being "A light beer good enough to be called Budweiser."
Anheuser-Busch's product did not arrive in time to keep Lite Beer from MIller from taking the top sales spot. During this time, Murphy had used almost the entrer full power of the advertising funds of parent company R. J. Reynolds. From that point forward, it was a full-blown advertising war between the two breweries, with Miller sponsoring all major league sports broadcasts and Anheuser Busch purchasing majority shares of virtually all major league sports teams themselves, then gaining a monopoly of advertising on the newly formed ESPN cable sports network, naming their improved offering Bud Light. The episode concludes by pointing out that the combined sales of Bud Light, Miller Lite and the light versions of many other mainstream brands far eclipsed those of older traditional beer types, but that Bud Light prompty surpassed the sales of Miller Lite which never regained its lead after that, and almost grudgingly acknowledged that while Anheuser-Busch continued to be by far the top selling brewery worldwide, John Murphy's forward thinking and the creation of Miller Lite had triggered the competition that brought the change in the world's beer market landscape.
Here's the caveat and the elephant in the room: that may have been true as recently as several months ago when this episode was filmed, but by then both John Murphy and Augie Busch had both been retired for well over a decade, Murphy having risen to CEO of Miller's parent company R. J. Reynolds and Augie Busch having handed the reins of Anheuser-Busch to his son August A. Busch IV who within a few years would sell the company off to a multinational corporation and out of the family's control after 160 years of existence, so neither man had any responsibility. But just a few months before this episode aired, a general unorganized grassroots boycott of Bud Light, in a backlash over the direction the advertising campaign and selection of a spokesperson had taken, had sent Bud Light's sales and Anheuser-Busch's stock prices crashing down and well out of first place. I won't elaborate on the specifics of the ad campaign; they're out there on the internet for anyone who hasn't heard about it to get caught up. Did the History Channel deliberately try to bury the lead story, or was it just coincidental bad timing? In any case, Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light were no longer Number One when the episode aired! Live by the Ad Campaign, die by the Ad Campaign!
