Miller Lite revives ‘Tastes Great, Less Filling’—why Big Beer is going retro

Whether it’s a reaction to Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney influencer backlash, or a larger trend toward nostalgia, big beer brands are going retro in their advertising. After its attempt to court new audiences backfired, Bud Light returned to its customary young-guy humor. Molson Coors-owned Coors Light has brought back its speeding silver train. And now, sibling brand Miller Lite is breaking out a legendary nugget from its advertising past with an updated take on its decades-old “All-Stars” campaign, which introduced the world to “Tastes Great, Less Filling.” Retired athletes Mia Hamm, J.J. Watt, Reggie Miller, David Ortiz and Jorge Posada are part of Miller Lite’s new roster of All-Stars, a nod to Lite’s 15-year, athlete-heavy campaign that dates back to 1975. It comes amid upheaval in the domestic light beer category, triggered by Bud Light’s market share plunge and an associated share shift that’s lifted sales and volume for brands like Coors Light and Miller Lite, even as the overall beer market shrinks. Miller Lite hopes to meet this moment with a campaign recalling its greatest glories, updated for contemporary times. Ad Age Leading Women Luncheon Join us Aug. 7 in New York as we recognize this year’s honorees Buy your ticket today A 60-second commercial called “Destiny” reintroduces the All-Stars universe. It shows Watt, the former NFL defensive end, growing restless in retirement when—retro alert—a VHS tape is delivered (by actor Robert Wahlberg, who is deliberately uncredited). The tape shows grainy footage of John Madden and Bob Uecker and other All-Stars of the old campaign debating “Tastes Great, Less Filling.” This awakens Watt—and the other retired athletes, who presumably received a similar package—to their new purpose as Lite beer pluggers. “Destiny” will premiere during tonight’s Kansas vs. Samford March Madness game on TBS. Miller Lite is offering fans an actual VHS tape containing the footage Watt sees on his TV, along with a cassette-shaped beer glass, which will be available in an Instagram sweepstakes and at the world’s last Blockbuster Video location, in Bend, Oregon. That consumers may have to scour garage sales to secure a VCR to play the tape “supercharges the nostalgia,” said Britt Nolan, president and chief creative officer of Leo Burnett Chicago, the Miller Lite roster shop that handled the creative. “It’s a joke taken to its logical conclusion, which is that watching a Miller Lite ad on a VCR might just be cool.” Like their famous predecessors, the new commercials put retired athletes on either side of the “Tastes Great, Less Filling” debate. There are significant differences, too. One is the addition of a new character, played by Luke Wilson, who points out the absurdity of the debate. “We did that because we thought that while there will be a lot of people who remember the old work … there’s a younger audience who never saw that stuff,” said Nolan. “And when they see athletes arguing about ‘tastes great, less filling’ they’re going to see that as the ridiculous argument that it is. And so we created a character that would voice that. “It’s an ad campaign that knows it’s an ad campaign,” Nolan continued. “And with that comes the freedom to be a little done with it, and just have fun with it.” Also read: John Madden was the first beer ‘influencer’ The work is Leo Burnett’s first for Miller Lite in some time, although the Publicis Groupe shop had stayed busy in recent years with Molson Coors, launching Coors Light’s “Made to Chill” campaign in 2019. Omnicom’s DDB and Alma have been behind many of Miller Lite’s recent efforts. Forthcoming “Tastes Great, Less Filling” ads will feature former MLB stars Ortiz and Posada (including a Spanish-language version to be handled by Alma). Hamm, the former soccer star, is cast in a Lite ad around the Olympics this summer, and additional ads are contemplated for football season, the brand said. In “Suite,” which will run during the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments, Miller and Watt politely debate in an arena suite but a party-crashing Wilson delivers the laughs. Plaid jacket Wilson’s wardrobe includes some plaid jackets that could have come from Uecker’s closet. Touches like these are meant to be an inside joke for those who recall the original campaign, even if those customers are now in their 50s and 60s. “I’m proud of the line we walked with the execution itself because it’s a retro vibe, which we think for new drinkers is going to feel cool and fresh,” Nolan said. Moreover, Nolan said, retro makes special sense for Lite, which saw its greatest success in the 1970s and 80s (Bud Light eventually surpassed Lite in the category in 1994 and Coors Light outsold Miller Lite beginning in 2000). “Going back to 2014, when they redesigned the can and went back to the 1970s design, they were hugely rewarded for that,” Nolan said. “Every time the brand has gone retro, consumers have responded. … It feels like the obvious way to go.” In 2016, Lite returned the “Steinie” bottle to retail, promoting it by restoring and re-airing a 1981 ad starring Madden. To Ann Legan, VP of marketing for Lite parent Molson Coors, the nostalgia trend is bigger than just beer, but especially appropriate for Miller Lite, whose “tastes great, less filling” message remains relevant to category trends. “We didn’t have to change anything about the brand, because we can just play to who it is, and that is a brand that over time has stayed true to itself,” she said. “I think people really associate that timeless, classic aspect of the brand. I often describe it as your favorite pair of blue jeans: It gets better with time.” Why would the brand revive the concept now? “There’s a gap in the light beer marketing landscape as Bud Light is fully in damage control and lots of volume is up for grabs for the first time in decades,” said Marty Stock, a veteran beer industry agency exec who today is a professor at Marquette University. More: Brand lessons from Bud Light’s marketing debacle Legan puts it differently, saying Miller Lite has “incredible momentum,” with sales, share and volume growing. “As we look to the future and want to accelerate growth, what was important to us was staying true to what made the brand famous in the first place, and acting like a leader in a category we created.” Best days behind? That the big three domestic light beers are all bringing back old advertising ideas could also be seen as a signal that the best days for all three brands are behind them, beer experts say. Bud Light’s Mulvaney debacle contributed to a massive shift in share that’s provided new momentum to its Molson Coors-owned rivals, even as the overall beer market slipped last year. Look back: How Bud Light changed beer marketing in 2023 “There’s a moment every giant beer brand has faced. You move from being ‘the better beer everyone is drinking’ to ‘the beer people drink when they don’t know any better,’” Stock said. “The Big Three light beers are all down significantly from their peak … They’re nondescript beers of adequate quality that are priced low and bought by the case.” According to Beer Marketer’s Insights, Miller Lite was the fifth-largest beer in the U.S. last year when measured by shipments to wholesalers, with barrels increasing by 8% and market share climbing 0.8 points to 6.5%. Coors Light leaped by 11.1% in barrels shipped. Bud Light, while remaining the largest U.S. beer by barrels shipped, crashed by 25.6%, losing 2.4 points of market share. Benj Steinman, president of Beer Marketer’s Insights, called Tastes Great, Less Filling “one of the greatest campaigns in beer industry history—but if they’re looking to execute it for a younger audience, it better be more contemporary.” All-Stars McCann-Erikson originated the campaign for Miller Lite in 1975, helping introduce the then-novel concept of a low-calorie beer that didn’t taste watered down. Miller Brewing Co. acquired the formula for a low-cal beer in a 1972 acquisition of MeisterBrau Brewery. Dozens of athletes and celebrities appeared in the ads over the years, and their testimony reached millions through Miller’s presence in sporting events such as “Monday Night Football,” the World Series and the Indianapolis 500. “Tastes Great, Less Filling” debates were featured in gatherings of the campaign’s stars for a bowling tournament, a tug-of-war and a softball game, helping to spawn call-and-response chants from fans at sports stadiums. The campaign made four Super Bowl appearances, starting with “Famous Ex-Quarterbacks” in 1979; Madden’s “Not the Same” (1981) and “Train” (1984); and Rodney Dangerfield’s “Respect” (1985). Ad Age ranked Tastes Great, Less Filling eighth on its list of the 100 greatest advertising campaigns of the 20th century. While Lite no longer has the grip on sports it did in the 1970s, it remains “engrained in the DNA” of the brand, said Legan, pointing to partnerships with 16 NFL teams and with Watt, who joined as a brand endorser last year. But this version may not be restricted to athletes. “Because the original campaign started with sports, that’s where we wanted to start with the campaign refresh, knowing that game time is one of those prime Miller Time moments people know and love,” Legan said. “That said, Miller Time is not exclusively sports-specific and the Miller Lite All-Stars are not solely athletes, we have actor Luke Wilson involved. As we expand our roster of All-Stars, we are considering All-Stars across many different drinker passion points.” Asked to assess what made the original campaign a success, Nolan said “simplicity.” “There was an easiness to the work itself that just let things develop,” Nolan said. “What I loved about the old stuff is that they really let the celebrities be themselves, you know? John Madden was a big physical presence and somebody thought it would be funny if he smashed through a wall, so they kept having John Madden crash through walls. Bubba Smith would rip the top off the can every time he opened one. They let the characters be themselves and it didn’t seem overwrought in any way, which made it easy for the public to embrace and play along with.” Stock called it a “Hall of Fame advertising idea” that “made the brand special and made drinkers want to hold it. There was a specific type of sociability portrayed in the creative.” Tastes like Miller Time The original campaign ran through 1990, and Lite has often struggled to find a winning creative campaign since, veering between failed new taglines (“It’s It and That’s That” from Leo Burnett in 1991) to oddball concepts like “Dick, the Creative Superstar,” (from Fallon McElligott in the 1990s). Occasionally, the brand has called on its famous slogan, but not all of those attempts worked. A 2003 ad called “Catfight” (transparently based on a “Tastes Great, Less Filling” argument) was pulled from the air amid sexist controversy; the brand has since publicly disavowed such ads. And in 1993 a series of ads proclaimed “If you can combine great taste and less filling, you can combine anything,” leading to mashups like sumo high-diving and wiener-dog drag racing. Today’s campaign fits into Miller’s ongoing “Tastes Like Miller Time” platform, which launched two years ago with the goal of establishing Lite as the light beer for people who love the taste of beer. That has included cheeky stunts like Lite “beer drops” to add other beers to improve their taste, and a sendup of Michelob Ultra’s fitness positioning. Miller Lite’s taste-forward positioning was its key message in a 2023 Super Bowl ad that featured it alongside Coors Light. “I think Miller Lite is to be applauded for exploring the potential in this classic campaign,” said Stock. “There was a cleverness and an invitation to join in on the fun that’s proved elusive with previous agencies. Maybe this time they can capture it.” Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here

Miller Lite revives ‘Tastes Great, Less Filling’—why Big Beer is going retro

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