Inside Coors Light’s Super Bowl ad as ‘Case of the Mondays’ campaign nears its finale

Marcelo Pascoa, VP of marketing at Coors Light, had never heard the phrase “a case of the Mondays”—it’s not a thing in his native Brazil—until creative agency Mischief @ No Fixed brought it up as a concept for this year’s Super Bowl. But the phrase—signifying the epitome of malaise—has since become, ironically, one of the most energizing Coors Light campaign ideas in recent memory. Super Bowl commercials Tracking the latest brand and agency plans Click here The brand’s 2025 Super Bowl campaign kicked off Jan. 13 (a Monday, naturally) with an intentional typo—outdoor, print and social media ads that promised “Mountain cold refershment” instead of “refreshment.” Lots of people thought it was an actual mistake, which generated significant buzz, and which the brand later playfully chalked up to having a case of the Mondays itself. Following a gag product and a video teaser over the next two weeks, the effort continues today—yet another Monday—with the Super Bowl commercial itself. In the extended cut below (a :30 will air in-game), sloths amusingly represent listless football fans going through life in a stupor the day after the Super Bowl, with the season sadly over. At the end, a voiceover encourages viewers to cheer themselves up with an actual case of the Mondays—a 12-pack of Coors Light rebranded as Mondays Light, available at retailers nationwide. “I hadn’t heard this expression before, ‘a case of the Mondays.’ I said, ‘Forgive my ignorance, what is this about?‘” Pascoa told Ad Age. “When I understood what it meant, it’s something we all feel—particularly football fans on the worst Monday of the year.” For the brand and agency Mischief @ No Fixed Address, the phrase felt promising as a universal truth that’s especially heightened after the Super Bowl, and which also could be tied back to the brand. Coors Light could help people “chill” on Super Bowl Monday with a literal case of the Mondays—i.e., the rebranded 12-packs. They got to work on a content and PR plan encompassing playful misdirection, a quasi-celebrity teaser, the in-game spot, several rounds of merch and a mass-scale repackaging and distribution plan that would go well beyond what most limited-edition products enjoy. Also read: Super Bowl FAQ for brands and agencies Reseeding the phrase in culture Job one was to get the phrase “a case of the Mondays,” popularized by the 1999 movie “Office Space,” back in culture. This was accomplished first through the typo ads, including a billboard in Times Square, which the brand saw as a potentially buzzy—but also self-deprecating—way to kick off the campaign. “People were seriously concerned [about the typo]. I’d say the reaction was a mix of empathy and thinly veiled schadenfreude,” said Pascoa. “I’ve never seen so many reactions on LinkedIn.” “It was somewhat disconcerting to see professional marketers [on LinkedIn] who seemed unaware that it’s pretty unlikely you’d have a typo in a three-word headline in all these different placements,” said Kevin Mulroy, executive creative director at Mischief. The typo ads rolled out on the morning of Jan. 13. Shortly after 1 p.m. ET that day, Coors Light issued a brief, 85-word mea culpa blaming the apparent gaffe on “a case of the Mondays.” Two days later, the brand issued another release introducing its “Mondays Light” 12-packs, positioning them as a response to its mistake two days earlier. By that point, it was pretty clear everything had been staged, but Mulroy said it worked either way. “People who realized it was fake all along gave us credit for being brave,” he said. “For those who didn’t, it looked like we pivoted quickly and capitalized on something embarrassing. It was fun to see the different ways it played out.” The typo also set the vibe for the campaign, Pascoa said, lending the brand a certain playfulness and approachability. “If you can’t make fun of yourself, how are you going to make fun of others?” he said. “This creates a feeling that, ‘Oh, OK, we’re going to have a laugh together.’ It helps people understand we’re not so serious. We don’t feel we’re better than our consumers—just the opposite.” The Chill Face Roller and video teaser The week of Jan. 20, the brand unveiled the Coors Light Chill Face Roller, a limited-edition gag product (“Roll a can of Coors Light on your face. Seriously,” the brand urged) available at shop.coorslight.com. It sold out in seven minutes. On Monday, Jan. 27, the brand released a video teaser with character actor Timothy Simons (“Veep,” “Nobody Wants This”) having his own case of the Mondays, as he struggles to remember his lines on a fictional TV show. Celeb teasers are standard fare these days, but Simons isn’t a huge star and he doesn’t appear in the Super Bowl ad itself—which is celeb-free. “We didn’t want celebrity for celebrity’s sake. Many of [Simons’] characters are a walking case of the Mondays,” Pascoa said. “This is about taking the worst case of the Mondays and making a better case of the Mondays,” said Mulroy. “The last thing we wanted to do is overshadow that idea with borrowed interest, like pretty much every other brand is going to do on the Super Bowl.” The results were strong for the pre-Super Bowl activity. In the first week of the campaign, Coors Light’s social conversation jumped 138%, the brand said, and for January as a whole, searches for “Coors Light” were higher than in any month over the past year. Make way for sloths The central piece of content is, of course, the Super Bowl commercial itself, which will air as a :30 in the first half of the game. Mischief settled on sloths as the perfect stand-in for people feeling slow-moving and morose the day after the game. In the spot, the creatures struggle to accomplish tasks big and small, from scanning groceries and cutting the grass to robbing a bank (or pursuing the bank robbers). Matthijs Van Heijningen, a veteran of classic VFX-driven comedic spots such as Canal+’s “The Bear” and YouTube TV’s “Migration,” directed the spot. “Matthijs did all the facial expressions [for the sloths] in camera, which were hilarious. That’s what we ended up basing the visual effects on,” said Mulroy. “You want a director who obviously understands the comedic aspects of a spot—how to frame shots to be as funny as possible, how to get good performances—but who also stays close to the visual effects in post.” It was important, too, to make sure only the sloths were moving slowly amid the action; the rest of the world continues at a regular pace, leading to many of the visual jokes. “It’s funny to see the sluggishness, but it’s even funnier to see the consequences of it, like the cashier who can’t scan the items fast enough so they’re falling the floor,” said Pascoa. “It’s been such a joyful process. We feel it was the best idea executed in the funniest way possible.” The song is a cover, created by a music house, of the ‘60s track “Monday, Monday” by the Mamas & the Papas. The brand will focus on particular vignettes from the spot in GIFs and other media each day leading up to Sunday. Sloth-themed merch will also be available at shop.coorslight.com, joining the “Case of the Mondays” merch that’s been for sale since the campaign launched. The packaging rollout The final piece of the campaign, the actual “case of the Mondays” 12-packs, was the most challenging part, said Pascoa. Rather than do a limited run, they wanted to deliver a mass experience not unlike the Super Bowl itself. Every 12-pack nationwide will become a “Mondays” pack for a window of time, comprising some 1.8 million packs in all. Consumers can also win a free case via an Instagram sweepstakes. “In the beginning, we said, ‘This can be done.’ And generally, when you do something like this, you do it on a small scale because it’s easier,” said Pascoa. “We felt we had to be all-in or not at all. We wanted the campaign to be big, and that meant every part of it had to be big.” Finally, the “Mondays” idea ensures that the campaign has legs after the game, too, not just before and during it—providing end-to-end possibilities for engagement. “We want the best spot, of course,” said Mulroy. “But we also want to own buzz before, during and well after the game itself, while still delivering a fantastic spot that we’re really proud of.” Super Bowl commercials Tracking the latest brand and agency plans Click here Coors Light is Molson Coors’ largest U.S. beer brand. While sales soared in 2023 when rival Bud Light was embroiled in controversy, Coors Light managed to hold onto about 80% of those gains in 2024, the company said.

Inside Coors Light’s Super Bowl ad as ‘Case of the Mondays’ campaign nears its finale

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