Coors Light is giving away up to $1 million worth of beer – which equates to up to 500,000 cold ones – through its #CouldUseABeer campaign, which allows people to send a beer to someone “who could use a bit of refreshment,” says Chris Steele, marketing director.
The campaign coincides with several other initiatives led by the brand, whose ongoing “Made to Chill” campaign has positioned Coors Light as a beer that serves to refresh the spirits of its drinkers. It also comes in the wake of enormous response that came with making a special delivery of Coors Light to Olive Veronesi, a 93-year-old Pennsylvanian who was running out of beer while under lockdown orders.
“As we saw when we delivered a stack of Coors Light to Olive Veronesi, a 93-year-old Pennsylvanian who was running out of beer while under lockdown orders, whose pleas for more beer went viral, an unexpected beer can light up someone’s day,” Steele says. “What inspired us most was how drinkers around the world saw Olive’s photo and started posting online about how they, too, could really go for a beer. We just think America deserves a moment to pause and enjoy a cold one, and we’re going to give it to them.”
The brand’s new 15- and 45-second ads, airing on prime-time TV, remind Americans that we’ve gotten through tough times before – sometimes with the help of beer. Actor Paul Giamatti provided his voice, examining how tough points in history – from the depths of the American Revolution to the Great Depression – were made a little better with water, hops and barley. Today’s “suckiness of historical proportions” can’t be fixed with beer, the ad concedes, but it could help people get through it.
To send a beer to someone who could use one, legal-age drinkers can tweet at a friend, who will then be able to receive a rebate equivalent to the price of a six-pack of Coors Light (in states where legal; offer value varies by state.) Instructions on how to virtually send a round to a friend are available on Coors Light’s Twitter page and at a campaign website.