PR Week thinks it has. It says the two brewing companies “should reconcile their differences.” It quotes three public relations experts outside of the two big brewers to support its proposition that MillerCoors went too far. One of those “experts,” the one quoted most prominently, is a lawyer, not a pr person.
There’s more: It did a survey on Twitter, using its @PRWeekUS account to find that 42% of respondents say they are tired of the controversy, while 28% think it should continue.
That’s nice. But it doesn’t tell us what the public – not pr professionals – think. Does the public care? After all, marketing is not about marketing mavens staring at their navels, but about influencing the public.
PR Week offers no thoughts on how to reconcile their differences. And we don’t think they will, at least not for a while. The reason is simple: Bud Light set out to damage consumers’ perceptions of the health of their competitors’ products.
Bud Light’s corn syrup campaign is the beverage equivalent of the Democrats “Donald Trump colluded with the Russians” campaign, which went on for more than two years – and still goes on, even though Special Counsel Robert Muller found there was no collusion.
Ending the #corntroversy won’t happen until Anheuser-Busch decides it is damaging Bud Light’s own brand more than it’s damaging MillerCoors’ brands.