In the first few years of business, Miller Lite saw tremendous success. However, the success of the beer did little to rattle Auggie Busch of Anheuser-Busch, who brazenly accepted the competition, even going as far as to say, “Tell Miller to come right along, but tell them to bring lots of money.” And that’s exactly what they did.
What followed was a decades-long battle for the light beer throne, fueled by dueling ad campaigns like “Bud Light. Everything else is just a light,” and Miller’s “Everything you always wanted in a beer. And less.” Let’s not forget Bud Light’s short-lived mascot, Spuds MacKenzie, the T-shirt-clad Bull Terrier dubbed “The Original Party Animal.”
Light beer proceeded to dominate the market and by the ‘90s, drinkers only had a handful of brews to choose from. Calorie counts continued to drop and beer became increasingly one-note. Eventually, drinkers started to look for the next big thing, setting the stage for craft beer to step in by the late aughts.
Today, Maureen Ogle is making her triumphant “Taplines” return to take us back to the front lines of the Light Beer Wars, the ferocious 20th-century struggle for swill-based supremacy between America’s emerging macro brewers. Tune in for more.
