Bud Light Seltzer is still having an identity crisis, as consumers still confuse the malt-based beverage with Bud Light’s core line of beers.
The brand just launched a year-long advertising campaign to directly address confusion between the brand’s seltzer and beer lines, according to a March 7 article from CNN. The “100% Hard Seltzer, 0% Beer” campaign will include televised commercials, including the debut 60-second “Truckin’ Bubbles” spot.
In the video, an 18-wheeler truck, labeled with the advertising slogan, zooms through a desert. The cargo hold of the truck suddenly opens on the highway, releasing a bunch of candy-colored bubbles from the trunk. Drivers in convertibles and nearby adults sipping on the seltzer stare in disbelief as the fantastical orbs float above them.
In a recent survey, more than half of respondents said they believed that Bud Light Seltzer contained beer, the brand told CNN.
Previously, Bud Light poked fun at the beer-seltzer misconception in a series of lighthearted ad campaigns — but that humorous take apparently wasn’t effective in clearing up the confusion. Misconceptions also appear to distract from the more important aspects (as in, taste and aromas) of the malt-based seltzer.
“We launched Bud Light Seltzer with the Bud Light name in 2020 because it came with immediate benefits in terms of recognizability and distribution,” Bud Light Extensions vice president of marketing Steve Wolf tells CNN. “Understandably, it comes with some confusion that we need to make sure we hit directly on to make sure people are very clear what’s in our product.”
The advertising campaign coincides with a new limited-edition seltzer, “Sangria Splash,” which includes real fruit juice (and no beer, of course).