Miller Lite indeed has fewer calories and half the carbs of a Bud Light, although Anheuser-Busch’s newer Michelob Ultra just beats Miller Lite on both counts.
Following Sunday night’s advertisements, Twitter was alight with outrage from the U.S. corn industry. Many videos were posted of users pouring cans of Bud Light down the drain, and the National Corn Growers Association expressed disappointment with the beer maker.
The group represents growers of a crop that in 2017 was worth $49 billion using the average farm price of $3.36 per bushel from USDA. The value dwarfs the volume sales of Bud Light in the U.S. of $5.6 billion in 2017, according to a USA Today report.
Bud Light remains the most popular beer in America, taking 15.4 percent of market share in 2017, down slightly from the prior year. In 2015, drinking social app BARTENDr compiled data from its 700,000 users showing that Bud Light was the beer of choice in 33 of 50 U.S. states, including the top corn-growing state, Iowa.
Even before the Bud Light ad, corn farmers were not in the best of moods. U.S. corn prices have been tempered in recent years thanks to expanding competition from other producing countries.
From now on, it appears the growers will be drowning their sorrows in something other than Bud Light.
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