Erika BoldenMillerCoors is about to change your Miller Lite drinking experience. Are you kept up at night by the difficulties of enjoying that great, less filling taste so feverishly that you just can't unleash it from the can fast enough? Do you pine for a time when drinking your beer from the can will be just like drinking it from a glass? Rest easy, friend. The new punch-top can is here to ease your troubles.
Yesterday MillerCoors launched the ad campaign that will accompany the new Miller Lite and MGD 12 oz. and 16 oz. cans. The can features a depressible tab that admits air as it is releasing liquid, removing that “glug” effect that has long characterized drinking from a can. Director of innovation and activation for Miller Lite Amy Breeze says, “On our testing, consumers told us they prefer the punch-top can 3-to-1 over the standard beer can because it's more like drinking from a pilsner glass.” The advertisers did not run with the glassware-like effect or the improved shotgunning implications of this new design. Focus of the ad campaign, “How will you punch it?” will instead be the personal creative possibilities for your own method of opening the punch hole.
Drumstick opening technique; Credit: MillerCoors
An illustration on the can label recommends a key to push that second tab through. But why stop there? The commercial will really open your eyes to tab-punching possibilities. Like when you're camping, you can use that handy carabiner to punch the can; or when you're backstage at a concert with a Miller product in hand, just wait for the drummer to come off before his encore and he'll undoubtedly use his drumstick to assist you.
The idea of a can that uses an airflow hole is not innovative: It's pretty rudimentary for beverage cans. The stay-on-tab of today was preceded in the 1960s by a smooth, sealed surface that was opened by punching two holes in either side of the seamed-on end. That pointed tip on your double-sided bottle opener, technically called a church key, was instrumental for piercing the flat top of the can. Perhaps it was clever of DraftFCB to breath new life into very old airflow engineering technology.
You'll have the whole summer to absorb the commercial's charming suggestions for opening your beer. We're not sure of the staying power of this design (the Vortex Bottle managed to linger), but it will become standardized on every can of Miller Lite and MGD, giving you plenty of opportunities to try yourself. It looks like you can finally pull your ski poles out of storage and repurpose that épée. That six-pack in the fridge isn't going to open itself.
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