One of Le Comte’s friends from college, Calvin Jennings, calls himself a craft beer snob. But lately, he says he finds beer makes him feel “full and sleepy.” These days, he prefers to have a couple spiked seltzers—a fast-growing alcohol product that he’s noticed being marketed to “athletic men.”
“They call it a beer belly for a reason.”
Some big beer companies have noticed the trend toward healthy living and tried to take advantage. Michelob Ultra, a sibling of Bud Light in the Anheuser-Busch InBev SA’s portfolio, saw its sales jump more than 80 percent from 2014 to 2017 to about $4.7 billion. A 12-ounce bottle packs 95 calories and 2.6 grams of carbs. Originally targeted at “active boomers,” the beer that hit shelves in 2002 just as the Atkins Diet took off ultimately broadened its marketing to go after athletes, with sponsorship of races and triathlons a key piece of the strategy. Anheuser-Busch last year launched Pure Gold, an organic Mich Ultra that has 10 fewer calories.
Not wanting to miss out on the wellness trend, Bud Light has added labels clearly calling out its four recognizable ingredients. Miller Lite, which popularized the “tastes great, less filling” slogan in the 1980s, has also leaned in, running ads on the back cover of Shape magazine that emphasize its 96 calories.
In the U.S., AB InBev has been trying to reinvigorate Bud Light and Budweiser, known colloquially as “Bud Heavy,” and Chief Executive Officer Carlos Brito said this week those brands performed better in 2018. And there are signs the company’s Bud Light marketing is resonating with NFL fans, who’ve added the phrase “dilly, dilly” from the commercials’ fictional medieval universe to their lexicon. But there’s still an uphill battle ahead, and the calorie conversation is a tacit acknowledge that beer has an image problem, according to industry observers.
“They call it a beer belly for a reason,” CivicScience’s Dick said. “There’s nobody out there who says beer is good for you.”
There’s also another low-calorie way to unwind after a hard week of work: getting high on legal weed. As cannabis legalization spreads across the U.S., pot is viewed by many modern consumers as healthier than alcohol, particularly among younger cohorts. So far, the alcohol industry has insisted that weed isn’t a threat, but beer may not be as immune as wine or whiskey.
To be sure, pot has been around for a long time, even if it is harder to obtain on the black market. Still, it’s no accident that many of the world’s largest brewers have partnered with Canadian companies to experiment with cannabis beverages. Beer has taken a hit in states with legal weed, and while wine and booze sales have held steady, there could be a bigger problem brewing for the alcohol industry, according to John Kagia, an analyst at New Frontier Data, a cannabis research firm.
For years, alcohol consumption followed a steady path as adults developed drinking habits: cheap beer in high school and college, better beer after getting a job, maybe $10-a-bottle wine for early adulthood dinner parties and then onto more upscale spirits and better wine as age and salary rise. That cycle is in danger of being broken if the new generation of drinkers never breaks through with cheap beer, Kagia said.
“It’s a canary in the coal mine,” he said, referring to the beer slump. “It takes a while to develop a palette—the effects might not be felt for a long time, but you’re seeing an erosion among consumers who are now able to choose between cannabis and beer.”