Molson Coors must stop saying rival beers taste like water, regulator says | CNN Business:
Beer ads try to be funny, but a regulatory group has determined that Molson Coors went too far with a recent ad that compares rivals’ light beer to water.
The National Advertising Division, which is part of the Better Business Bureau, sided with Anheuser-Busch, which challenged a 2022 ad for Miller Lite that uses the phrase “light beer shouldn’t taste like water, it should taste like beer.” The agency said that Molson Coors should “discontinue” the ad because is “not puffery or a mere opinion.”
Puffery is an extreme claim that no reasonable person would believe: “Men who drink Molson all become rich and famous.” The problem with Molson’s claim is that light beer, by and large, does taste like water and bad water at that. Or at least it’s a claim that not immediately unbelievable to a reasonable person.
Just as notable here is that Molson Coors and Anheuser-Busch have a Coke vs. Pepsi type war going on for the beer drinkers of America.