Molson Coors ran a series of ads in which athletes celebrated the completion of a difficult workout by opening a can labeled “Extremely Light Beer” and pouring the liquid over their heads. An announcer says: “Light beer shouldn’t taste like water. It should taste like beer.” The ads are pretty funny, unless you work for Anheuser-Busch, in which case they may not be funny at all.

Anheuser-Busch filed a challenge using NAD’s Fast-Track SWIFT process, arguing that the videos falsely disparage Michelob Ultra and other light beers by claiming that consumers find them to taste like water or to be otherwise tasteless. Moreover, the company argued that the videos falsely denigrate competing light beers by suggesting that they are good only for showering, not for drinking.

Molson Coors told everyone to lighten up. The tagline was simply “a subjective opinion about what beer should and should not taste like, which cannot be objectively proved or disproved.” They elaborated by explaining that the statement constitutes puffery “because it is not sufficiently specific and material enough to create expectations in consumers.”

NAD determined that although no specific competitor is identified in the ads, the claim that something tastes “like water” is a measurable attribute that could be measured using “reliable sensory testing.” Stepping into the shoes of beer drinkers, NAD opined that “consumers may also reasonably expect that the statement is supported by such evidence.”

Do consumers watching beer ads like these really spend much time thinking about sensory testing? Or do they simply laugh at the ads and think that taste preferences are subjective? We know what NAD thinks. Molson Coors “vehemently disagrees” with the decision and indicated that they would appeal, so we’ll have to wait to see what NARB thinks.

Reasonable minds can disagree about what beer should taste like, whether beer should be used for celebratory bathing, or what constitutes puffery. That said, this decision arguably waters down the concept of puffery quite a bit. If you’re planning on poking fun at your competitors, you may want to put down your beer and consider this decision first.

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