Beer Commercials: Drink With Gusto And Enjoy Life

In the late 1970s, Schlitz beer was the second most popular beer in the US, behind Budweiser. However, this changed after the company launched a new line of commercials that have since been dubbed the Drink Schlitz or I'll Kill You campaign. The ads featured a rugged mountain man and his cougar, and were intended to encourage viewers to stick to Schlitz and not switch beers. However, the campaign backfired, as people unconsciously picked up on a negative emotional vibe, and sales suffered as a result.

The Schlitz beer commercials of the 1970s

In the late 1970s, struggling to maintain its market share, Schlitz launched a new line of commercials with the tagline, "If you don’t have Schlitz, you don’t have gusto." The ads featured actors portraying fierce Schlitz loyalists, including a fictional boxer and a lumberjack with a "pet" cougar. In the commercials, an off-screen voice suggested that the characters try a different beer, to which they responded with vaguely menacing comments and threats. One of the ads ended with the line, "Drink Schlitz or I'll kill you," giving the campaign its infamous nickname.

The campaign was intended to be comedic, but it had the opposite effect on viewers, who found the ads threatening and scary. The negative response was so strong that Schlitz pulled the commercials off the air after just 10 weeks and fired their ad agency, Leo Burnett & Co. The campaign is often cited as a cautionary tale in advertising circles, demonstrating the importance of evoking the right emotions in marketing.

The failure of the ad campaign was detrimental to Schlitz's already-crumbling reputation and contributed to the brand's decline in popularity. By the 1980s, Schlitz had fallen from the second to the fourth most popular brewery in the country, and the company was eventually sold to the Pabst Brewing Company in 1999.

The Drink Schlitz or I'll Kill You campaign

In the 1970s, Schlitz was the second most popular beer in the US, behind Budweiser. However, its popularity began to wane, and by 1976, it had dropped to third place behind Miller and Budweiser. In a desperate attempt to maintain its market share, Schlitz launched a new line of commercials with the tagline "If you don't have Schlitz, you don't have gusto". This campaign, however, had the opposite effect and is often cited as a cautionary tale in advertising circles.

The infamous "Drink Schlitz or I'll Kill You" campaign featured a series of edgy and controversial commercials that ultimately scared away customers and damaged the brand. One notable ad from 1977, created by Chicago's Leo Burnett USA, featured a rugged mountain man/lumberjack-type character with a cougar at his side. When someone suggests taking away his Schlitz so he can try another beer, the cougar rears up and growls, prompting the man to say, "Down baby, I can take care of this... You want to take away my Schlitz? You want to take away my gusto? You're the first person that ever made me laugh." The ad ends with the man holding his can of Schlitz and saying, "You don't have beer."

The campaign was intended to be humorous and encourage customers not to switch beers. However, it evoked negative emotions and was perceived as threatening and frightening. As a result, people did not want to be associated with the brand, and Schlitz's sales suffered. The campaign was pulled after just 10 weeks, but the damage had already been done.

The failure of the "Drink Schlitz or I'll Kill You" campaign was not just due to its controversial nature but also because it failed to resonate with its target audience. The use of the word "gusto" in the tagline was seen as forced and obnoxious, and the casual sexual harassment and misogyny depicted in the ads were tone-deaf and unacceptable by today's standards.

In addition to the ill-fated ad campaign, Schlitz also faced other issues such as recipe cost-cutting, product recalls, and changes in the brewing process that altered the taste of the beer. These factors, combined with the negative perception created by the ad campaign, contributed to the decline of Schlitz's popularity and its eventual disappearance from the market.

The failure of the commercials

In the late 1970s, Schlitz beer was the number two beer in the United States, second only to Budweiser. However, a series of ill-fated decisions, including a change to its brewing process that altered its taste and a poorly received advertising campaign, led to its decline in popularity.

The Schlitz beer commercials of the late 1970s have been dubbed the "Drink Schlitz or I'll Kill You" campaign. The ads, which featured a rugged mountain man/lumberjack type character and his cougar companion, were intended to be humorous and encourage brand loyalty. However, they were perceived as threatening and off-putting by consumers.

The commercials attempted to evoke strong emotions from viewers, but they failed to anticipate the negative emotional response they would provoke. The ads were too edgy and not sharp enough, and instead of encouraging people to stick with Schlitz, they scared customers away and made people view the brand and its drinkers as frightening.

The gusto campaign, with its tagline "If you don't have Schlitz, you don't have gusto," also backfired. The frequent use of the word "gusto" in the ads was seen as obnoxious and unnatural. This campaign, along with product recalls and cost-cutting measures, accelerated the decline of Schlitz, which had been America's second-most popular brewery just a year earlier.

The failure of the Schlitz commercials serves as a cautionary tale in the advertising industry, highlighting the importance of evoking the correct emotions and avoiding tone-deaf messaging that can alienate consumers and damage brand reputation.

The Schlitz recipe and product recalls

The original Schlitz recipe was for an American-style lager, which was brewed in Milwaukee by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company. In the 1960s, Schlitz was the largest brewery in the world, producing "the beer that made Milwaukee famous".

The original recipe included North American Pilsner malt, 6-row pale malt, flaked maize, Cluster hops, calcium chloride, gypsum, Irish moss, and yeast.

However, in the 1970s, a series of business decisions, including changes to the recipe, would contribute to the downfall of the brand. In an attempt to cut production costs, the brewing time was shortened through a process called "accelerated batch fermentation". The malted barley was replaced with corn syrup, and the company began experimenting with the use of silica gel to prevent haze when the beer was chilled.

These changes to the recipe had a detrimental effect on the brand. Schlitz's slogan as the "most carefully brewed beer in the world" was no longer applicable, and customers started to turn away from the brand. In 1976, the company recalled over 10 million cans and bottles of beer, resulting in losses of over $1.4 million (or $6.3 million in 2020).

The Schlitz advertising agency

In the 1970s, Schlitz was the second most popular beer in the US, behind Budweiser. However, a series of advertising missteps, recipe changes, and product recalls saw its popularity wane.

One of the most infamous Schlitz advertising campaigns was created by Chicago's Leo Burnett USA in 1977. The campaign, dubbed "Drink Schlitz or I'll Kill You" by the ad industry, featured a rugged mountain man/lumberjack-type character, a cougar, and an off-screen narrator. The ad was intended to be humorous, but instead came across as threatening and off-putting to viewers. The negative response to the campaign caused sales of Schlitz to drop and is often cited as an example of how not to advertise a product.

In the late 1800s, Schlitz became known as Milwaukee's premium beer after a fire in Chicago destroyed the city's breweries, and Schlitz stepped in to fill the void. Schlitz was one of the first breweries to engage in outer-region marketing, establishing 2,000 taverns, saloons, and other retail locations between Milwaukee and Chicago. The company's famous slogan, "The beer that made Milwaukee famous," first appeared in Schlitz ads around 1893, along with the "belted globe" logo, which had been introduced in 1886.

In the early 1900s, Schlitz hired the J.L. Stack agency to help regain its lost popularity, and Stack assigned the account to Claude Hopkins, who created a new national ad campaign centred around the brew's purity. Ads featured copy that explained why the beer was healthy to drink and included images of the "Schlitz maiden, "Purity," in various stages of undress. This campaign helped Schlitz regain its position as the top-selling brewer in the US.

In the 1940s, with World War II curtailing production, the company refocused on its flagship product and introduced the "Kiss of the Hops" campaign. In the 1950s, Schlitz diversified its advertising to take advantage of the growing popularity of TV, and in the 1960s, the Leo Burnett agency (which also created the infamous 1977 campaign) introduced Schlitz Malt Liquor, Schlitz Lite, and Erlanger, while continuing to advertise Schlitz and Old Milwaukee.

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