Colson Moors has decided to pull commercial ad spots for Coors Light that championed working from home due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to Media Post.
The Coors Light commercial, named “Official Beer of Working Remotely,” was pulled before it was officially launched as the coronavirus outbreak has taken over the news cycles. Molson Coors is pulling the ads and ancillary material in fear that the spot seems to be making light of the people who are self-quarantining due to the COVID-19 health crisis.
Molson Coors Chief Marketing Officer St. Jacques stated in a statement to Marketing Daily:
“In light of the coronavirus outbreak, and the recent development of some companies asking employees to stay home from work to prevent further spread of the virus, we have made the decision to suspend the Coors Light ‘Official Beer of Working Remotely’ March hoops spot that we shared at [the] convention. While this was a tough decision, we believe it is the right one given the serious concerns about the outbreak across the country. The last thing we want is for our communication to seem insensitive or be misinterpreted.”
St. Jacques had stated the ad was geared toward the annual NCAA March Madness college basketball tournament. The Coors Light commercials launched this month with anticipation that it would play well with the March Madness hoopla and people filling out their brackets. As well as the tradition of companies losing work time to employees tuning in to the games during work hours.
“The spot was a play on the notorious loss of work productivity during March Madness. It landed well with distributors,” Molson Coors CMO Michelle St. Jacques wrote in a nationwide memo sent to the companies that deliver the beer in local markets. The memo was first published in the trade publication Beer Business Daily.
For several years now, the NCAA’s March Madness website featured a prominent “boss button.” When someone clicks on it, the button quickly replaces a live stream of a game with a fake screenshot of a search engine, spreadsheet or PowerPoint that appears legit if a boss walks by.