“Does this can make me look fat?”
How a brewer chooses to seek innovation tells you a lot about what motives them.
If you had any question as to where Budweiser’s priorities lie, look no further than their new bowtie-shaped can which will be hitting the shelves early next month.
While a brewer like Sly Fox is working to get around the aroma-robbing issues with their new topless can, and Samuel Adams is torturing themselves to create the perfect aluminum vessel to bring out the best in their wares, Budweiser has spent three years and “significant capital investments” developing a can that simply looks cool.
It also only holds 11.3 ounces of beer, so drinkers are getting even less than they would from a traditional can of Budweiser.
From the details shared in the press release below, the new bowtie-shaped beer seems to do nothing to enhance the flavor or aroma of the beer for the drinker. Actually, there’s no mention of flavor or functionality for the drinker at all, only breathless quotes from Director of Innovation for Anheuser-Busch Pat McGauuley about how neat the thing looks.
Here’s a sampling of what he says:
The world’s most iconic beer brand deserves the world’s most unique and innovative can. I think we have it here.
I’d shy away from using the word “innovative” when describing something that’s all about style, not substance, but I don’t work for Bud.
We explored various shapes that would be distinguishable in the marketplace, but also viable from an engineering standpoint.
Again – it’s all about looks – no mention of flavor or functionality for the drinker.
Wait, I take it back – it’s easy to grip…
This can is certainly a conversation starter: eye-catching, easy-to-grip, trendy and – according to our research – very appealing to young adults.
Yes, the research has shown that “young adults” will have hours of fun in conversations started by the trendy and eye-catching new can:
Young Adult One: Hey dude – what up?
Young Adult Two: Hey.
Young Adult One: Want a Bud?
Young Adult Two: Umm, sure. What’s up with the can?
Young Adult One: I dunno – Mike bought ’em.
Young Adult Two: Stupid Mike.
Young Adult One: Yeah, he’s kind of a tool, but free beer, you know?
Young Adult Two: I guess…
I know I’ve recently picked on Budweiser for the ridiculous Black Crown Media Kit, and I honestly don’t want to harp on them.
But I’m going to, because it’s striking to see that, at a time when craft brewers are bringing ACTUAL innovation to canned beer, Budweiser is once again putting style in front of substance.
It bothers me that a company with the resources to do something amazingly innovative chooses instead to do something vapid and useless.
I know they’re a marketing company that happens to brew beer, but as the landscape of the American beer scene is changing, I wish AB-InBev would concentrate on making a positive difference in the marketplace and not just more noise.
—
Here’s the entire press release from Budweiser’s media page:
World’s Most Unique Beer Can:
BudweiserIntroducing
Bowtie-Shaped Can on May 6ST. LOUIS (April 17, 2013) – This spring Budweiser will introduce a striking and original new beer can – a bowtie-shaped aluminum can that mirrors Budweiser’s iconic bowtie logo.
Beer lovers can see for themselves the new bowtie-shaped can when it becomes available in a special 8-pack on store shelves nationwide beginning May 6.
“This can is incomparable, like nothing you’ve ever seen before,” said Pat McGauley, vice president of innovation for Anheuser-Busch. “The world’s most iconic beer brand deserves the world’s most unique and innovative can. I think we have it here.”
The proprietary can, in development since 2010, will be available only in the United States and in an 8-pack and will not replace the traditional Budweiser can.
To make the new can possible, Anheuser-Busch engineers needed to solve a number of technical challenges, and major equipment investments were required at Budweiser’s can-making facility in Newburgh, N.Y. Significant capital investments also were required to upgrade packaging lines at the Budweiser breweries in Los Angeles and Williamsburg, Va., the first breweries with capability to package this unique can innovation.
Newburgh, about 60 miles north of New York City and 90 miles south of Albany, is where proprietary equipment is located that shapes the can. Creating the can requires a 16-step process – 10 steps to form the bottom half of the can, with an additional six steps to form the top portion.
The Anheuser-Busch Global Innovation Group has been investigating potential can innovations for several years.
“We explored various shapes that would be distinguishable in the marketplace, but also viable from an engineering standpoint,” McGauley said. “Aluminum can be stretched only about 10 percent without fracturing, which requires that the angles of the bowtie be very precise.”
An initial run of more than 10 million bowtie cans were produced in Newburgh through March 31 for the spring introduction. An additional 8 million cans are scheduled to be produced this month.
Due to the can’s slimmer middle and sleek design, it holds 11.3 ounces of beer and has about 137 calories, approximately 8.5 fewer calories than a traditional 12-ounce can of Budweiser.
“This can is certainly a conversation starter: eye-catching, easy-to-grip, trendy and – according to our research – very appealing to young adults,” McGauley said. “It’s a beer can like no other.”
Though there is no written documentation on the origins of the Budweiser bowtie, it is a brand icon found the world over. According to company lore, the bowtie was introduced when too many people were using the “Bud” bar call too frequently, so the double triangles were added to emphasize the full Budweiser name.
The Budweiser bowtie can is a natural progression from the new packaging introduced in 2011 that emphasized the iconic bowtie, a symbol that first appeared in a national advertising campaign for Budweiser in 1956.
The bowtie can is another example of how Budweiser continues to innovate, evolve and attract a new generation of beer drinkers. “It builds on the success of Budweiser Black Crown, the crowd-sourced fan favorite introduced earlier this year,” McGauley said.
The launch of the can is being supported with a marketing campaign that includes digital, print and television. It will be offered for sale in grocery stores and super markets, convenience stores and packaged liquor stores.
Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
It’s about the substance, alright. Less of it.
Ha ha – you’re right about that!
They’re just trying to stay relevant. That they need to do so with a can design is more a cry for help than anything else. Someone in Marketing had a brain fart that made it through to production. Nothing more.
Well, a little more – there was focus testing, capital investment, and the need for a 16-step process to create each can. For all of that effort, I just wish they’d created a can that does “something.”
To hell with the can, I wish they’d produce a beer that was something worth drinking.
Well at least this can gives you a little less of one that’s not!
It looks like someone attempted (and failed) to crush the can.
I was thinking the same. I’d like to see how “crushable” these puppies are – looks like someone already got ’em started!
I had the same impression. When the post showed up in my feed and I saw the image, I thought “oh, a crushed can”
It’s just stupefying how much time and money they throw at crap like this. Are you sure the Press Release wasn’t dated April 1st?
Either way, it’s a joke!
Wait… you’re peeved about a pre-crimped can? Think of the E.R. staff cycles that will be saved as a result of patients not having to be rushed into the hospital after suffering an acute soft tissue injury from squeezing those old fashioned cylinder cans. And the reduced liquid volume accounts for the fraction of beer that’s violently ejected from the can when inexperienced crimpers squeeze a little too soon.
I hate to say it, but I think you came down in these guys a little too hard. They really did think about much more than you’ve given them credit for.
Oh, and less Bud is always a good thing.
Cheers!
Maybe you’re right – they should call it the moron-proof can.
So there is six percent LESS product, delivered in a NEW and HIP container, from the biggest of the big breweries.
Who says there isn’t a stupid tax?
You might as well put those blinking and throbbing LED lights on this vessel as well, since the target consumer here won’t comprehend the difference. A new and innovative ‘light’ beer for the double entendre challenged.
Maybe they can fill a lightbulb full o swill and call it Bud Light…
Or BULB Light 😛
*Small typo in your title* Also, it is hilarious that they call it a “natural progression” – one that “requires a 16 step process” to create the can. That’s like saying a natural progression of the beer bottle is one shaped like a Clydesdale.
Thanks – fixed it. And I’d like to see a Clydesdale can – that might actually be cool.
This article lacks a lot of “sunstance”.
Especially now, since I just fixed the headline- good catch!
By definition, unique is “one of a kind” so “The World’s Most Unique Beer Can” is redundant. Glad the marketing department can dual-hat as the department of redundancy department.
Ha ha – I work with a grammar nazi who would pick out that same thing. 🙂
The whole hyperbolic press release makes me chuckle. It definitely goes to your overall point that this is all about the style of the vessel and not about the substance in it. But it’s great to know that Black Crown was “crowd-sourced”, whatever the hell that means.
On a slightly related note, I’ve always wondered what the original recipe Mr. Busch used would actually taste like if brewed.
Is it just me, or are Bud drinkers the type of people who would be LEAST impressed by a bow tie?
Ha ha, good point – they should save it for aged sherry or a gimlet glass…