Rick Romell

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The billboards along freeways in Milwaukee are hard to miss.

They announce in red letters, more than two feet high, that Milwaukee's Best Ice is now "6.9% ALC/VOL."

In announcing the new alcohol content of one of its cheapest beers, MillerCoors says it is "committed to leading the industry in transparency so that our consumers can make fully informed choices."

But some beer industry experts are surprised that MillerCoors is making alcohol content its primary pitch.

“I have to say I can’t recall ever seeing anybody advertising (the strength of a beer) and saying now that’s the feature of this brand that we’re featuring,” said Eric Shepard, executive editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights and a staff member at the widely read trade publication since 1977. “It’s not standard procedure.”

John Szymankiewicz, a North Carolina attorney who specializes in the craft beer industry, said he would never advise his clients to do such a thing.

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Menus at restaurants and other spots serving craft brews often state the alcoholic content of each beer, but Szymankiewicz views that as essentially providing relevant information to customers, who presumably will understand that drinking a bottle of imperial stout at 8.8% alcohol differs from downing a 4.7% pilsner.

The MillerCoors billboards, he believes, have a different purpose.

“You’re showcasing the increase in alcohol content as a feature and a reason you should buy it,” he said.

That also concerned two academics who have studied alcohol-related issues.

"Clearly they are promoting this beverage based on its higher alcohol content,” Traci Toomey, a professor of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota, said in an email. "The higher the alcohol content, the more quickly people become impaired and the more likely a community/state will experience and pay for more alcohol-related problems."

“I haven't seen anything like this before,” Frank Chaloupka, an economist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said by email. “Seems like they're aiming for drinkers who are looking to get more for their money. This seems likely to result in more alcohol consumption and its consequences, given the evidence on the impact of alcohol advertising on consumption.”

Also critical was Father Michael Pfleger, an activist priest in Chicago who has campaigned against alcohol advertising in poor, inner-city neighborhoods.

Pfleger said MillerCoors has “made a conscious choice” to play on the stepped-up alcohol level of Milwaukee’s Best Ice.

“We’re no longer just advertising the drink – now we’re advertising how much alcohol you can get in the consumption of the drink,” he said.

'Call it provocative'

The typical alcohol content for most popular domestic beers is between 4.1% to 5.0%. Ice beers are brewed differently from their mainstream domestic counterparts and typically have higher alcohol content. Natural Ice, brewed by Anheuser-Busch InBev, and Keystone Ice, another MillerCoors economy brand, both stand at the former level of Milwaukee’s Best Ice – 5.9%.

Milwaukee's Best Ice is now 6.9%, a 17% increase.

Besides saying MillerCoors is committed to transparency, company spokesman Marty Maloney said by email that “the company has exhibited a long-standing commitment to the fight against alcohol abuse, including guidelines on responsibly marketing our beers only to those 21 and older.”

He also noted that despite the increased alcohol content, Milwaukee’s Best Ice still “contains far less alcohol than most wine, liquors and even a number of other beers.”

Craft beers, though, are typically pricey and sold for their singular taste. Milwaukee’s Best Ice is one of the most inexpensive beers available – about $12 here for a case of 30 twelve-ounce cans.

Shepard said sales of MillerCoors’ economy beers have shrunk, and the Milwaukee’s Best line, in particular, has suffered, perhaps leading to the decision to grasp at an unusual strategy.

“I think they felt that they needed to do something fairly bold,” Shepard said. “One might call it provocative even.”

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Michael Siegel, a physician and professor of community health sciences at Boston University, said Miller’s advertisement of alcohol level is unusual but not troubling.

“We are talking in this case about a rather small difference in content compared to similar products, so it does not raise an alarm to me,” Siegel said in an email.

Change in taste

Whether it will lift Milwaukee’s Best Ice, of course, remains to be seen.

MillerCoors started delivering 6.9% alcohol Milwaukee’s Best Ice two months ago, said Marie Greguska, co-owner of Discount Liquor, a large beer, wine and liquor retailer with stores in Milwaukee and Waukesha.

Greguska said she’s seen a bit of an increase in sales of what she described as “a workingman’s beer” that’s also popular with college students and “more of an urban” customer.

But the Otto’s Beverage Center at 3476 N. Oakland Ave., near UWM, hasn’t noticed any change.

And employees at two central-city liquor stores – Teutonia Wine and Liquor, 2232 W. Capitol Drive, and Green Ring II Liquor, 3305 N. King Drive – said sales of the brand have fallen since the alcohol content rose.

“People for the most part say they don’t like the taste of it because the alcohol content went up,” said Shorone Love, of Teutonia Wine and Liquor.

At Green Ring II, Milwaukee’s Best Ice was by far the best seller – until customers got turned off by the taste of the new version, employee Ivery Smith said.

“We were ordering 11 or 12 cases (a week),” he said. “Now we’re down to half that.”

Maloney said Monday in an email that the billboards will come down by the end of the month as MillerCoors transitions to a different brand message. That had been the plan, he said.