Business Slogan 47: If You’ve Got the Time, We’ve Got the Beer.

People will remember “It’s Miller Time” as it is one of the more memorable beer slogans of all times. However, I reckon that “If you’ve got the time, we’ve got the beer” is worth a special mention. This 1971 slogan revolutionize how a beer campaign can work.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the average Joes thought that all beers were made from basically the same stuff, under essentially the same brewing processes and cost almost the same. The only distinction is the taste. So you can imagine all the advertising guys focused on the importance of flavour. Naturally, “how good the beer tasted” formed the foundation of all creatives and copy for virtually all the beers.

Miller Beer changed all that in January 1971. Beer distributors from around the country attended the Miller Brewing Co.’s national sales meeting at Boca Raton, FL. The highlight was Miller’s launch of a nationwide advertising campaign revolving around the new slogan, “If you’ve got the time, we’ve got the beer.” With this slogan and the advertising campaign, a new lease of life was given to the stale beer advertising scene.

The new advertisements still depicted tough and rugged macho guys (the typical Joe-Six Pack) drinking Miller Beer. The difference is these guys are drinking not because they enjoyed its delicate balance of flavors, they are drinking because they deserved a great beer after a hard day work. In essence, it’s Miller Time. For once in the past 20 years, beer advertising focus on beer drinker and not the beer. Beer drinkers took notice of the change and probably felt so flattered by the attention, that many switched to Miller. No one now ridicule it as a sissy beer. In fact, then number-one-selling Budweiser came up with a new slogan to battle Miller Beer, “For all you do, this Bud’s for you.”

How did Miller Beer got into this new campaign? All because Philip Morris acquired them in 1970. Philip Morris had successfully made Marlboro a top cigarette brand and it naturally wanted to repeat the same success to this new baby. So the style of “If You’ve Got the Time, We’ve Got the Beer” campaign is modeled rather closely to the Marlboro advertising.

Besides “It’s Miller Time” and “If You’ve Got the Time, We’ve Got the Beer”, another slogan of Miller that is worth mentioning is “Taste Great. Less Filling” created by McCann-Erickson Worldwide in 1974. AdAge even credit the campaign as #8 of it’s Top 100 Advertising Campaign.

Other memorable slogans from Miller Beer:

• It’s Miller time!
• Good call (Miller Lite)
• Tastes great, Less Filling (Lite) -1974, McCann-Erickson Worldwide
• Everything you always wanted in a beer. And less. (Lite)
• The Champagne of Bottled Beers
• No matter what what’s-his-name says, I’m the prettiest and Lite’s the greatest.

Check out more slogans filed under “Famous Business Slogans” category. Learn from these world renowned brands and see how you can create your own personal or corporate persona. Alternatively, I’m just an email away.

Read Related Post:

7 Famous Slogans of 20th Century

Read more about beer and television advertising at All About Beer

Miller Ads are sourced from: Gono.com

[tags]slogan, business slogan, company slogan, corporate slogan, famous slogan, popular slogan, advertising slogan, brand value, branding, brand, meaning behind Miller Beer’s slogan[/tags]