USA: Anheuser-Busch responds to the Miller claims

The producer of Bud Light fired back at its smaller rival Miller Brewing Co. in the battle of taste on November 23 , taking out full-page ads in major newspapers that thanked consumers for choosing Bud Light over Miller Lite "by a margin of over 2-to-1 every day." , Associated Press reported.

Anheuser-Busch Cos. Ltd. took out the ads on the high-readership day before Thanksgiving in response to "taste trial" TV spots run by Miller since Nov. 11 that claim Bud Light had changed but still didn't taste as good as Miller Lite. The new Bud Light ad thanks consumers for "choosing great taste" and took aim at the foreign ownership of Miller Brewing, which became SABMiller PLC in 2002.

"You choose the great taste of Bud Light over SABMiller's Lite by a margin of over 2-to-1 every day," it said.

The salvo is the latest in an ongoing fight to boost flat beer sales in the U.S. market as Americans increasingly experiment with liquor-based drinks and more upscale microbrews and imports.

In the week 46, Miller took a step back from television spots that say Bud Light had changed and provided new ads without the assertion. But it continues to say data it has collected show Bud Light has become bitterer and carbonated than last year.

The altered spots have now begun running on 10 cable networks that had held the earlier ad, and on major networks ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and ESPN, said Pete Marino, spokesman for Miller, a subsidiary of London-based SABMiller PLC. Marino shrugged off the latest counter-punch. "We believe that when consumers choose on taste, their decision serves us very well," he said.

Bud Light, holding 18.8 % of the U.S. market last year, is on pace to grow 1.5 % this year, while Miller Lite, with an 8.4 % share, looked to grow 4 %, said Benj Steinman, publisher of trade newsletter Beer Marketer's Insights.If that growth stayed consistent, the shares of both beers were unlikely to change much, he said.

"I think it's been difficult for A-B to decide whether they're going to punch back or stay above the fray or do something in between," Steinman said. "This time they're responding and so it goes." Miller, with an 18.2 % share of shipments domestically, has for the last two years declared itself an "able challenger" to market leader Anheuser-Busch, with about a share of 48.7 %.

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