I’ll preface by saying that Always Sunny is one of the best shows on TV right now and the recent “The Gang Buys a Boat” episode is among my favorites. However, this season’s Coors Light product placement is driving me nuts! Glenn Howerton, aka. Dennis, explains it like this:
I’m not sure I understand why this is an “OR” statement. Would the show cease to exist without Coors? But I get his point. The main actors, who also created the show, probably didn’t make a whole lot for the first few years and they have a right to monetize. That being said, I have 2 issues.
4 bottles, napkin holder, napkins, non sign -- all that's missing is Coors Light shirts
The first is a complete lack of subtlety. Would a bar really be sponsored almost exclusively by Coors Light? The signs, napkin holders, napkins, lightshade over the pool table, lack of other visible taps, etc. Would bar owners ever drink the same beer and that one beer all the time? Only if that beer was free, which doesn’t happen. With the copious amount of beer choices, they’d mix it up. And the prevalence of other characters (like the yacht guys drinking it), just throws Coors Light in your face.
The second is a matter of choice. Coors Light – WTF!! I lived in Philly for 9 years and can assure you that there’s no way in hell people drink that unless its on some stupid cheap special. I used to drink it in this place Lucy’s, because it was $2 pints all the time. It was a matter of wallet efficiency. But when you crossed the street to Drinkers, it was PBR cans because that’s what was cheap: $1 if shotgunned, $2 if consumed like a normal human being. At other dives, my friends and I drank 40s of High Life. The point is: nobody drinks Coors Light bottles in Philly dive bars, especially not in South Philly where Paddy’s is located. And worse, it’s not really believable that any of the characters, save the vain Dennis, would be drinking Coors Light. Remember, this is the crew that was drinking cheap wine out of a Diet Coke can.
What They Should Be Drinking
Bars in South Philly can be roughly divided up into two categories: Hipster bars and locals bars. Hipsters have moved into pockets of South Philly and are usually found drinking PBR, other cans like Dale’s Pale Ale, or microbrews, such as those from the semi-local Victory Brewing Company. Considering that Paddy’s few customers are old guys, it’s not a hipster bar.
It’s a locals bar. Philly locals do drink cheap domestic beer, but not Coors Light bottles. Perennial favorites are Budweiser and Miller Lite. Bud Heavy is out because it’s already got the Entourage product placement. Miller Lite is an option. But the best 
choice would Yuengling, a step up from the mass-produced Miller. Yuengling is from eastern Pennsylvania and has a semi-national footprint. It’s the beer served at Philly-area college keg parties when trying to class it up from the usual Natty Light. Yuengling is so prevalent in the area that its flagship brand is simply referred to as “lager.” For It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Yuengling would’ve fit in seamlessly.
Maybe Yuengling had no interest in advertising through the show. Maybe they did, but their bid was significantly worse than Coors Light’s. I hate ranting on a show I enjoy, but I just wish they could’ve done a more realistic product placement, if one had to be done at all.
Tags: advertising
I understand the thrust of your rant and as a fellow lover of the show it all makes sense. However I think you’re missing the point of product placements, they’re meant for the viewers. Which we can say include ALOT of beer drinkers, and alot of young men in their early-mid 20’s, with enough money to upgrade from “college” beers. Many of said drinkers can be or already are some of Coors Light’s biggest consumers and also largest target audience. An audience that you want to make an early impression with, in order to build a life long customer relationship. So yeah its not about being authentic, its about the money for the show (they deserve it, its hysterical), and the similar target audience interests for coors.
btw Yuengling is my second favorite beer, and I do not like coors. But it makes business sense.
cheers bob
I was wondering about that…you make some really good points. I still love the show and strongly believe it’s one of the best and most original shows around these days. Of course the cast does deserve to get paid, but I would rather have the advertising be separate from the show itself…regardless, it doesn’t really take away from my viewing experience. The show’s hilarious no matter what!
Cool refreshing insights. Sorry I am still brainwashed by their advertising. As previously mentioned, my chief issue with Coors’ product placement is the inaccuracy of it all. As a frequent Canadian traveler venturing to Philly for some pub crawling, I seldom observed customers waiting in line for the next sweet tasting Coors light. Sure, at sporting events (where you could ONLY purchase Coors) but at local bars, NEVER.
I not a fan of advertising and a few studies have shown that it doesn’t work on smart savvy people. I love the show, but if your going to advertise Coors light EVERY god damn show, you better be advertising something else from Colorado, MARYJANE!
Good night everyone!
They didn’t allways drink coors, in first episodes it was budwiser, then budlight and now coors.. its all about who pays them more for advertisng of course. Who cares what beer they drink anyway like denis said, id rather see them drink any reall beer then something with a label that sais beer..
Wow that was odd. I just wrote an incredibly long comment but after I
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You make a good point. However, I’d, personally, never heard of Yuengling beer before I read this blog. If I’d seen it being drunk on the show, I’d just assume it was one of the numerous “fake” brands that they drink, such as Blind Fox. I’m not from Philly, however, South or otherwise. Locally, it may make sense, but I think Yuengling would have to go the more traditional route and just do commercials so that they can get a more national recognition. Coors is a more recognized brand, plain and simple. As the show is seen by people all over the country, it makes sense that a nationally recognized brand is used for product placement. Also, I’m not sure why you’d think it was out of character for the majority of the cast to be drinking Coors Light. It’s not exactly a high-end beer. Also, if you think about it, the fact that they ARE a South Philly bar serving Coors Light, it may be a bit of an in-joke as to part of the reason why they have so few patrons, if. As you say, nobody in South Philly drinks it unless there is some sort of special.
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The only brand that makes sense as it is a national brand is Victory but they are not know for spending a lot of money on advertising. Victory spends the majority of their money on the quality ingredients of the beer (the mantra more or less), but it would be pretty bad-ass to see them drinking some Golden Monkey or DirtWolf!
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I had never tried Coors Light before watching Always Sunny and it has since become my favourite beer. This is the point of product placement and it doesn’t need any more looking into than that.
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Tim and Jeff – wondering what your thoughts are about ‘off the shelf’ product launch/ splash/ recruitment platforms like launchrock and unbounce?LikeLike
Reblogged this on Kill The Paradigm and commented:Worth the read to learn the facts.LikeLike
Awesome info! Step 6 is a great way to deal with scammers. However, it seems a few links were left out of the following sentence under General Campaign Design:“For the engineers out there, you can see our engineering team’s explanation of the code here. As for the code itself, check it out here.”Thanks,DavidLikeLike
We released a WordPress plugin based off a very similar method a couple of weeks ago and have had similar results.. one user collected over 300,000 from a single prize launched with only one email blast and one tweet – the webpage wasn’t even configured with any images or design. As this article mentions in the last paragraph it’s hard to attribute success to a specific variable and replicating it is very much a guessing game. It’s clear these guys put in a lot of work to ensure a successful campaign which likely attributed to the success.From my own personal observations of a number of similar campaigns recently the key is getting enough momentum to create a tsunami – it’s like a small wave in the ocean that gathers more and more momentum until it’s being shared every 30 seconds for 7-10 days straight.. but like a wave if it dies off before it becomes a tsunami then results may not turn into a life changing event.. but it’s still one of the fastest ways to grow a list!LikeLike
Great post. Love the specifics on making referrals a natural process.LikeLiked by 1 person
Again, it’s a case of who you know.While, it’s nice to share your methods, many sites have launched with referrals and most don’t do well, because they simply don’t have a team of people with friends and family that give a crap about what they do.What about the micropreneur, who’s family/friends don’t have a clue what they do? Think throwing up a referral site will do anything – Nope, again, they don’t know the right people in the beginning.These sites all work on the same simple principle – it’s all who you know.LikeLike
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Love the depth and transparency!LikeLike
I will have to check this out and see how well it goes
double opt-in is not a requirement in the US, it’s a courtesy, and preventative. That’s why a lot of ecommerce companies are opt out only.. You’ve discredited everything you’ve said with one sentence.LikeLike
Bravo on your execution! We’ve been experimenting with email marketing in the legal space and have had some recent successes. I’m always interested in learning about successful marketing campaigns. Thanks Tim.LikeLike
Thanks for the careful analysis. Regardless of her gross negligence and the fact that the applicable laws specifically criminalize it, the current media spin is “this is old news, she was fully exonerated, move on to the coronation.”LikeLike
how about with floral ideas? how can i grow my subcribers?LikeLike
This is an amazing case study. A couple of things I wanted to point out.1. The virality achieved was amazing, but still wasn’t the “hockey stick” style that people seem to expect… no matter how unrealistic the expectation is. Having 77 of the leads come from sharing though… is great. It’s probably because:2. The lowest level goals felt achievable. Getting 5 people to do something for a reward feels very plausible for most people. Having the stepped goals gave everyone something they could look forward to, but still provided fuel for:3. The influencers at the high end feeling like their efforts were worthwhile. It provided something for them to look forward to.Because they weren’t getting > 1 people signed up for every single signup they still had to do a LOT of work to market their idea and get the word out.They were willing to give away a lot. Some people don’t make the awards worthwhile. Giving away product to 3,000 people is not cheap… but probably cheaper than if they’d had to replace all the referrals with purchased traffic.[Moderator: link removed]Thanks,Josh Ledgard[Moderator: link removed]LikeLike
This is an amazing case study. A couple of things I wanted to point out.1. The virality achieved was amazing, but still wasn’t the “hockey stick” style that people seem to expect… no matter how unrealistic the expectation is. Having 77 of the leads come from sharing though… is great. It’s probably because:2. The lowest level goals felt achievable. Getting 5 people to do something for a reward feels very plausible for most people. Having the stepped goals gave everyone something they could look forward to, but still provided fuel for:3. The influencers at the high end feeling like their efforts were worthwhile. It provided something for them to look forward to.Because they weren’t getting > 1 people signed up for every single signup they still had to do a LOT of work to market their idea and get the word out.They were willing to give away a lot. Some people don’t make the awards worthwhile. Giving away product to 3,000 people is not cheap… but probably cheaper than if they’d had to replace all the referrals with purchased traffic.[Moderator: link removed]Thanks,Josh Ledgard[Moderator: link removed]LikeLike
Fantastic insights, thank you so much for being so transparent and sharing everything!LikeLike
Hi Tim,Absolutely love this idea. The thing that pops up for me was being human, authentic, real, to make the email list grow quickly.I dig their creative approaching to boosting subscriber counts but feel more than anything, being personable is the way to go. Making special people feel special is the key to business success. It’s all about the feeling, the listening, and serving, and paying strict attention to detail.I launched a new blog 2 weeks ago. My #1 intent was to make each reader and social sharer and commentor feel really special, by doing all I could to respond to every comment and social interaction possible. I’ve been up late at nights, but it’s so worth it as my blog took off quickly.Listen, Engage. Connect. Ask. Answer. These simple acts preclude tremendous accomplishments, just like yours…..and the woolly mammoth doesn’t hurt either.I also note the strict attention to detail, including the research done to find the best, most comfortable but effective razor blade. Savvy marketing rocks but the product provides some serious juice too, and when you’ve made folks happy, they will spread the word for you, making your job a little bit easier.Thanks so much for sharing Tim. You rock.I’ll be tweeting in a little bit to get this one out bright and early, EST time.Signing off from Savusavu, Fiji.Enjoy your day!RyanLikeLike
Hands up, great article!Can’t wait to read Tim’s tweaks…LikeLike
Hey Tim, Jeff and Andy, I really enjoyed your article. Great stuff. Thank you.LikeLike
Great article….a LIST is worth GOLD!LikeLike
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