Coors Light and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes know that NFL players are not allowed to endorse beer, but they also know that there are no league rules against promoting flashlights and so teamed up in July to promote ‘The Coors Light’.
To skirt around the longstanding league policy forbidding players from endorsing any alcohol product, the beer brand and athlete ambassador summer campaign in the USA promotes flashlights – sturdy Rocky Mountain-cold flashlights.
The digital campaign, created in harness with agency Mischief@NoFixedAddress promotes the limited-edition Coors Lights: a branded flashlight that is definitely not a beer.
The hero commercial introduces the flashlights and outlines how the beer brand is selling ‘The Coors Lights’ on its website for $15 – which also just happens to be the quarterback’s shirt number.
All proceeds will go to the ‘15 And The Mahomies Foundation’: the quarterback’s charity which focuses on improving the lives of children in needy communities.
The spot was posted across Mahomes’ and Coors Lights’ social channels from 8 July.
Helmed by Director Pete Marquis and produced by Strike Anywhere, the minute-long spot describes the flashlight in detail: pitching it as 12 or 16 fluid ounces of quality hard steel and “perfect for camping trips or those warm summer nights spent with great friends” and conforms that it is ‘100% flashlight and 0% adult beverage’.
The beer company released a limited number of flashlights each day at 10am between 13 and 15 July available via a website at TheCoorsLight.com.
Coors revealed it had a ‘four-figure supply of product and expected to sell out’.
“It’s a play on words. We love the pun,” commented Coors Light’s Senior Director Of Marketing Chris Steele. “It’s a way for him to have a fun, little campaign with Coors Light while still following all the rules.”
“This summer I’m excited to team up with Coors Light again to debut The Coors Light,” said Mahomes in the campaign launch statement. “It’s a legit flashlight. It’s made with high-quality steel. So it feels cold like the Rocky Mountains.”
Comment
This is Mahomes’ first official ad in which he holds a Coors Light product, but it’s not the first time he has publicized the brand. Mahomes first became a Coors Light paid endorser soon after he won MVP in Super Bowl LIV where he was filmed drinking the beer while celebrating the victory.
He also drank Coors Light during The Match; a televised, celebrity golf game in which he partnered with Josh Allen to take on Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers in a 12-hole match play at the Wynn Golf Club in Paradise, Nev.
“It’s his authentic love for the brand. He’s been drinking Coors Light for a long time based on it being his dad’s favorite beer,” added Steele. “Being a superstar quarterback and an all-around good guy certainly doesn’t hurt.”
Having quarterbacked the Chiefs to four AFC Championship Games, won a Super Bowl and won a regular-season MVP, the 26-year-old Mahomes is a Madison Avenue star. As well as his $45m annual Chiefs contract (the third highest in the league), has endorser deals with Airshare, Adidas, BioSteel,, Bose, CommunityAmerica Credit Union, DIRECTV, Electronic Arts, Essentia Water, GEHA, head & Shoulders, Hy-Vee, Oakley, State Farm and Whoop.
Comment
This is a cheekily clever way to get around the NFL’s strict rules restricting active players from endorsing alcoholic beverages.
Up until 2017, hard alcohol brands were completely banned from NFL advertising, but this has since relaxed to allow alcohol, wine and seltzer brands to use a player’s or team’s likeness with the first activation under the new rules being Crown Royal Whiskey’s ‘Hydrate Generously’. Even then, there cannot be any overt notion of a direct endorsement.
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