Our Take

Thirty Years After Slur, Corona Getting Last Laugh

Avatar photo
Written by Bryan Dent
Twitter
Visit Us
Follow Me
YOUTUBE
YOUTUBE

“Corona is the New King of Beers,” reads a headline in The Wall Street Journal from earlier this month. Maybe so. While the self-proclaimed King, Budweiser, watches sales shrink every year, Corona is actually pushing out new brands. In a direct challenge to Michelob Ultra, 90-calorie Corona Premier makes its debut in February next year.

It’s been a long road for the skunky yellow import. Back in 1987, exactly 30 years ago, Corona was almost killed in the US by a malicious rumor that Mexican brewery workers pissed in the vats. Just as Procter & Gamble once faced rumors that its moon-and-stars logo was linked to Satanism, the piss rumor took on a bizarre life of its own. It had enough legs that store owners started refusing shipments, and sales crashed by 80 percent.

The rumor was eventually traced to a distributor for Heineken (the number-one imported beer at the time) and Corona was awarded $3 million in damages. It took every bit of that to rehabilitate Corona’s reputation, including a $500,000 infomerical beamed to television stations via satellite.

Today, though, Corona is by far the top-selling beer import in the US. Meanwhile, Heineken has dropped to a distant third (behind another Mexican beer, Modelo). Heineken’s big rollout this year was a non-alcoholic monstrosity called “Heineken 0.0.” A-B InBev is still churning out the Lime-A-Rita flavors and buying craft brewers, but its traditional heavy-hitters have gone flat. If Corona isn’t quite the new King yet, it is at least standing in the throne room.

 

Twitter
Visit Us
Follow Me
YOUTUBE
YOUTUBE

About the author

Avatar photo

Bryan Dent

Leave a Comment

1 Comment

  • Modelo will soon be champ. All Mexicans in the US prefer it over US brands, evidence being I’ve never seen a Mexican here in Texas carrying a twelver of Bud or Bud Light, it’s always Modelo.

    Modelo, IMHO, is actually better beer than Corona, and cheaper. “Brewed with a Fighting Spirit”, I guess I have to fight drunk Mexicans at the bar when I order one?