The Untold Battle That Crushed Milwaukee’s Brewery Empire—And What It Means for Your Next Cold One
Angry consumers rebelled, forcing Schlitz to secretly destroy ten million cans and bottles of beer and abandon ABF all together.
Skanky beer, however, was just one problem for the brewer. Schlitz was about to unleash what many industry experts consider to be one of the worst advertising campaigns in history. On paper, it shouldn’t have been. The brewer hired the Chicago advertising legend Leo Burnett—think of Burnett as a real-life Don Draper. But instead of clever spots that boosted beer sales, the ad campaign delivered Schlitz a devastating blow.
Derided by many at the time as the “Drink Schlitz or I’ll Kill You” campaign and playing off the hypermasculinity of the times, the television spots featured burly men and snarling boxers who threatened physical violence if someone were foolish enough to take away their cans of Schlitz. The reaction by the public was so negative that even today the TV spots are studied in college marketing classes as a warning on how not to market a product.
The double whammy of the off-putting ads and the sludgy beer alienated customers. Sales tanked from 24.2 million barrels in 1976 to 6.2 million in 1981.
Death of the Protector
Even as Schlitz was hemorrhaging customers, the legal noose was tightening around the company. And after an exhaustive two-year investigation, Kravit and the feds dropped the hammer. On March 15, 1978, Schlitz was indicted by a grand jury on 747 counts alleging “illegal marketing practices”: three felony counts, one misdemeanor to violate the Federal Alcohol Administration Act (FAAA), and 743 misdemeanor counts based on transactions that allegedly violated the FAAA.
Though Schlitz wasn’t the only brewer who caught the eye of the SEC, it was the only company that had decided to go to war with the government. The rest of the breweries rapidly settled.
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