Miller High Life toasts 100 years
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High Life, Miller Brewing's oldest brand, made its debut in 1903.
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MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- Miller High Life is toasting a century as "the champagne of beers," but the enduring symbol of Milwaukee's brewing past is feeling its age.
Overshadowed by trendier drinks and encroached on by light and low-carb beers, Miller Brewing's former flagship brand has stumbled from its bar stool and is trying to revive its heritage.
"Our goal is to make this brand as prominent as it was 25 years ago," said Carl Cahill, senior brand manager for High Life. "We want to bring it back to its hey day."
High Life, which marked its anniversary Tuesday, advised a generation of blue-collar men in the 1970s to relax and enjoy "Miller Time" at the end of a long workday.
At its peak in 1979, High Life was behind only Budweiser as the country's most popular beer. Today High Life has fallen to No. 9.
Dan "Fitz" Fitzgibbons, the 44-year-old owner of Fitzgibbons Pub in downtown Milwaukee, said he developed a lifelong taste for High Life during the beer's headier days.
"It's a heavier, traditional beer," he said, holding a see-through High Life bottle filled with foamy golden beer.
But even at Fitzgibbons Pub, where a large rusty tin High Life sign hangs prominently behind the bar, High Life isn't the top seller. At this bar and in overall sales, Lite is the Miller family's breadwinner.
High-story
High Life, Miller's oldest brand, made its debut in 1903, the year of the Wright Brothers' first flight, the first World Series, and the first Harley-Davidson, another Milwaukee emblem.
These are label designs from an original Miller High Life bottle.
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German immigrant Frederick Miller founded Miller Brewing Company in the 1850s, and it continued to grow under his heirs. The company reached its peak after Philip Morris Cos. Inc. bought the brewery in 1969.
Sales of High Life and other aging domestic beers such as Old Style and Old Milwaukee have been sliding over the last two decades.
Once renowned as the brewing capital of the world, Milwaukee suffered through the 1980s and '90s while Schlitz and Pabst laid off workers and finally shuttered their Milwaukee plants.
Miller, the last remaining big Milwaukee brewery, was sold to London-based global brewer SABMiller PLC in 2002.
"They've had to endure the same pressures that every major brewery has had to endure," said Tom Pirko, president of Bevmark LLC, a beverage industry consulting firm in Santa Barbara, California. "We've had huge consolidation in the business. Regional beers like High Life have done really poorly."
Eric Shepherd, executive director of the trade publication Beer Marketer's Insights, blamed the decline of domestic breweries on imports, specialty drinks and light beers attracting younger, calorie-conscious drinkers.
"Regular domestic beers sort of became 'my father's beer,'" Shepherd said. "There was this seismic shift in drinkers' attitudes."
Cahill said Miller is well aware of the industry trends. But instead of reinventing itself for wider consumer appeal, Cahill said Miller is refocusing on a niche base of High Life customers.
High time for a revival
In 1997 the company revived its Miller Time campaign and reverted to its early era "champagne of beers" slogan on its distinctively clear bottles.
High Life also brought back its "Girl on the Moon" logo, which features by today's standards a modestly dressed young lady that by legend is company founder Frederick Miller's granddaughter.
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Cans of Miller High Life roll along a production line at the Miller Brewing plant on December 23, 2003.
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The brand's current commercials feature the populist "high life man," with his milieu of backyard barbecues and corner bars and his diet of white bread and Cheese Whiz.
The marketing strategy seems to be paying off. Though High Life's production is a fraction of its glory days, its sales have stabilized and even increased slightly in the last five years, Cahill said.
"High Life's an American icon," Cahill said. "People are drawn to things that have been around for a while and stand for something. There's definitely a nostalgia quality."
That nostalgia is aimed at an older demographic, but it's not lost on emerging beer drinkers.
Shepherd said the under-30 crowd is beginning to show a preference for traditional beers, heralded by Pabst Blue Ribbon's recent presence in chic Manhattan bars.
"Nobody wants to drink his father's beer," Shepherd said. "But maybe it's OK to drink your grandfather's beer."
Copyright 2004 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
