At the very least, you can say that it was an interesting gambit for MillerCoors, the country’s second largest macro beer producer, to roll out a product entirely targeted at “people who are meh about beer.” That’s what they attempted to do with Two Hats, a fruited, moderately priced light beer that launched back in February, advertising itself as “good cheap beer.”
As it turns out, though, people who are “meh about beer” aren’t really all that interested in fruited light lagers from MillerCoors. Even people who look like this fellow, which is apparently what MillerCoors thinks people who are “meh about beer” look like, according to the Two Hats commercial found below.
Far be it from us to say that this was an idea doomed from the start … but this was pretty much an idea doomed from the start. According to the MillerCoors corporate blog, the remaining Two Hats in the market should be off shelves by 2019 at the latest. It’s a remarkably fast departure, even for MillerCoors, which has some experience with ill-fated product launches. But six months? Even Miller Fortune lasted longer than that, right?
Ad Age suggests that the axing of Two Hats will free up funding that will be reinvested in other brands such as Arnold Palmer Spiked and MillerCoors’ recently acquired Sol—one more Mexican lager brand in what is becoming a sea of them in the still fast-growing U.S. market for Mexican imports. However, the biggest focus within the company needs to be on Coors Light, by necessity. As the Silver Bullet has slid, thus have slid the fortunes of the entire company. MillerCoors CMO David Kroll was recently released, which Ad Age speculates was tied to the decline of Coors Light, while CEO Gavin Hattersly stated that the new CMO’s “number one job” would be to staunch the bleeding in this area.
“Right now we simply cannot get to profitable growth without significant improvement in Coors Light and without gaining a bigger piece of [the] above premium [segment],” said the company VP of national craft and innovation, Bryan Ferschinger, in a note to employees and distributors. “We plan to aggressively pursue innovation that will build our business and transform our portfolio. MillerCoors remains committed to quality and innovation, and we aren’t afraid to try new things.”
Sure, I mean, why would near-immediate failure make anyone nervous about trying new things, right? Below, you can take in a commercial for the now-departed Two Hats, which by all likelihood you never actually saw in the wild, in either its lime or pineapple flavors. If you hurry, you can probably still find some dusty Two Hats six packs at your corner package store.