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Miller Lite Challenges Drinkers To Ignore Their Phones In Exchange For Free Beer

by Rudy Sanchez on 01/10/2020 | 2 Minute Read

It’s not uncommon to see a group of friends out for drinks, sitting in proximity to each other but miles away in cyberspace, their faces lit up by the glow emanating from thin, rectangular slabs. 

Smartphones and social media have created persistent connections to the rest of the globe, perhaps at the expense of personal, physical relationships. Or at least Miller Lite thinks so, and the theme of their latest “It’s Miller Time” campaign invites beer drinkers to take a break from social media and get some IRL engagement with friends.

Editorial photograph

As part of their anti-social media campaign, Miller Lite will offer free beer in limited-edition cans to anyone that can ignore their phone for at least a half-hour. Friends scan a QR code which sets and syncs a 30-minute timer, those that complete the challenge are then eligible for the black-out Miller Lite Can. Ironically, the technology that powers the in-bar promotion comes from Facebook, perhaps the reason Miller Lite is calling for short social media breaks instead of completely abandoning it altogether.

Editorial photograph

The limited-edition can is black and features the brewer’s wordmark and logo “ghosted” in grey on the front, and a toast to “real friends,” “the original social media,” and finally themselves and Miller Time on the back. The script is in gold, as are the top and bottom edges of the label. The can is also sleek and minimally clad in black and gold, certainly worth that short break from your timeline.

Editorial photograph

Of course, Miller Lite isn’t the first brand to use social media disengagement as part of a promotion as Burger King launched a Facebook app in 2009 that gave users a free Whopper for unfriending ten people, which they broadcast on that users’ feed.

Details on where or when these black-out cans will be available were not shared by the brewer at this time, promising an update at a later time, probably via their social media account.