11/20/2023 0 Comments Corona extra corona beer logo![]() The problem has been faced by fast-food companies, department stores and others in recent years, and dealt with differently. Such a situation provides companies with the grim options of rumor control: They can refuse to dignify the tale with a response and take the chance that it will go away, or they can try to meet it head-on and hope the truth wins out. Some of the rumors say the story started with a report on the CBS television show "60 Minutes," but a CBS spokeswoman said the show has done no reports on the subject of beer for the last four years. Luce executives would not return telephone calls earlier this week. The U.S importer now is gathering information for possible legal action against several other distributors besides Luce who may have played a role in circulating the story. Nonetheless, said Mazzoni, areas in which the rumor has circulated for longer than five weeks have reported falling sales, and some stores have experienced sharp drops of 80 percent. Overall demand for Corona is so intense that distributors have been getting limited allocations this year. "Corona is one of the most extraordinary success stories in the history of beverage marketing," Paul Gillette, publisher of Beverage Hotline, a Los Angeles-based industry newsletter said. By 1986, Corona had moved up to second place in beer imports, behind Heineken, selling 13.5 million cases in the United States. Style-conscious beer drinkers caught on quickly, despite virtually no advertising. Packaged in a long-necked clear bottle, with a spray-painted blue-and-white label, Corona had cachet: It was favored by Southern California's surfing crowd. It also is a product that caught the entire industry off-guard after making a little-noticed entry into the United States in 1981. ![]() ![]() "It (Corona) is a pure product with no contamination." in Chicago, which tests the ingredients of Corona and other beers. "I've never heard of a beer sample with urine in it," said William Siebel, executive vice president of J.E. It apparently has hurt sales in some places and has threatened to undermine one of the most spectacular success stories in the history of the beverage industry.Īs a result, Corona has decided to go public with its dilemma, hoping to squelch the rumor by facing it head-on in the media.Ĭorona's problem has nothing to do with contamination - but seemingly a great deal to do with competition in a tough industry faced with lackluster growth for much of the past several years. It has spread into Southern California, parts of Northern California and such cities as Phoenix, Seattle, Boise, Aspen, Minneapolis and Milwaukee. Just as Procter & Gamble once faced rumors that its corporate symbol was linked to devil worship, the false story about Corona has taken on a life of its own. In an out-of-court settlement earlier this month, Luce & Son Inc., which carries Heineken and other beers - but not Corona - was obliged to declare publicly that Corona was "free of any contamination."īut that wasn't the end of it. "But we've reached the point where everybody's going to know about it anyway, so why not tell the true story?"īarton, which imports Corona into 25 Western states from Mexico City, traced the tale to a competing wholesaler in the Reno, Nev., area in May. Mazzoni, executive vice president and general manager of Barton Beers in Chicago. "There's a risk involved and we know that," said Michael J. importer is about to undertake an extraordinary and high-risk strategy of answering the rumor in the news media. To be specific, with urine.Īs a result, its major U.S. Corona Extra, the Mexican beer whose astonishing success has been both a mystery and source of jealousy within the brewing industry, is suddenly battling a mysterious problem of its own: persistent false rumors that it is contaminated.
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