Bud Light Platinum Headed For Super Bowl

Anheuser-Busch InBev is poised to back Bud Light Platinum with a Super Bowl ad, pouring major money behind the new higher alcohol version of Light, the brewer’s biggest beer launch in at least two years.

The brew, set to debut in early 2012, will contain 6% alcohol by volume and 137 calories, compared with 4.2% ABV and 110 calories for regular Bud Light, as Ad Age reported on Tuesday.

“There are opportunities for light beer to expand into new occasions, and we think Bud Light Platinum is the beer to take us there,” Mike Sundet, senior director for Bud Light said in a statement Thursday. “Bud Light’s ability to innovate and its social personality makes it the ideal brand to introduce Bud Light Platinum to a growing number of image-conscious beer drinkers.”

AB InBev has not detailed its marketing plans for the beer. But the brewer told distributors at meeting this week in Dallas that the brand would be featured in a Super Bowl ad, according to a distributor who was at the meeting. The ad was also reported by beer trade publication Beer Business Daily, which noted that Platinum will “conduct national sampling events on New Year’s Eve before rolling out nationally on Jan. 30.”