MillerCoors Sneaks Into Super Bowl

MillerCoors , which once mocked extravagant Super Bowl ad spending with a tongue-in-cheek one-second ad, is buying up pricey regional ad inventory during this year’s game to plug a national launch of its newest brew.

The brewer has purchased time on local TV stations in the Great Lakes and Southeast regions for a 15-second ad for Redd’s Apple Ale, an apple-flavored malt beverage it began testing over the summer. The Super Bowl spots are the beginning of a major campaign for Redd’s, which launches nationally Feb. 1. “This thing is going to come out big, it’s going to come out hot, so what better way to goose it than with a big advertising program,” MillerCoors Exec VP-Chief Marketing Officer Andy England told Ad Age. “The Super Bowl, regionally, just happens to be part of it.”

The campaign is by WPP’s Cavalry, an agency established last year to handle creative and digital for Coors brands and new products.