Lite beer brands are courting Gen Z with older celebrities—will it work?
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A younger man catches the attention of a twentysomething demure on the bar. He appears to be like again down at his telephone, thumb poised to return to scrolling (or worse, maybe, swiping). Suddenly, 82-year-old Christopher Walken seems seated beside him. “Don’t just like someone on the app,” Walken scolds, “like them in real life.” The younger man, outfitted with the stately actor’s counsel and two pints of beer, walks over to the younger girl and makes an introduction.
Walken, nonetheless sedentary, concludes, “Legendary Moments Start with a Lite.”
The early 2026 advertisement for one in all America’s top-selling beers falls in line with a broader pattern in mass-market, light-beer salesmanship—and one which will shock, given the sardonic tone during which Gen Zs are wont to say “OK boomer.” To court docket younger shoppers, the nation’s Midwestern megabreweries are turning to analog experiences touted by the trusted voices of a a lot older era. It’s as if all of the high-powered advertising and marketing minds of Madison Avenue have come to a consensus: The youngsters may not hearken to us, however they’d higher hearken to their elders.
I’d undoubtedly heed Walken’s recommendation if one in all his famously villainous characters have been respiratory over my shoulder on the pub, however Miller Lite’s latest advertising and marketing marketing campaign appears to learn extra into the actor’s knowledge and age than his signature menace. “Christopher Walken is one of those rare cultural figures who truly transcends generations,” Sofia Colucci, the chief advertising and marketing officer for North America at Molson Coors Beverage Company, wrote of Walken’s function by way of e-mail.
The Walken commercial for Miller Lite, owned by Molson Coors, is joined by these from others of their cohort, like Michelob ULTRA, owned by AB InBev, which debuted a Super Bowl spot this 12 months that includes 75-year-old Kurt Russell starring as “the ULTRA Instructor.” In what isn’t a dissimilar plot, a mature and achieved main man all of a sudden seems seated on the bar beside a hapless man who is much worse at winter sports activities than his après-ski entourage. But the rugged, white-maned Russell offers the person the Winter Olympics model of the Rocky Balboa therapy. By the tip of the advert, the improved skier is again on the bar with mates smiling over a pint. Again, lived expertise cures youthful ineptitude.
In each of those high-profile megabrewery adverts, we sense a dread for tangible social embarrassment—the rejection of a romantic opening, the defeat of an athletic endeavor. For Gen Z, these plots depict the potential of real-world cringe. But leathery Hollywood legends lend their fingers (greedy a beer, after all).
Miller additionally recently worked with Laurie Cooper, a New York City realtor turned influencer who dispenses relationship recommendation and going-out tricks to a a lot youthful (Cooper is in her 80s) city viewers on TikTookay. “Millennials and Gen Z are my biggest fans,” Cooper instructed me. “They are smart. That’s why they listen to me. They can spot fake a mile away. I’m as real as it gets and they see that. I love life and they love that about me… They feel I’m wise, experienced, and knowledgeable, and they trust me.”
Not solely did Cooper promote Miller’s Damp January Clubthe beer model’s reply to Dry January, she additionally spearheaded a viral dating craze final fall she known as “Sit at the Bar September.” “I think they need role models because the internet made things too easy,” Cooper says of the traction her distinctive tackle way of life affect has had. “You can do everything from your phone just sitting on your couch. They want to get out and do things, they just feel like they have forgotten how.”
Many Gen Z drinkers got here of age at a time when going out was, effectively, unattainable resulting from a sure virus. They’ve additionally aged up into consuming at a time when the light-beer market has more and more seen competitors from nonalcoholic choices and beer alternate options like fashionable seltzers and ready-to-drink canned cocktails. “The competition for their attention isn’t just other beer brands—it’s everything,” Colucci commented. “Streaming, gaming, social media, wellness trends, spirits. That’s why we focus on occasions like social gatherings, sporting events, and birthdays, where we can remind people of moments when beer naturally belongs.”
Despite all these non-hoppy distractions, the demographic is definitely trending upward in its adoption of beer, however nonetheless doesn’t evaluate to its older counterparts. In 2023, 53 % of Gen Z drinkers within the US reported consuming beer within the final six months, and by 2025, that quantity had grown to 57 %, in line with knowledge offered by IWSR, the worldwide chief in beverage alcohol knowledge and insights. Boomers who drink alcohol, however, have diminished their reliance on beer from 64 % in 2023 to 61 % in 2025. Gen Z nonetheless has some catching as much as do on the taproom.
But can the likes of Walken actually move on the pub-going behavior? The youngest era of drinkers have confirmed their penchant for nostalgia and a keenness for the analog age in different areas of the financial system. they’re thrifting garments from a decade of their selecting, whether or not shopping for the newest print magazines to leaf by, or patronizing a vinyl listening caféGen Z has already put shopper {dollars} behind pre-digital merchandise. While retail gross sales of alcohol are declining (which means individuals are consuming much less at house), spending at bars remains to be robust.
“Beer is arguably secondary,” says Andrew Coplon, founding father of Craft Beer Professionalsof how he thinks about filling stools. “The question isn’t what type of beer to brew—while that is important—it’s what other types of experiences you give people that give them a sense of urgency to visit these locations.” Pining for an age that not even millennials can keep in mind, it makes a sure type of sense for Gen Z to show to boomer spokespeople to indicate them what socializing on the pub will need to have been like earlier than the iPhone.
“The reason many of us love goes to these spaces is the sense of community,” Coplon continues. “When you see people from all walks of life, all different ages, all different levels of social drinking experience—that’s why it’s fun. That’s what reinvigorates so many people.”
As a advertising and marketing technique, the listen-to-your-elders angle has lately been confirmed to achieve success by the late, nice Catherine O’Hara. Last 12 months in the course of the Super Bowl, Michelob ULTRA debuted a commercial depicting O’Hara and William Defoe as conniving beer fiends keen to hustle a lot youthful and fitter pickleball opponents to win a pint. Despite their age, they aced, spiked, and sipped their solution to victory. In the wake of the business, Michelob ULTRA overtook Model to turn into the most sold beer in America by September. A 12 months on, the brew appears to have gotten a bit stronger, and younger shoppers appear to be liking it.
“The through line isn’t age, it’s experience,” Colucci clarified of Miller’s technique by way of e-mail. “Showing up. Living your life in real time. If anything, it reinforces the idea that connection matters at every stage of life. That’s not a generational message, it’s a human one.”
So maybe it’s lacking the purpose to learn the brand new face of beer gross sales as “elderly.” The casting of Russell, O’Hara, Walken, and Cooper as the brand new peddlers of sunshine beer captures the vivacity and vigor of a type of particular person who maintains the life-style and foreign money of youth effectively into the same old years of retirement. These are personalities who’ve held on to the cache of coolness over the many years—one thing mild beer is hoping to do at a pivotal time. As boozing begins to indicate its age, these mild beers are seeking to icons who’ve devoted time to learn to do it with fashion.
