How Coors Light and Rethink responded after Shohei Ohtani damaged a billboard

by Campaign

—The damaged LED screen inspired a special can design from the beer brand—

After Los Angeles Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani damaged a Citi Field billboard that featured a Coors Light ad last month, the beer brand jumped at the chance to make a home run out of the moment.

Ohtani hit a long foul ball against the Mets Aug. 26, hitting the can on the brand’s LED sign at Citi Field.

Coors Light acted quickly so Angels fans could enjoy the moment in real life at the team’s first home game back in Southern California on Monday with Coors Light wraps and stadium signage that replicated the damaged Coors Light ad from last week’s Angels-Mets game.

Coors Light also posted a series of reactive and static posts on Instagram and X, formerly Twitter, joking that it got a “new can design.”

The quick-thinking idea came from long-time Molson Coors agency Rethink.

This was one of those moments where an agency can help a client beyond any formal brief or scheduled projects, said Aaron Starkman, chief creative officer.

“We encourage our creative teams to always be thinking of our client partners’ business even if they haven’t officially been briefed,” he said. “There are moments in culture that pop up that don’t appear on any schedule ever and we really try to capitalize on these moments.”

Because there was no meeting planned with the client, and Rethink wanted to move fast, the idea was simply texted to the client and the social post was live two hours after that.

Those moments come when what the brand stands for intersects with a viral moment for the target consumer, said Starkman. “In the case of Coors Light, they’re all about bringing chill to any situation.”

One of their ads got damaged in a very high profile way, and this was a way to have fun with that moment and turn it into a celebration with Angels fans.

“We saw an opportunity to react to the moment from a design perspective,” said Marcelo Pascoa, VP of marketing for the Coors family of brands, via email. “After an overwhelmingly positive response on social with consumer requests to buy one, we wanted to make good on those requests.”

Fans noticed the billboard on Monday’s game and went crazy for it, noted Pascoa.

On Monday, Coors Light also created a commemorative can inspired by the damaged LED screen.

The cans were available in limited quantities for $17 via shop.coorslight.com/products/hitsthespot, and sold out by the next day.

ICF Next and the creative agency Rethink partnered with Coors Light for this response.

Asked about the budget, Pascoa said this initiative was folded into pre-existing reactive programming.

This story first appeared at PR Week, with additional new files from The Message. 

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