Dive Brief:

• Coors Light reteamed with NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes for a campaign that toys with league rules about players promoting beer, per details shared with Marketing Dive.
• Mahomes appears in an online video about a shoot that is called off after a closer reading of NFL rules. The brand’s solution is to bury the full commercial in a time capsule, an event that will be livestreamed on June 28.
• Along with the humorous online video and livestream event, the Molson Coors brand will sell a “Redactrick Figurine” that pixelates Mahomes’ identity. The campaign shows how Coors Light continues to find creative ways to work with one of the NFL’s biggest stars.

Dive Insight:

For the third year in a row, Coors Light has figured out a creative way to utilize the popularity of a three-time NFL champion and two-time MVP who is not allowed to directly endorse alcoholic beverages while still an active player. Previous marketing efforts with Mahomes have punned on the beer’s name, offering consumers a Coors Light flashlight and Coors Bear golf club covers.

This time around, the brand is allegedly filming an entire commercial that will be buried underground in a time capsule to be opened once Mahomes can advertise the beer directly. An online video goes behind the scenes of the campaign shoot, showing the quarterback riding on top of the brand’s iconic silver bullet train, “Mission Impossible”-style, before a crew member stops the filming.

“No player shall be allowed to promote a beer while they play professional football, no matter how cool and high stakes it is,” the crew member says, reading a parody of NFL rules. 

Coors Light will bury the time capsule at an event that will be livestreamed on June 28 at 9 a.m. MT on YouTube and sell pixelated figurines on its online shop, with proceeds going to Mahomes’ 15 and the Mahomies Foundation. The brand promises that the capsule will “be unearthed someday in the future when Patrick Mahomes finally has permission to promote our beer,” giving the brand an opening if the NFL loosens its rules.

Coors Light continues to grow as Molson Coors increases its marketing spend for its core brand. The silver bullet train appeared in the marketer’s most recent Super Bowl commercial, making a return for the first time in over a decade. Coors Light saw double-digit brand volume growth in the U.S. in the first quarter of the year, per the Molson Coors’ latest earnings report.