“Publicity Stunt” – MillerCoors Responds To Stone Lawsuit

Stone, “Publicity Stunt” – MillerCoors Responds To Stone Lawsuit

Stone’s Greg Koch not a big Keystone Light fan

On Monday, Stone Brewing announced that it was filing a lawsuit against MillerCoors over the marketing and packaging of its Keystone Light beer.

Stone’s co-founder, Greg Koch, used a video to argue that Keystone Beer (which is owned by MillerCoors) was trying to “co-op our brand and our good name.”

Koch went on to accuse MillerCoors, the second largest brewer in the US, of deliberately confusing customers by making Keystone’s packaging look more like Stone brews. And from images we’ve seen of the Keystone Light can he’s got a convincing argument.

Plus in an act of trademark theatricality, the video also captures Koch trying Keystone Light and spitting it out, which is shot in slow motion to keep things fun.

MillerCoors representative Marty Maloney then responded to Stone’s lawsuit with a statement to the Business Insider

And here’s what he said on behalf of MillerCoors…

“This lawsuit is a clever publicity stunt with a multi-camera, tightly-scripted video featuring Stone’s founder Greg Koch.

Since Keystone’s debut in 1989, prior to the founding of Stone Brewing in 1996, our consumers have commonly used ‘Stone’ to refer to the Keystone brand and we will let the facts speak for themselves in the legal process.”

So that’s MillerCoors official response so far…And we wouldn’t be suprised if they’ve been advised by their legal team to avoid issuing a press release on this matter altogether…

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