Corona vs. Coronavirus

Corona... Relax Responsibly

This one-liner once brought visions of abandoned beaches with readily available parrots as bottle openers. All you had to do to escape was crack a bottle and let your problems go. Remember those commercials? 

It’s really disturbing to think that instead of the relaxed beach visual we used to associate with Corona, now the name brings startling images of spiky green germs and worldwide panic to buy that last bottle of Purell or the now-infamous toilet paper stampede. Will someone please explain that fiasco? We still don’t understand.

What’s in a name?

Much like our writer, Katryna, Corona has officially joined the list of Andrews and Sandys whose names have been stigmatized after a natural disaster. We know that there is little truth to the “38 percent of Americans won’t drink Corona beer, because they are afraid of contracting the coronavirus” but as the Designed.co team chatted over lunch, the question was raised about how a brand under-fire could use this platform for something greater than themselves.

To say that the creative juices got flowin’ is an understatement, and if you scroll through LinkedIn today, it seems we are not the only one. (Post Credit: Monte Clark)

As a virtual cheers to our favorite lime-infused beach buddy, we thought we’d have some fun with this and offer some of our ideas unsolicited to Constellation Brands , not that they need them...

Please Don’t Jump on the Meme-Wagon

In today’s TikTok culture, people are already memeisizing Corona and the virus, so why not take matters into your own hands? Please don’t. Finding the relatable dark-humor in a terrible situation, and making fun of yourself a little might bring a smile to the faces of people who are currently holed up in their homes because work, school, and daily life, in general, have been canceled.

However, making light of the pandemic that has killed thousands of people around the world walks a fine line between relatable humor and distasteful humor, don’t err on the side of disrespect. Honestly, we’d steer clear of this altogether.

Our Suggestion, Pay it Forward

Thanks to our extended guests Nina and Anouka for this one. “Drink a Corona, Help the Cause, Beat the Virus”. What does this mean? Donate to the research and cure of the very thing that is challenging you. Think of Tom’s, remember them? Their whole motto was you buy a pair, we donate a pair. 

Do something great with the hand you have been dealt and reverse the stigma surrounding your name by paying it forward. This isn’t about making headlines, it’s about the positivity you can generate from even the worst-case scenario. 

Is Silence Golden?

Considering the sensitivity of the Coronavirus pandemic as it stands today, sometimes a brand’s best option is not to say anything at all unless it’s for the direct purpose of aiding those affected by the virus. 

“The real threat would come if Corona were to dive in and capitalize on this by running some crass social media post,” said Online reputation expert Andy Beal. “The virus is serious, so they should not make light of it.” 

Yet, as a brand whose name is literally the same as the pandemic, sometimes finding an inkling of fun in the coincidence could make for a memorable punch. The golden ratio here is to find a nugget of relatable humor in the chaos but make sure that it helps those affected. Not only by putting a smile on their faces but by inducing a call to action like donating money, hand sanitizer, cleaning products to those affected and in high-risk areas or funding research towards a cure etc. So, what’s really in a name? Corona now shares theirs with one of the worst pandemics in modern history. Does this mean that their brand is ruined? Absolutely not.  

“Our business continues to perform very well,” said Bill Newlands, president and CEO of Constellation Brands. “These claims simply do not reflect our business performance and consumer sentiment, which includes feedback from our distributor and retailer partners across the country,” Newlands said.

Should you bury your head in the sand for the foreseeable future and stay silent? Maybe silence is golden. We are no crisis PR firm, we are just designers, thinking of what we’d do if we were in their boots, trying to find silver linings in the stormy situation.

For everyone else, ironically Designed.co included, here is a guide to using Coronavirus in your marketing by Dan Kelsall.