There’s bad luck and then there’s the image and reputational hell that’s facing Corona Beer at the moment. 

While the brand is charging ahead with a $40 million advertising campaign, my gut (and that’s a Corona beer free gut, btw) tells me the iconic brew needs to kick back from the bar for a while, suspend all marketing and ride out the Coronavirus crisis.

Based upon the two surveys cited in the article I embedded, beer drinkers are avoiding Corona like the plague (my apologies for the inappropriate pun).

Depending upon how much global carnage the Coronavirus causes, Corona may eventually decide a name change is in order. That may seem extreme but, just like Boeing, the Corona name has become toxic.

That said, undertaking a massive name change and re-branding effort for either Boeing, Corona or both would be like manna from heaven for corporate ID firms such as Landor and SiegelGale (once again proving that one brand’s misery can be another brand’s windfall).

But what say you? Should Corona halt all advertising? Limit worldwide distribution? Or carry on as if the Coronavirus isn’t keeping billions of people awake at night?

And before I conclude, what are your thoughts about Boeing? Should they undergo a name change before re-introducing the forever troubled Super Max 8? Will all of those leaked employee e-mails calling out senior management for putting profits before safety force make the name change a fait accompli?

A rose by any other name may still be a rose but, for Corona and Boeing, the appropriate Shakespearean wording might be a thorn by any other name is still a thorn.

 ###