"Farewell, Work Holiday Parties" started as a TV commercial. It ended up as a public art installation at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) from Nov. 21-Jan. 3 2021.

Not only did a beer ad become an exhibit at the largest modern art museum on the west coast—it became LACMA's most attended public exhibit in recent years.

A Covid idea, an ad, art—Advertising will always sit at the intersection of art and commerce, but by making our commerce more artful, we proved we can inspire consumers to seek us out instead of brands paying to reach them.

Situation: Light beer isn’t relevant during the holidays. When people get together, they drink wine, spirits and cocktails. Further, with Covid in 2020, holiday traditions like work holiday parties were being cancelled.

Brief: Make Miller Lite relevant during a time of year when light beer is normally not the drink of choice.

Objectives:

-Increase in brand affinity during holiday

-Earned media

-Increase in sales volume during the holidays

Covid changed everything. The advertising that mattered in 2020 had to exist within that world.

In a prescient reaction to the knowledge that holiday traditions would be cancelled, we injected Miller Lite's brand purpose into 2020 by saying something different and strange—there WAS something good about 2020.

The end of work holiday parties.

We worked with artist, Alex Prager to memorialize the work holiday party in a TV commercial. The artwork attracted the curators of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and ended up as a public art installation on view from Nov. 21-Jan. 3 2021.

A Covid idea, an ad, a piece of art—Advertising will always sit at the intersection of art and commerce, but if we make our commerce more artful, consumers will work harder to seek out our brands instead of our brands having to work harder to seek out consumers.

In the United States, work holiday parties are a common tradition in all workplaces. These parties can range from expensive blowouts costing hundreds of thousands, to small gift exchange in the office. It's expected that all employees dress-up and drink. While this may sound fun, 90% of people say they’d prefer not to have a company holiday party, wishing they'd be given time off instead.

Further, light beer isn’t relevant during the holidays. When people get together, they drink wine, spirits and cocktails.

So, to remind everyone that beer is perfect for getting together with close friends, Miller Lite leaned into Covid cancelling work holiday parties as a chance to make the brand relevant to a silver lining of 2020: cancelled work holiday parties meant more time with real friends.

"Farewell, Work Holiday Parties" was a TV commercial and outdoor art exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) from Nov. 21-Jan. 3 2021.

The exhibit featured 15 life-size, hyper-realistic statues at an insurance company's holiday party in full swing.

To create the statues, we worked with world-renowned artist Alex Prager, known for her photography that blends the real and surreal. Actors were scanned with 3D photogrammetry, printed at a 3-D printing facility, and then sculpted meticulously to look eerily lifelike. Hair, skin and makeup included details like freckles, skin moles, scars, teeth tartar, nose hair, shaving nicks, toes rings, lip-stick stains, running mascara and much more. It all came together to make viewers question whether the characters at this party were real and brought the most unnerving parts of work holiday parties to life.

"Farewell, Work Holiday Parties" didn't just become an exhibit at LACMA. It became LACMA's most attended public art installation in recent years.

The campaign earned over 400+ Million impressions in earned media, including a full-page write up in the LA Times, and coverage from the 2020 Pulitzer Prize winning art critic, Christopher Knight.

Sales of Miller Lite were up 5.4% during the holiday season, surpassing all competitors in the segment and defying the decline in the category.