Back in January, Mark wondered if the new coronavirus would wipe out Corona beer in the same way AIDS killed the anti-suppressant candy Ayds in the 1980s. After all, days before Mark's post, David posted about a Google Trends graph that showed a spike on "the words corona, beer, and virus." And memes about "corona virus beer" were popping up, while Constellation Brands, Inc — the makers of Corona beer — saw shares decline by 8% in February, according to Time.
Now, seven months after Mark's post, with 180,000 lives lost in the United States from Covid-19, it looks like Corona beer was able to overcome "the AIDS/Ayds effect," as Mark put it, and, at least according to the Daily Beast, "it hasn't just survived, it's actually prospered."
From Daily Beast:
The folks at Constellation Brands surely had a premonition that this was going to be a very tough year.
"Seriously?"they must have thought, "there's a virus that's become a deadly pandemic, and it's got the same name as our bestselling beer Corona? You have got to be kidding." …
The Corona/coronavirus thing was mostly a worry that never materialized. There were a small, small number of people who seemed to consider a connection between the beer and the pandemic for more than a few seconds, but mostly it was fodder for "man on the street" interviews at local TV stations. The company did feel compelled to issue a response on Feb. 28, about two weeks before the panic took hold in the U.S….
It's been a rough year, and it's not over, but Corona has met corona, and so far, the beer is still standing.
Image: Panos Sakalakis / Flickr
