The second change Stella made was on the 17th of June, 2007, which was two days
before the article of The Argus titled: “City judge condemns ‘wife-beater’ booze” was
published. AB InBev announced that they would change the name of the Stella Artois
sponsored Queen’s Club Championships from the Stella Artois Championship to the
Artois Championship. As AB InBev realized that Stella got nicknamed wife-beater,
they decided to drop the Stella component from their marketing activities and shift
towards the usage of Artois. Stella’s brand reputation was ruined due to the many
negative associations and therefore AB InBev decided to focus on Artois. This change
also allowed for the future creation of new products under the softer umbrella Artois
brand (Greenslade, 2007).
Judge mentions Stella in a domestic violence case
As mentioned earlier, on June the 19th of 2007 an article was published by local
newspaper The Argus, that openly stated Stella was involved in multiple domestic
violence cases as it became the preferred choice of binge drinkers due to its high
alcohol by volume (Parson, 2007). This is a serious problem, as a judge, a professional
with authority is publicly linking Stella to domestic violence. It heats up the discussion
and adds seriousness to Stella’s wife-beater reputation. Despite this, Stella nor AB
InBev never publicly reacted to the associations, they stayed silent and rather decided
to change some brand elements to repent certain consumers.
AB InBev launches a new and weaker version of Stella Artois
Subsequently, one year later at the end of June 2008, AB InBev introduced a new
product under the Artois umbrella brand. The new product was a weaker version of
4% alcohol by volume of its classic Stella Artois beer. It was introduced to offer a
weaker version, but also to offer consumers more choice and the confidence of
choosing a weaker beer with the same quality credentials and taste of the Stella Artois
parent brand (The Daily Mail, 2008).
Lobbying firms to clean up Stella’s dirty online reputation
Portland Communications & Bell Pottinger, two lobbying firms are hired to help
clean up Stella’s online wife-beater reputation after the “wife beater” reputation
(Seales, 2012). The lobbying efforts were widely criticized by some commentators, who
argued that it was inappropriate for the beer company to use resources to avoid
addressing the underlying issue of domestic violence.