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MillerCoors sues rival Anheuser-Busch over corn syrup ads

This undated file image provided by Anheuser-Busch shows a scene from the company's Bud Light 2019 Super Bowl NFL football spot. Bud Light attacked rival brands in its Super Bowl ads, but it was the corn industry that felt stung. The spots trolled rival brands that use corn syrup. One showed a medieval caravan schlepping a huge barrel of corn syrup to castles owned by Miller and Coors. The National Corn Growers Association rebuked the brand for boasting that Bud Light does not use the ingredient. The association, which says it represents 40,000 corn farmers nationwide, tweeted that America's corn farmers were "disappointed" in Bud Light, and thanked Miller Lite and Coors Light for "supporting our industry." (Anheuser-Busch via AP, File)
This undated file image provided by Anheuser-Busch shows a scene from the company's Bud Light 2019 Super Bowl NFL football spot. Bud Light attacked rival brands in its Super Bowl ads, but it was the corn industry that felt stung. The spots trolled rival brands that use corn syrup. One showed a medieval caravan schlepping a huge barrel of corn syrup to castles owned by Miller and Coors. The National Corn Growers Association rebuked the brand for boasting that Bud Light does not use the ingredient. The association, which says it represents 40,000 corn farmers nationwide, tweeted that America's corn farmers were "disappointed" in Bud Light, and thanked Miller Lite and Coors Light for "supporting our industry." (Anheuser-Busch via AP, File) This undated file image provided by Anheuser-Busch shows a scene from the company's Bud Light 2019 Super Bowl NFL football spot. Bud Light attacked rival brands in its Super Bowl ads, but it was the corn industry that felt stung. The spots trolled rival brands that use corn syrup. One showed a medieval caravan schlepping a huge barrel of corn syrup to castles owned by Miller and Coors. The National Corn Growers Association rebuked the brand for boasting that Bud Light does not use the ingredient. The association, which says it represents 40,000 corn farmers nationwide, tweeted that America's corn farmers were "disappointed" in Bud Light, and thanked Miller Lite and Coors Light for "supporting our industry." (Anheuser-Busch via AP, File)

By Staff and Wire Reports 4 min read

MILWAUKEE (AP) – A fight between beer giants escalated Thursday after MillerCoors filed a lawsuit against Anheuser-Busch that accused its rival of trying to “frighten” consumers into switching to Bud Light with “misleading” Super Bowl ads.

MillerCoors said in the lawsuit filed in Wisconsin federal court that St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch has spent as much as $30 million on a “false and misleading” campaign, including $13 million in its first commercials during this year’s Super Bowl. The ad showed a medieval caravan pushing a huge barrel of corn syrup to castles for MillerCoors to make Miller Lite and Coors Light. The commercial states that Bud Light isn’t brewed with corn syrup.

Chicago-based MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch have the biggest U.S. market share at 24.8 percent and 41.6 percent, respectively, but they’ve been losing business in recent years to smaller independent brewers, imports, and wine and spirits, according to the Brewers Association.

Anheuser-Busch’s ad drew a rebuke from the National Corn Growers Association, which thanked MillerCoors for its support. In its lawsuit, MillerCoors said it’s “not ashamed of its use of corn syrup as a fermentation aid.”

Corn syrup is used by several brewers during fermentation. During that process, corn syrup is broken down and consumed by yeast so none of it remains in the final product. Bud Light is brewed with rice instead of corn syrup, but Anheuser-Busch uses corn syrup in some of its other beers, including Stella Artois Cidre and Busch Light.