Carlsberg lager rebranded as Danish Pilsner

United Kingdom | Is this a joke or real? After 40 years of brandishing its lager as “Probably the best beer in the world”, Danish brewer Carlsberg has confessed that its famous slogan may not be true any longer. In a response to declining sales and negative comments from drinkers, Carlsberg has relaunched its eponymous beer with a new recipe and a more crafty approach to marketing.

The campaign, first seen in April 2019, declares: “Probably not the best beer in the world. So we’ve changed it.”

As part of the new ad campaign, Carlsberg has done a BrewDog and is sharing negative Twitter comments about the old beer, such as “Carlsberg tastes like stale breadsticks”. That’s a harmless one compared to another comment, which likened the beer to “drinking the bathwater your [grandmother] died in”.

Drawing a line under its previous brew, Carlsberg is now calling its flagship product a “Danish pilsner”, rather than a lager. Mind you, it still has the same low alcohol content of 3.8 percent ABV but allegedly a “crisper, fuller flavour”, according to the company.

In the UK, bars and pubs will also phase out the tall, thin Carlsberg lager glasses and replace them with shorter stemmed glasses.

Carlsberg UK’s Vice President of Marketing, Liam Newton, was quoted as saying: “Drinkers’ interest in mainstream lager has waned because, though the world has moved on, the mainstream category hasn’t.” He added: “At Carlsberg UK, we lost our way. We focused on brewing quantity, not quality; we became one of the cheapest, not the best.”