Hacker News Reader

Comment by frankbreetz | Hacker News Reader

I think the Corona beer sales increased because of the virus because they leaned into it. Personally, I know many people bought it as joke.

Maybe Delta should take a lesson, I think very few people are deterred from flying because the new virus has the same name as your airline.

View on HN

I think they are actually trying to be slightly funny about this, maybe it’s not coming across because corporate. But read some of their statements again in a different intonation. I mean, “We prefer to call it the B. 1.617.2 variant since that is so much more simple to say and remember” can’t be taken literally.

> I think they are actually trying to be slightly funny about this, maybe it’s not coming across because corporate.

Yes definitely this. Another one:

"CEO Ed Bastian told the Wall Street Journal "we just call it the variant.""

In that light these articles are media-produced faux-outrage. ugh

Its free PR for them - probably exactly what they intended.

Incoming trademark infringement lawsuit from the makers of Loki.

Whoever is in charge of Corona public relations should be promptly fired for not doing a better job here.

For example, they could have included one cheap mask (with their logo with their 6-packs so "you only get the good corona"...

At which point they are promptly lambasted for making light of a global pandemic with a 7-figure body count.

You can lean into it but only so far.

Hate to be callous, but as global pandemics goes, a 7 figure body count over almost two years and over the whole world is not that bad.

It's the 6th highest body count of any pandemic in history after The Black Death, Spanish Flu, AIDS/HIV, The Plague of Justinian, and the Antonine Plague, and it's on track to beat the Antonine Plague.

This is highly misleading as you are ignoring the number of deaths compared to the population.

The Antonine plague killed 2,6% of the world population. Covid, so far? 0.04%. It is not even close to beat the Antonine plague.

Just for perspective: The upper estimate for covid deaths in 2020 was 3M. The average estimate for yearly tobacco deaths is around 7.5 M. Every FUCKING YEAR, almost 3 covid pandemics caused by cigarretes.

Not to mention that the averaged covid death age is very close to the average life expectation, that is, a majority of people who died of it would probably die in one year or two.

Does it means is not a serious disease? No. it doesn't. Does it means it is a hoax? hell, no!

But does it means that there's an unwarranted level of panic? You sure bet.

You said 7 figure body counts in 2 years weren't bad by global pandemic standards.

7 figure body counts in 2 years put you in the top ten deadliest natural disasters in human history.

No one was talking about fraction of the population, nor was anyone talking about effective reduction of life expectancy. You specifically were using the metric body count.

If you want to make an argument that this pandemic isn't that bad because the people who died this time don't count for as much as those who died in other pandemics, you can do so, but I think that's a poor strategy for corporate PR.

You can’t compare absolute numbers. Why do you insist on that? Do you think world population was always the same? Really?

If the question is a matter of absolute numbers, which for body count it is, then yes I can.

I agree with your points but I also think it's an important distinction that people choose to smoke cigarettes. I don't think folks without mental health issues are intentionally getting COVID.

I was thinking the same thing in the beginning. "Stay home, have a Corona Corona." Maybe team up with drizzly or another delivery service, and all the chain restaurants that were suddenly allowed to have takeout drinks.

Yeah, there are ways to trun this into something useful and at the same time help people.

Not at all making light of the pandemic, but I think this was a missed "opportunity" for those guys.

"Travel like Delta" would be subtle enough I think.

That's… hilarious.

There is an argument for both approaches. I do remember Isis company changing name, because 1) ISIS became a household name 2) it was placed by OFAC on their lists. All of a sudden, doing basic transactions in US became difficult. Needless to say, name change had more of an impact on more than just branding here.

I agree that in this case, they should play it light.

Yeah, that situation was worse. American Express had a partnership called ISIS and issued cards under their "Serve" brand. They literally said "serve isis" on the front. That name had to change.

I don't think the stigma here is nearly so tangible.

The Archer tv show used to call its main spy org ISIS. And then one day, they just stopped referring to it by name at all. Gave it the silent treatment.

I thought it was in the plot that they went independent or something along those lines. I guess time for a rewatch before the new season.

The website we used to register for classes at University of Florida was also ISIS (Integrated Student information services or something like that). They have since rebranded it as well

Interesting, at the Technical University of Berlin it's also called ISIS for Information System for Instructors and Students - they haven't changed the name though.

In Oxford there's a lot of places called Isis because that's the name of the stretch of the Thames which flows through the city. Fortunately most businesses weren't willing to cede the name to the militant group so cheaply!

When something goes awry with our capture stack, sometimes my google searches start to look a little sus.

Furthermore, pretty much no one is now going to turn up your company name in a search--at least unless maybe you pay enough to turn up in paid search.

LOL. I remember that. Also there was this happened in India: Zica Car vs Zika virus.

In a few months/years we'll be on to epsilon and nobody will care - I wonder if the Kappa and Omega brands are getting worried?

> In a few months/years we'll be on to epsilon

There already was an Epsilon variant, it has been more or less eradicated by the rise of the Alpha variant.

They are leaning into it. Did people not read the article? They’re handling it slightly differently but it’s all a joke, that makes very much reminds you that their is a simpler and more common name.

The article does not read to me at all like its author realises they're joking.

People are more concerned about COVID when flying than they are buying beer, possibly. Certainly a beer commercial can have a different tone than what you find at airports in these times. I'm not sure they should lean into it.

That said, NYT did a fantastic job visualizing how air circulates on planes and it made me feel safer about flying:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/17/travel/flying...

I still don't feel safe with flying. Literally every time I get on a plane I get sick, you cannot convince me they are safe against the spread of Covid. There's more to that than just air circulation.

I agree, I really don’t understand how air circulation helps when you’re in a middle seat and the two people beside you have their masks off to eat peanuts and are coughing every 2 min

> That said, NYT did a fantastic job visualizing how air circulates on planes and it made me feel safer about flying:

I think this would have worked much better as a video - both from a usability and from a data compression perspective.

It was even better back when they allowed smoking.

I’m referring to the overall air quality which was better back when you could smoke because the airlines were forced to change the air more aggressively. You can’t hide smoke as easily as invisible stagnant air.

https://www.traveller.com.au/reader-letters-visiting-parliam...

It's viral marketing.

Anecdotally I recall the beer aisles being relatively empty during the so-called panic buying, except for corona which were untouched.

Companies spend a lot of money to associate their brand with a good feeling, I can't imagine that the people who bought it as a joke outweighed the negative association.

I think they are using this as a publicity stunt.

I haven't thought, or cared about Delta Airlines, forever.

I bought it as a joke in February 2020, after that it was sold out constantly :D

Corona Beer: hold my ...um... beer.

> Maybe Delta should take a lesson

You’re probably the one who should take an English lesson to realize they’re joking

They could lean into it, but perhaps it could be seen as disrespectful to the dead and those suffering. “Don’t catch Delta! Catch a Delta flight instead!”

I would temporarily abandon the word by itself and instead use the phrases “Delta Airlines” and “Delta virus variant”. Clarity at the risk of wordiness.

On the other hand, I've seen lots of tweets about Corona being the only thing left after hoarding (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ETjFKGFWkAAIO2L?format=jpg&name=...). But maybe they turned it around

Eyeballing the share prices of the parent company, Corona's BUD is doing worse than e.g. Coors' TAP since the start of the pandemic. I don't know enough about the companies to know if that means much but at least that preliminary check suggests Corona might've suffered.

The most charitable explanation I could come up with is: Maybe people just don't want to be reminded of the pandemic when opening their fridge.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com