[7] The phrase was coined by Wieden+Kennedy art director N.J. Placentra and copywriter Alex Ledford initially as a temporary placeholder while they were brainstorming ideas for a Bud Light commercial entitled "Banquet".
InBev chief marketing officer Miguel Patricio said in an interview at Business Insider's IGNITION conference that the phrase "doesn't mean anything.
However, when a guest presents "spiced honey mead wine" instead of the beer, the king is offended, and banishes him to the Pit of Misery.
[2][11] Patricio said that the ad did not test well, but thought consumers would understand or get it, so they went against the research and gave it a chance, thinking that repetition of it would help.
[9] Morgan Stanley attributed increased sales to the ad campaign, and said the company had gained market share for the first time since 2011.
[12][17] On December 10, the ad "Handouts" was released, which promoted a sweepstakes for winning Super Bowl tickets for life.
[20] The second ad in the trilogy "Ye Olde Pep Talk" aired for the AFC and NFC Championship games.
[25][26] In March 2018, during the Loyola Ramblers men's basketball's NCAA tournament run, the Bud Light King delivered beers to fans.
[32] Other Dilly Dilly themed ads aired in 2018, including "Tapping Ceremony" in March,[33] and "Redemption" in May, the latter of which Doug, the guy who was banished to the Pit of Misery, returns to offer the king and queen Bud Light Orange and Bud Light Lime.
[40] At the start of the 2018–19 National Hockey League season in October, multiple arenas introduced Bud Light-sponsored penalty boxes for the opposing team carrying Pit of Misery branding.
After the game, MillerCoors took out a full-page ad in The New York Times to defend its use of corn syrup, stating that it is "a normal part of the brewing process and does not even end up in your great tasting can of Miller Lite".
[50][51] On March 21, 2019, MillerCoors sued Anheuser-Busch for false advertising, arguing that the commercial was attempting to mislead health-conscious consumers into thinking that corn syrup and/or high fructose corn syrup (another ingredient not used in Coors Light nor Miller Lite, but is used in other AB products) is an ingredient present in the product as purchased, and alleging that the company diluted and damaged the goodwill of its trademarks.
[52][53] An Anheuser-Busch spokesperson called the lawsuit "baseless" and said it wouldn't deter Bud Light from "providing consumers with the transparency they demand.
[57] When Modist Brewing Company in Minneapolis had advertised a Dilly Dilly IPA in December 2017, it received a cease-and-desist letter from Bud Light in the form of a scroll delivered and recited by a man in a medieval costume, where it said to keep the brew to a limited run, else they would be visiting the Pit of Misery.
[58] In January 2018, Merriam Webster tweeted that their website has seen regular rises in lookups of the word "dilly" every Sunday.