• by P.J. Bednarski  @pjbtweet, January 2, 2020

There’s an old  gag in which a host asks a guest if he wants another drink. He responds, “Well, if you twist my arm.” which he holds out, inviting a grab.

That’s probably part of the thinking behind Molson Coors’ new “Dry-ish January” campaign for its not very-well-known Miller64 brand. Ads welcomes drinkers to bend a little on their pledge to stay alcohol-free by emphasizing Miller64 has just  2.8% alcohol (and 64 calories)  per 12-ounce can. 

“So you’re doing Dry January. Nice!” says actor Nicholas Braun in funny new Miller64 spots running on social media. “But what if you don’t want January to be completely dry? We’ll call it ‘Dry-ish January.’"  Braun also tentatively suggests “moist” or “damp” as alternate adjectives.

Miller64 certainly isn’t playing to beer snobs. The ad calls it  a “lighter, beer-ish kind of beer.” 

That’s the pitch, but more broadly, a Miller64 revival plays into two trends for young drinkers: new calorie-consciousness, and less of an emphasis on the beer buzz. 

“Dry-ish January is a month-long phenomenon that allows you to put your own spin on the Dry January movement, but in a way that's not as extreme," said Anup Shah, vice president of the Miller brands, in a statement. "The new campaign aims to inspire consumers to enjoy life's ‘happy medium’ moments. Because why go completely dry when you could go Dryi-ish?”

The commercial’s casting adds to the joke. Braun is  probably best known as the not-very-strong cousin in the powerful Murdoch-like Roy family in HBO’s seriocomic series “Succession.”

Miller64 has been around since 2008, but, as Shah explains, “with this campaign we’re bringing it into a relevant conversation for younger millennial drinkers.” (A previous rebrand in 2012 apparently didn’t work, but that was a virtually seltzer-less beer world where craft beer was mostly a novelty and drinking nonalcoholic beers elicited sadness all around.)

Apparently, it won’t take much to woo drinkers to break their Dry January ambitions. The company commissioned a survey to suss out drinkers' willpower -- and for many, Dry January is more of a concept than a real thing. More than 20 million millennials intend to keep away from liquor this month,  but Miller says one third of them can’t do it, and their typical breaking point is . . . one week.

The survey shows 71% of respondents could break their resolve for factors that include “celebrating a special event (62%), being in an environment where everyone is drinking (59%), or experiencing a stressful situation (46%).”

While  that seems to make cracking the will of millennial Dry-January pledgemakers not too tough, Miller64  prepared a  Dry January calendar that turn motivational sayings like “Go big or go home” into something more reasonable, like  “Don’t go big. Don’t go home, either.” 

And as if to send the weak-willed right over the cliff, consumers can also  text MILLER64 to 73255 to receive cash back on the purchase of a 24-pack. 

Remembering to do that could be pretty stressful, though. All those numbers!