• Ad Age, Wednesday, January 24, 2007 12:15 PM

With sales of Miller Lite falling as its competitors' rise, Miller Brewing Co. is yanking the "Men of the Square Table" ad campaign that hit the airwaves last spring.

The ads feature celebrities such as actor Burt Reynolds, football star Jerome Bettis and wrestler Triple H meeting in a glass cube to settle questions about manly behavior, such as whether it's permissible to put fruit in beer.

The spots drew laughs and hundreds of thousands of entries to an online "Manlawpedia," but Miller Lite's sales fell by low-single digits last year, while rivals Bud Light and Coors Light climbed in the mid- and low-single digits, respectively.

New spots differentiate Miller Lite from its competitors by noting its spelling ("Lite" vs. the less distinctive but not misspelled "Light" used by A-B and Coors). They are expected to air until new work from Crispin, Porter & Bogusky--a return to the more comparative style of advertising Miller employed during Lite's 2003-2004 renaissance--replaces them in April.

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