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May 24, 2021

Would women drink more beer if the bottle looked different?

The sky is blue. Condoms can’t contain the Terminator. Canadians drink beer.

Facts are facts. And, on the day after a long weekend, that third one’s probably ringing especially true for Canucks that dragged themselves into work this morning.

But while beer companies know men, May 2-4 or not, will turn to beer, they can’t be sure women will with any kind of regularity. So, they design bottles aimed directly to get ladies on the lager.

For the record, women have a long public history with beer. One author credits women with first creating suds, and along the years there have been dirndl-clad waitresses impossibly carrying jugs at Oktoberfest and our own Olympic hockey team swigging back on the ice following a gold medal win.

Though with the fear of the fat bulge – and near every women’s publication advising against beer as a means to keep the pounds off – beer drinking among females plummeted. According to a Gallup Poll from the U.S., only six per cent of women in 2009 listed beer as their top alcoholic drink.

A change may be among us, though. The most recent Gallup numbers say 27 per cent of women now say beer is their go-to drink and, while it’s got a long way to go reach wine (48 per cent female market share), direct marketing to women may be to credit.

The latest ad blitz? Carlsberg’s “Copenhagen” beer, a new drink, fashionably-bottled, with no qualms about who it’s designed for.

“We can see that there are a number of consumers, especially women, who are very aware of design when they choose beverage products,” a Carlsberg exec writes on the beer’s website. “There may be situations where they are standing in a bar and want their drinks to match their style. In this case, they may well reject a beer if the design does not appeal to them.”

As you can see from the Copenhagen bottle, it’s made to look more or less like a white wine bottle, which may be more flattering for women to handle in a bar, we suppose.

But women out there: help us out on this one. Would you be more likely to drink beer if it appeared a more fashionable choice? Might you be more inclined to try Copenhagen, which is first being tested in the European/Asian markets, if it looks, well, less like beer?

By Jason Buckland, MSN Money

*Follow Jason on Twitter here. Photo courtesy Carlsberg Group.

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Gordon PowersGordon Powers

A long-time fund company executive, Gordon Powers now heads up the Affinity Group, a financial services consulting firm. Gordon was a personal finance columnist for the Globe & Mail for many years, has taught retirement planning...

Jason BucklandJason Buckland

The modern-day MC Hammer of money, Jason can often be seen spending cash that isn’t his with the efficiency of a Wilt Chamberlain first date. After cutting his teeth as a reporter for the Toronto Sun, he joined the MSN Money team with...