We can all be duped by clever marketing, but there’s one brand that’s managed to fool the vast majority of people.
A recent survey revealed that 90% of Brits have been misled by the marketing of beers like Madrí Excepcional, with only 8% of respondents aware that ‘Madrid’s Modern Lager’ is brewed right here in the UK.
The name seems like an obvious nod to Spain’s capital, as does the logo – featuring a man adorned in the distinctive 19th-century ‘chulapo style’.
Then there’s the tagline, el alma de Madrid (which translates to the soul of Madrid) and the bright red branding, cleverly offset with the yellowy gold of a fresh pint, reminiscent of the Spanish flag.
However, as well as being manufactured in Tadcaster, Yorkshire, it was invented in Burton-on-Trent by Molson Coors, the US firm behind Carling, Coors Light, Pravha and Blue Moon — information many were unaware of.
On X, @TreborRhurbarb said their family were surprised to learn of the beer’s Yorkshire roots, with @ESOLallstars responding: ‘I had no clue’.
Another, @walla81@JPM1a, tweeted, ‘Finding out Madri Excepcional is not Spanish but brewed in Yorkshire has floored me. You are saying I haven’t been swallowing Spanish beer this whole time?’ to which @mbond_esq replied: ‘Shooketh me too – we’ve been betrayed since 2020!’
‘Any lads still out there that haven’t realised madri is just carling in a different suit ?’ added @ConlonPablo.
There’s certainly a generational element to the misconception: while 50% of the 2,019 respondents in the poll, commissioned by Scottish brewer Innis & Gunn, claim they’re willing to pay more for continental beer (compared to 38% of all Brits) only 12% of this age group know that Madrí is brewed in the UK.
The preference for foreign lager remains across the board though, as a total of 34% of those surveyed say they prefer continental beer for its ‘unique and exotic flavours’, alongside around one in three people who admit that a beer’s country of origin is an important factor in their purchasing decisions.
Madrí seems to have cracked this code despite its distinctly British origins. Since launching during the pandemic, it’s been a huge success, becoming one of the country’s top 10 selling lagers and topping £100 million in UK supermarket sales in just over a year.
Molson Coors argues that Madrí is promoted this way because it’s made ‘in collaboration’ with La Sagra, a brewery near Madrid (although the company doesn’t list it as one of its products), and is inspired by Spain but produced on British shores for environmental reasons.
To test whether the branding made a difference to sales, Innis & Gunn conducted an experiment at Teuchters Landing, a pub Edinburgh, disguising its own lager with a vaguely Spanish label. Confirming suspicions, customers eagerly purchased Ámbaro Premium Cerveza, assuming it was a continental brew — and when they were informed they were actually drinking the company’s Scottish lager, many were shocked.
But while plenty of people may be buying Madrí, not everyone is buying the explanations for its ambiguous Mediterranean identity.
Dougal Sharp, master brewer and founder of Innis & Gunn, comments: ‘Look, the beers we are talking about here are all great beers from great companies. But consumers are drawn in by the image and the promise of continental beer. They end up paying a premium price for them because of that marketing and the image. To me, it feels like a scandal.’
Additionally, Aitor de Artaza, international managing director of Estrella Galicia, said it was ‘not very clear and not, to my point of view, very honest’, while creative agency Southpaw called Molson Coors ‘noisy pretenders’ in an interview with The Grocer.
Hey, if you enjoy the taste of Madrí, who really cares where it’s from right? If you’re looking for an authentic Spanish pint though, you should probably look elsewhere.
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