Non-alcoholic beer has Super Bowl commercial as sales surge

It will be a less spirited Super Bowl.

Sales of non-alcoholic beer, wine and spirits surged 26% over the past year to top $800 million in the US, market research firm NIQ told NBC.

Non-alcoholic beer is the most popular in the category, making up 84% of total sales.

The upward trend can even be seen in one of this year’s Super Bowl commercials.

Michelob Ultra Zero — an alcohol-free beer that boasts only 29 calories — will be making a cameo appearance in a Michelob Ultra commercial during Super Bowl LIX, where ads cost a reported $8 million on average for a 30-second spot.

The star-studded ad features actor Willem Dafoe, his “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice” castmate Catherine O’Hara, WNBA star Sabrina Ionescu, Pro Football Hall of Famer Randy Moss and Olympic shot put gold medalist Ryan Crouser.

In 2023, Heineken 0.0 made history when it aired a commercial during the Big Game — the first ad for nonalcoholic beer during the Super Bowl.

Non-alcoholic beer is so beloved because “it actually tastes good,” Nadine Sarwat, alcoholic beverages analyst at global research firm Bernstein, told the outlet.

Since regular beer only has 4% to 5% alcohol, a non-alcoholic alternative can “generate a huge amount of the flavor without the alcohol, in a way that feels very similar,” she continued.

Over the past year, alcohol sales slipped by less than 1%, the first drop in three years, with consumers reporting they indulge in less alcohol now than during the pandemic.

Americans are citing economic and health reasons for their recent aversion.

“We do see that inflation has impacted purchasing,” Kaleigh Theriault, alcohol and beverage thought leader at NIQ, explained to the outlet.

“Consumers have opted for a moderation mindset, where they may have overconsumed to their liking during the at-home period during COVID, and coming out of that, they were a little more focused on health and wellness.”

At Amity Hall, a sports bar on the Upper West Side, one out of every 20 drinks poured are nonalcoholic beers or mocktails, operations manager James Wells estimated.

“We have basically modified our entire beverage program to accommodate more nonalcoholic drinkers,” he told NBC.

Wells also said younger customers aren’t as interested in getting drunk, which was illustrated in a recent Gallup poll, which found that people under 35 aren’t consuming alcohol as much as older generations did at the same age.

“I don’t think people are hitting the bar and trying to lose their minds anymore,” Wells told NBC. “People are trying to just have an overall even-keel experience, and I think that that involves sometimes alcohol, sometimes not.”

However, just because a person chooses a nonalcoholic beverage doesn’t mean they’ve quit drinking alcohol, according to NIQ, which found that 93% of consumers who purchase nonalcoholic products also buy alcoholic ones.

A recent trend of “zebra-striping” has also emerged, “where they flip back and forth between an alcohol product and a nonalcohol product in the same evening,” Theriault added.

A report issued by the surgeon general in January, which said that alcohol is the third leading cause of cancer in the country, citing 100,000 alcohol-related cancer cases and about 20,000 alcohol-related cancer deaths annually, also has deterred drinkers.

“It definitely increased the conversation,” Wells continued. “You could visibly see people in the bar talking about it.”