Corona the beer is being linked with coronavirus, Google Trends indicates

Corona, the popular global beer brand, is somehow being linked with the coronavirus pandemic in the minds of many people around the world.

According to statistics from Google Trends, internet searches for phrases such as “beer virus” and “Corona beer virus” have suddenly started spiking.

From January 18 to January 26, searches for “corona beer virus” jumped 2 300% globally, Searches for “beer virus” jumped 744% in the same period, and searches for “beer coronavirus” jumped 3 233%.

South Africans are also searching for these phrases

It seems to be a bizarre global phenomenon from which SA is not immune. When it comes to interest in the phrase “Corona beer virus”, Google Trends says South Africa ranks 9^th in the world, just behind Finland.

But we are less interested in searching for “beer virus”, where we rank only 41^st in the world. Again, we are just behind Finland.

The country that searches most for “Corona beer virus” is Lithuania and the country that searches most for “beer virus” in Hungary.

Scepticism over the Google Trends search results

Writing in Forbes business magazine, Bruce Y Lee, Professor of Health Policy and Management at the City University of New York, views the figures with some scepticism.

“Does Google autocomplete (i.e. what Google suggests when you start entering a term such as ‘corona’) have something to do with this?” he asks. “The Google Trends web page doesn’t clearly show the actual number of people who have been Googling ‘beer virus’ and ‘Corona beer virus’.  So while uptick may seem relatively big, it is unclear what the actual increase in number may have been.”

Business Insider magazine agrees. “While the numbers are striking, it is important to note that Google’s search engine is programmed to automatically suggest searches based on popular terms. The boom in searches for Corona beer and the virus could therefore be self-reinforcing,” it cautions.

Little impact on Corona Beer at this time

The Corona Beer brand doesn’t see too concerned at this point. “We believe, by and large, that consumers understand there’s no linkage between the virus and our business,” Maggie Bowman, the senior communications director at Constellation Brands, said in a media statement on Wednesday 29 January.

There is no indication of a drop in Corona Beer sales. Shares in its parent company, Constellation Brands, are trading slightly lower, but it is unclear whether this is related to the coronavirus.

Kiwi bar criticised for insensitive Corona ad campaign

Meanwhile, a bar in New Zealand has become embroiled in a public controversy after using the tenuous link between the beer and the virus to market a discount deal on Corona Beer.

An advertisement on the Facebok page of The House on Hood bar in the city of Hamilton shows two men in medical suits and masks holding up bottles of the renowned Mexican beer, with the slogan: “Catch some Corona at House this summer, just $6.50 every day while the pandemic lasts”.

The company that owns the bar has been unrepentant in the face of criticism that the ad is insensitive. Its CEO, John Lawrenson, said in a statement:

“The great thing about living in today’s society is that there is a small but loud minority of people who get offended by everything and I can always rely on them to get triggered. So I’d just like to say thanks to all the snowflakes for the free advertising and thanks to everyone else with a sense of humour who liked the post.”

Corona Beer in South Africa

In South Africa, Corona Beer is marketed as a high-end premium brand and has more than doubled its sales in the past year.

“Due to consumer demand for Corona in SA we are in the process of evaluating the opportunity to bring local production capacity to the market in the short to medium term,” said Vijay Govindsamy, SAB and AB InBev Africa’s high-end director, in a media statement last year.