I designed the new bud light bottle!

About 1 month ago Crystal and I were strolling through the grocery store and my eyes got BIG as I stopped in the beer section. I know she thought this was weird because she knows I hate beer. I think it tastes like battery acid. In fact, since I was 14 I haven't even had soft drinks... just water... for 12 years! Almost half my life. So, of course beer tastes nasty to me.

But what caught my eye was the new Bud Light bottle. I just stared at it in amazement. I turned to my wife and said "I DESIGNED THAT NEW BUD LIGHT BOTTLE!!!"

Yep, I designed the new Bud Light bottle that just came out recently (pic above). Well, I guess it would be more accurate to say that I "helped" design it. Or maybe even better that I told the Bud Light execs that they should go with this particular bottle. However you word it, I'm pretty confident that I'm a big reason this specific bottle is on the shelf. haha, I'm just sayin'...

Here's how it went down. I do some "consulting" for several market research companies. Anyone can do it really. They pay me "big bucks" to tell them what I think about stuff for 1-2 hours. They called me once about a beer research study. The guy was like "do you like beer?" & I was like "not really." He really needed to meet his quota for 25 year old males and I had already met all the other criteria to qualify for this research study, so he started asking stuff like "do you think you could ever like beer?" & I really wanted the $200 or whatever they were paying, so I was like "yeah... maybe?" (thinking in my head "yeah, whenever you stop making it taste like crap.")

Anyway, turns out they picked me & 5 other 25 year old males from Charlotte. They wanted to get inside a 25 year old guy's head. I still didn't know what the study was about, so I was just hoping I didn't have to drink a bunch of beer because my poker face isn't that good when there's "battery acid" in my mouth.

It turned out that the big guns from Bud Light were watching and listening to our little consulting table through one of those fancy 1 way mirror/windows. A guy talked with us for 2 hours about re-branding the Bud Light bottle. They must have brought in over 30 prototype bottles.

I was by far the most vocal. It was pretty fun actually. I told them which ideas sucked and what they should and shouldn't do. I felt pretty important actually that they were paying me to tell them what they should do. And they were loving it because they were all in their 40s & 50s and wanted to get inside a 25 year old guy's head. I told them that this one stream of designs screams "I'm 25 but wanna be 35 and I will only drink this beer if I'm a banker and wearing a suit at some posh party uptown." They threw that bottle away I think.

Anyway, I feel like my fingerprints are ALL OVER this new bottle! Which, btw, is WAY better than the former BL bottle that you see pictured above.
Here are my specific contributions:
I definitely pushed for the splash of water on the bottle. They pushed against me but I was like "that's so refreshing! & fun." I was in the minority around the table on this, BUT it made it on the final bottle (as you can see), so I guess I won!
I pushed for the "BL" at top on the neck of the bottle, instead of the full "Bud Light." You can see that idea won too.
I told them to go with the lighter blue throughout instead of these deep purples and crazy reds like they were toying with.
I voted for the the swoosh/swerve on the left side.
& I pushed for them to get rid of all the words on the bottle like on the old one. I was like "some dude isn't gonna stand there and read your bottle & decide whether or not to buy it based on what he reads! are you serious? He's just gonna buy what looks cool. LOSE ALL THE WORDS." so, they did.

Anyway, I guess I was a part of something pretty significant that's on the shelves all over the country (& world maybe?) The funny part is that I've never even had a Bud Light, haha. I bet it tastes nasty though.

It was fun & I made $200. Not a bad day's work. And I have a brand new bottle that "I designed" to show for it. Well... that I "helped" design.

What do YOU think of it? What would you have done differently?
you know, so that when the CEO calls me up I can give him some ideas on future design! :)