Beer companies have relied on sport as an ingredient in their marketing brew since time immemorial. and almost always successfully. In 1973-1974. Miller decided to test a Series of commercials with virgin spokespersons because the feeling was that an actor would come across as just another actor endorsing a product possibly lessening the commercials believability. Subscribing to both the govern- mental and voluntary codes holding that active athletes could not endorse alcoholic beverages because doing so would imply that alcohol increases their physical prowess. Miller opted for ex-athletes and characters who exuded machismo. After successful testing and a warm response in terms of sales, the commercials went national in 1975. with the theme "Everything you always wanted in a beer. And less." McCann-Erikson, Miles agency assembled 34 char- use-of-athlete quotient in the history characters --the highest of sport advertising. They included former NFL stars Dick Butkus, Bubba Smith. Nick Buoniconti, and Deacon Jones; former NBA star Wilt Chamberlain; former NHL stars Jacques Plante and Boom-Boom Geoffrion(who discuss the attributes of the beer in French): and original New York Met"Marvelous" Marv Throneberry. The commercials not only worked artistically, they worked commercially. In a marketplace in which a six-pack of beer was suddenly cheaper than Coke, Miller Lite took the almost nonexistent category of light beer up to 2 mi lion barrels in its first year of national distribution. By 1976 sales had doubled to 5 million barrels and in 1977, by the best estimates available, it had more than doubled a to 12.5 million barrels, or between 8 and 10 percent of the beer market. With the commercial, called by some a Madison Avenue production and by others a stroke of genius, Miller Lite had created the low-calorie market much as Xerox had created the photocopier market. And the success story behind the success story of Miller Lite has been its effective use of sport and sport stars.