Stella's New Promotional Beer Glass Is a Fun Twist on the Red Solo Cup

By Joseph Myers

Well, folks, summer has arrived in earnest, and, we are in a Sam Cooke-sort-of mood, hoping that the living is easy for all of you. Stella Artois is feeling likewise optimistic, as the Belgian beer biggie recently unveiled its Red Stella Cup, a promotional beer glass that it issued as a funny combination of its stemmed chalice and the far-less ritzy (but possibly more iconic) red Solo Cup.

RT if this is the formula you need to upgrade your summer.#RedStellaCup pic.twitter.com/dIixVvMKjF

— Stella Artois (@StellaArtois) June 26, 2019

We last covered the red plastic cups when they earned our disapproval a little more than a year ago for a “Solo: A Star Wars Story” tie-in we found a bit lacking. Perhaps, being “Star Wars” geeks, we have held a grudge against the Solo Cup Company, because we like that Stella Artois is proclaiming that its new product “is dethroning the OG red party cup,” with the beverage behemoth giving a nod to the company’s reputation as a summer party mainstay. Our space opera disappointment aside, we too realize how common Solo Cup goods are during this sweltering season, so we consider the red cup-ified promotional beer glass a pretty commendable marriage of patrician and plebian tastes, if you will.

Stella Artois has long held sway among pilsner lovers, so good sports (we hope the Solo Cup Company is among them or we could have a legal matter to address) will see this commodity as a must-have for their gatherings. Available in six- or 24-packs, the plastic promotional beer glass will, according to Stella Artois, provide consumers with “the summer upgrade we all deserve,” a clear indication not only of the brand’s immense self-esteem but also a display of its desire to increase market share in a crowded beer space. The introduction of the Red Stella Cup could also come to spark enthusiasm for Stella Artois’ revered chalice, which, although it will not break one’s bank, still sells for more than what the new cups are fetching.

We often cover promotional drinkware, with sales strategies, controversies and preventive measures among the topics that we have examined. With this promotional beer glass from Stella Artois, it seems we are entering a new realm—that of a cool burn from a beverage titan bent on helping end-users to see that for a few more bucks, they have the potential to throw glitzier (at least from a brand perspective) get-togethers this summer. Stella Artois, for giving the season a creative boost, we raise our glasses—er, make that “cups”—to you.