Are people really confusing Corona beer and the coronavirus?

By Quentin Langley

According to Google Trends, searches for some variation of "corona beer virus" have increased dramatically in recent weeks. But does that mean that people are confusing the beer and the virus. 

First, the confession. I am one of those searchers. Obviously, there are few people who write professionally about crisis management, and particularly the social media aspects of crisis, as I do. But my example demonstrates one of the weaknesses of Google Trends as a guide to what people are thinking. The fact that someone has searched doesn't tell you why the person did that search. 

Significant numbers of people are undoubtedly searching in order to find amusing content about how stupid other people are, and in doing so contributing to the number of people who participated in the 'dumb' search on Google. 

Furthermore, the beer brand has been deliberately contributing to the profile of this "confusion" by creating its own amusing content on the topic. You can be sure the brand would not be doing this if it was losing sales from people who feared catching the virus. 

The makers of Corona beer have also mooted the idea of starting a fund to have the virus renamed "budlightvirus". 

Google has a pretty good idea the general topics people are discussing, but the brand owner has much better information on whether or not this is changing anyone's behavior. It seems it isn't, and the beer is earning kudos from its willingness to participate in these discussions with good humor.