The founders of Quality Meats have created and launched their first-ever actual consumer product, a first-of-its-kind non-alcoholic, super low-dose THC-infused lager-style beverage called Herb Light. The brand marks the agency’s first step in expanding its capabilities beyond advertising into creating and building its own brands.
The concept of Herb Light was birthed from a trend afflicting the entire beverage industry: the amount of US adults reportedly drinking alcohol has dipped to an all-time low of 54%, the lowest level reported since Gallup began tracking data in 1939. Instead, drinkers are turning to non-alcoholic and THC beverages – but non-alcoholics lack any benefit beyond beer taste, and most THC drinks are too high in dosage or offer only fruity/botanical seltzery flavors. Leaving little-to-no options for the non-alcoholic drinker who still wants to enjoy the taste of a few beers in a social setting, but with just a little buzz. Which is exactly what Herb Light’s made for, with a lager-like taste and feel and only 1MG of THC.
“The main reason this product exists is because I wanted it selfishly just for me,” says Herb Light co-founder and Quality Meats Co-Founder and Co-CCO, Gordy Sang. “I like drinking beer, but I don’t like feeling hungover, and I like some cannabis, but I don’t want to be higher than balls. So I went and made a drink that I can keep drinking all day in social settings, where I have a pathological need to constantly have a drink in my hand that I can continuously pour into my face.”
Herb Light’s vibe and aesthetic is highly reminiscent of light beer brands from the 80s, when the concept of lower alcohol, more sessionable beers was first introduced. Its name, packaging and marketing are all designed to look and feel like a relic of that time period.
“Everyone on earth knows what a light beer is, and how you can drink more and feel the effects less than a regular beer, and a lot of people love light beer taste,” says Herb Light co-founder and CEO Jon Schiff. “So we’re leaning into that math as a mental shortcut, but instead of a little alcohol, it’s no alcohol and a little THC.”
The brand launched three commercials on Instagram in the vein of vintage beer ads, only juxtaposed with modern-day drinking habits and healthy serving of AI insanity. Each ends with a jingle call-to-action to “head on down to the low-high hills.” One features a guy with a family history of alcoholism, who wants a THC beverage that won’t leave him “high as a giraffe’s balls.” Another shows a woman who doesn’t like waking up in the middle of the night with “woodpeckers jackhammering her brain,” and a third shows a guy who used to enjoy cannabis back in the day but worries that now it’ll make him feel like a “panic goblin.”
Their Instagram account is flooded with actual 80s photos that they’ve acquired from friends and family, but with Herb Light inserted into scenes, as if Herb Light actually existed back in the 80s.
“We all know THC drinks didn’t exist in the 80s. But its fun to imagine if they did,” says Brian Siedband, Herb Light co-founder and Quality Meats co-founder and Co-CCO. “So every aspect of this brand is leaning into basically an alternate timeline where it did. And how it would have solved the same pain points back then that it does now. Which is completely absurd but reinforces the light beer-ness of it all.”
To turn the idea into an actual sellable product, Gordy and Brian turned to CEO Schiff, with whom they previously partnered with to launch Real Good Stuff Co., a former Chicago-based food, juice and smoothie restaurant chain that Schiff ran. Together they built a team of beer industry heavy-hitters including award-winning brewmaster Jacob Sembrano (Head Brewer of Cruz Blanca and former Head Brewer of Goose Island Brewpub), along with go-to-market experts BrightBev, led by former Molson Coors executive Jeff Agase and former Revolution Brewing CMO Doug Veliky.
Their current approach is to “own their backyard” within Chicago, and then expand and replicate in different markets. Herb Light is currently available at Foxtrot Market, a popular Chicago-based chain of upscale convenience stores, along with various other bottle shops and on-premise bar and restaurant locations within the city including Chicago’s iconic Beer Temple and Slugger’s Bar & Grill, along with online DTC shipments to most states throughout the country. They’re currently in talks with various Midwest regional distributors to increase availability in on and off-premise locations throughout the Chicagoland area.
