Business Notes Promotions

The next time you open a can of Coors Light Beer, it just may start talking to you. On May 4 the Colorado brewery will begin slipping more than 30,000 "talking" beer cans into 12-packs of Coors Light and other Coors brews. Filled with carbonated water, the lucky cans look and feel the same as those that contain beer. But pull the tab, and a light-activated voice mechanism will proclaim you the winner of one of more than 40,000 prizes -- ranging from CDs to surround-sound audio systems -- valued at almost $1 million in all. Now, if you'd rather just have a beer, Coors will offer a refund or another beer, depending on state laws, says a spokeswoman.

This is not the first time a company has tried to capture customers with a calculating can. Two years ago, Coca-Cola came out with a similar promotion, dubbed MagiCan, but withdrew it in three weeks after a number of the mechanisms that were supposed to propel cash or prize certificates out of the opening malfunctioned.