The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2024
Corona shot the 2024 eclipse as the lime slice its beer visual was missing
On eclipse day Corona photographed half the sun as the missing lime slice at five researched locations — no AI, live within hours.
Corona (AB InBev)
What it had to solve
Corona's classic image pairs a lime slice with a sunset, and its beer is brewed with 100% natural ingredients. The campaign asked what happens when the usual ingredients are missing, and answered that nature itself can supply them.
How it works
Corona's product and advertising have long centred on a simple natural image: a bottle of beer brewed with 100% natural ingredients, a lime slice, a sunset. This campaign asked what happens to that picture when the usual ingredients are missing — and answered that nature can provide them.
On the day of the 2024 annular solar eclipse, half of the sun looked like the missing lime slice. Guest photographers shot the eclipse at key locations in Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and the Pacific, selected after extensive research to ensure perfect positioning. Climate conditions and sun elevation were analysed so the sun would align with the bottle in each shot.
Each photograph took about five minutes, no AI was used, and the campaign was live within hours of the moment. The work's credibility rests on its being real: viewers are looking at an eclipse that actually happened, framed as the brand's missing lime.
Why it lands
- Corona's iconography is nature — bottle, lime, sunset — so a real eclipse photograph extends the brand instead of interrupting it.
- The astronomical deadline forced precision: research on climate and sun elevation mattered more than production scale.
- Shooting in-camera without AI made the illusion verifiable, which is exactly what a brand brewed with 100% natural ingredients needs.
- Covering Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and the Pacific let one fleeting natural moment speak across the whole region.
What it did
Photographs of the natural half-lime went live within hours of the eclipse, turning one astronomical moment into a coordinated brand image across five markets; the work is preserved in the D&AD awards archive.
What you can take
When a brand's icon is a pairing from nature, wait for nature to supply one half itself: a real alignment shot in-camera beats a manufactured image for credibility.
Since then
The eclipse does not repeat on demand, so the value of the work was preparation: when the sun formed the slice, the photographers, positions and weather analysis were already in place and the images moved within hours. The D&AD archive page preserves the campaign and credits Corona Studios as production company.
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