Last month, we reported that no Coronavirus is not a disease spread through Corona beer. Back when people started hearing about Coronavirus, there was a big spike in Google searches to find out if it was connected to Corona beer. That sounds like a joke...but apparently, it's actually hurting Corona sales.

You Gov's survey found people are less likely to buy Corona now than any time in the past two years. The jokes have turned into actual bad news for Corona. It turns out that ever since the virus was first detected in December, people's feelings on the Corona beer brand HAVE gone down.

Although it is more of a summertime beer (with substantial seasonal fluctuation is sales)...the negative buzz over the past two weeks hasn't been good for Corona beer. Corona’s "Buzz score" — based on whether U.S. adults have heard anything negative or positive about the brand has decreased from a high score of 75 at the beginning of January to 51 as of late February. Americans finally started taking the Coronavirus threat seriously. And we don't want ANYTHING to do with it.

5W Public Relation's survey found that:
• 38% of beer-drinking Americans would not buy Corona under any circumstances now
• Among those who said they usually drink Corona, only 4% said they would stop drinking Corona, but 14% said they wouldn’t order Corona in a public venue
• 16% of beer drinking Americans were confused about whether Corona beer is related to the Coronavirus

This whole story reminds me of what happened to Sambo's Restaurant chain back in the 1970's. They came up with the name Sambo's by combining the owner's names, however their name was linked to a controversial children's book called "The Story of Little Black Sambo"...which led to its demise. Could Corona's unfortunate name similarity to this disease lead to this same fate? Unlikely, but the possibility is more real than one might think. What brand wants to be linked to a virus which is killing people worldwide?

One thing for sure is though, we all hope they get a handle on this thing, sooner than later.

More From K92.3