Corona beer maker shrugs off misinformation on coronavirus
Corona beer maker Constellation Brands is brushing off misinformation spread by social media users that erroneously links the Mexican beer brand to the deadly China coronavirus.
The fast-spreading coronavirus has killed more than 170 people in China and set off a flood of misinformation on Facebook.
People's wildly incorrect ideas extended to Corona beer, with the popular brew from Mexico seeing a deluge of Google searches in the past week along with the terms "beer virus" and "corona beer virus."
In the U.S., Google Trends figures that 57% of those that searched one of those terms in recent days searched for "beer virus," while the remaining 43% looked for "corona beer virus."
The search engine on Tuesday tweeted that "coronavirus symptoms" had jumped 1,050% this week.
A spokesperson for publicly traded Constellation Brands said the company is not overly concerned about its beer brand getting a bad rap.
"We believe that consumers, by and large, understand there's no linkage between the virus and our beer/business," a spokesperson emailedCBS MoneyWatch.
The U.S. company's stock price was about $190 a share on Thursday, down slightly from $195 last Friday.
