Quality Meats co-founders and Co-CCOs, Gordy Sang and Brian Siedband, have put their expertise, capital and reputations behind Herb Light, a new non-alcoholic, lager-style beverage with just 1 mg of THC. They didn’t simply develop the name, packaging and launch campaign for a client. They identified the market opportunity, created the positioning, assembled the production and go-to-market team, and helped turn the idea into a commercially available product.

Sang and Siedband are now navigating the financial risks, operational realities and growth pressures they typically help clients address.

The product responds to two evolving drinking behaviours – consumers moderating their alcohol intake and those seeking a more approachable alternative to higher-dose, fruit-forward THC drinks. Herb Light applies the familiar logic of light beer to cannabis through a lager-like taste and a super-low dose for social occasions.

The vast campaign is built around an alternate universe in which THC beverages existed in the 1980s, complete with retro packaging, original jingles, vintage-inspired commercials and real family photos digitally altered to include Herb Light. Its Gen AI-created spots were made with in-house production company, Sandwiches.

The Herb Light Instagram account carries the bulk of the advertising. “We all know THC drinks didn’t exist in the ’80s. But it’s fun to imagine if they did,” stated Brian Siedband. “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.”

Instagram is supported by some promoted posts and on-premise out-of-home ads.

The brand’s three commercials (also on Instagram) are in the vein of vintage beer ads, but 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.

To develop the brand, Sang and Siedband approached Chicago entrepreneur, Jon Schiff, who became Herb Light’s CEO. To develop the product, they approached Jacob Sembrano, currently head brewer at Cruz Blanca and formerly of Goose Island, to develop the recipe; and to BrightBev, led by former Molson Coors and Revolution Brewing executives, to work on distribution.

The product’s packaging, language and advertising style sits in beer rather than cannabis. Packaging remembers ‘70s and ‘80s beer brands such as Old Style, Hamm’s and Schlitz, rather than the bright modern designs in the cannabis category. The packaging also references a fictional parent company, Herbert’s Beverage Company. The campaign films use AI, but discreetly, to give the ‘80s style films a surreal feel.

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,” staed 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.”

Their current approach is to “own their backyard” within Chicago, and then expand and replicate in different markets.