Lawrence Brewers Guild

A fight between America’s two biggest brewers is jeopardizing a proposed “Got Milk?”-style campaign intended to help struggling beer makers win back drinkers who have defected to wine and spirits.

Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, BUD -3.17% Molson Coors Brewing Co. TAP -0.24% , Heineken HEINY -0.08% NV and Constellation Brands Inc. STZ 2.06% have for over a year discussed a potential multimillion-dollar, brand-agnostic campaign aimed at improving the overall health of the beer category.

But the campaign could now be dead in the water after MillerCoors, Molson’s U.S. unit, pulled out of a meeting slated for next month and said the initiative should be paused following a public spat with Bud Light maker AB InBev.

The rift began when AB InBev ran three Super Bowl TV ads earlier this month highlighting MillerCoors’s use of corn syrup in Coors Light and Miller Lite. MillerCoors responded on Twitter and with a full-page newspaper advertisement addressed to “Beer Drinkers of America” defending its use of corn syrup as a part of the brewing process.