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Admittedly, Salon.com has had a rough few years, as, with seemingly no business plan after the free piles of venture capital dried up, they had a sometimes difficult time adjusting to a new world where you need to earn enough money to pay your employees. But it appears that they’re emerging from their post-tech-collapse funk and into the early part of the ‘aughts. Via a book published by Rob Walker, formerly of their competitor Slate and now of The New York Times Magazine, Edward McClelland discovers and reports on Pabst’s non-marketing marketing campaign (except for the Spring Garden El station, that is – have you seen that cavalcade of shitty marketing art? If not, you can see their “winners” here – it’s probably better to give the money to drunken artists than to Red Tettemer, but still). Also, he wants us to know that the Pabst megalo-corporate-octopus owns almost every low-rent low-name-recognition beer brand you can think of, so once you move on, you’ll just be moving on to more Pabst.
Anyway, the piece is really about what “the next great American beer” will be, and after reviewing a few (even if you care that Gennessee Cream Ale is brewed in the U.S., please, please don’t drink it – trust us), McClelland picks lager, oops, wait, Yuengling. Sweeney should’ve told them about it five years ago, just like he should tell them now that everybody’s now drinking Lionshead after all that labor strife.
I know it’s not local, but I love me some Flying Dog. And how about addressing Budweiser still pimping themselves as “the great American lager” when they sold majority % the company to belgian INBEV in June. Budweiser, you’re no American beer anymore. Change your advertising.
I thought Joe Sixpack’s column around the time of that sale put the jingoistic beer swagger to rest:
http://www.joesixpack.net/columnArchives/2008/062708.htm
Hell, all the great “Irish beers” are actually owned by a London-based firm, Diageo, which also owns the Jamaican Red Stripe, (and a whole bunch of other spirit brands from around the world, but we’ll stick to beer). Does Guiness drop its “Irish” signature because it’s owned by the Brits? Nope. Nor should an American product that follows the “traditional” American recipe have to take away its American claims. Any adwatcher with half a head knows that INBEV would push the American brand to assert that nothing’s changed with the beer except the corporate holders. What, you think they’re now brewing the stuff at the Heineken factory in Amsterdam and hauling it over the Atlantic now? No, the only Bud being brewed in that facility, if there is any, was the stuff already being brewed there for the Dutch market.