Wha' happen?

Well, it was Philly Beer Week, right? Sorry, a lot went on this week. I'm behind...again. Part of the reason is that Maud had surgery and I've been worried and occupied with that; part of it is that my father's having surgery today. I'll get back on it.

Meanwhile, I just got the latest attempt to co-opt bloggers: a "creative writing contest" open to bloggers. In 300 words or less, we're invited to describe -- well, "an event", we'll say, that just happens to feature this company's product. The best "entry" will win a prize. And, of course, the company will win gushing free blogger praise from all over. Happily, I'm not quite that stupid. No writing contests here.

How Things Have Changed

Saw this piece in Slate's The Big Money (thanks to a tweet-link from Beer Business Daily's Harry Schumacher (who just started following me on Twitter, so I returned the favor...and immediately reaped more benefit than I suspect he ever will)) about Bud Light Golden Wheat buying up all the ad time on an SNL episode back on October.

Old news, right? Wrong. Here's the little bit of relevance that makes this a year-story rather than a week-story. Blogger Dan Mitchell says this about the description of BLGW:

The campaign, like so many campaigns aimed at drinkers of mass-produced American beer, emphasizes the brew's "drinkability," which can be translated as "wateriness."

Now...can you imagine seeing that kind of flippancy in the news ten years ago? I couldn't, so I checked (thanks, Google): Bud Light and watery. The only hits I got were three: a taste test of Bud vs. Budvar in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a piece by my good buddy and fellow beer writer Ron "The King" Givens in the Daily News where he says old-time ballpark suds were "the cheapest, most watery stuff that could be poured into a cup" but doesn't actually tag Bud Light as that, and, well, a piece by St. Michael Jackson about how not all American beers are watery.

Sea change time. The whole paradigm has shifted. Smart, bright journalists now say mainstream beer is "watery." Do we call this the "Arrogant Bastard Effect," or the "Sam Adams Shuffle"? How about The Great Awakening? How about Truth Setting You Free?

American mainstream beer. I still do drink it, if only from regional brewers: I'll definitely still drink a Lager or a Straub, and I've said here I enjoyed slamming a 16 oz. Narragansett. But...is it flavorful? No. Is it something I drink regularly? No. Is it refreshing? Yeah, for the most part, it is. And is it sweet to hear a mainstream journalist casually refer to it in terms of 'wateriness?' Yeah. Definitely. One more indication that we've hit that tipping point.

Comment Spam Explodes

I've had comment moderation on for years, thanks to a couple real jerkwads who insisted on polluting the blog. But I've never had much problem with "blogspam," comments full of advertising and links to crapsites, and I just rejected them. I got maybe one every other week.

Yesterday, all of a sudden, I got twelve, and it's continuing today. So I'm considering adding CAPTCHA tech to the comment field; that thing where you have to type in the 'word' you see in a window before your comment will post. I don't want to do this -- it's a pain in your neck -- but neither do I want to have my time sucked up by rejecting a bunch of "Miley Cyrus NUD!" spam, you know?

So...will having to do that one extra step be a real pain in all your butts? Or is it no big deal? Let me know, and I'll factor that in before I decide. And who knows, this may just be temporary.

New Heineken USA Chief; new strategy?

I get a lot of press releases and see a lot of stories about new people in positions at a variety of booze businesses, and most of them... eh, so what? This one was an exception, and not because it's a major company unit -- Heineken USA -- but because of the way the people formerly in the position were willing to say why they left, rather than simply "to pursue other opportunities." Check it out, then go back and re-read my post about imported beer. This is from the Wall Street Journal. (I've cut a bit from the piece; this is just the nuggets.)

Dutch beer giant Heineken NV tapped company insider Dolf van den Brink as the third chief executive in about three years to run its struggling U.S. division. Mr. van Den Brink, currently commercial director and deputy general manager for Heineken's operating company in the Democratic Republic of Congo, will become president and CEO of Heineken USA effective Thursday. He succeeds Don Blaustein, who resigned in August, citing differences with the company's management in Amsterdam about how to run the unit.
Mr. van Den Brink will try to revive U.S. sales of the company's flagship beer, Heineken, which have dropped sharply amid the weak economy, ineffective marketing campaigns and tough competition from rival imports and domestic brews. Mr. van Den Brink faces a tall order. In April, Heineken said its beer volume fell 16% in the Americas on an organic basis, which strips out results from recently acquired brands, in the first three months of 2009. Heineken USA accounts for about 4% of the U.S. beer market in terms of volume.
Mr. Blaustein's predecessor, Andy Thomas, also resigned because he disagreed with Heineken's top executives over strategy.

They tap the deputy from the Congo to run the U.S.? Wow.

I would love to know what the different outlooks on strategy are. Here's a suggestion on a US strategy: figure out what you're selling, then get Heineken ads that are as good as the "World's Most Interesting Man" Dos Equis ads are (which are actually working, by the way: Dos Equis is doing well). I like John Turturro, but good God..."No destination is the destination of the undestinated... This is not a beer. This is a compass."



What the hell is that shit? If you don't even know what your beer is -- here's a hint; it ain't a compass, you buy them at REI -- what are we supposed to get out of it? What's the most interesting man in the world say? "I don't always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis." Notice: he drinks beer, not a compass, and he admits that there are other drinks, and that he doesn't always drink Dos Equis. I think that's the best part of the commercial.

I'd also point out to craft beer fellow travelers that even after losing that volume, Heineken USA, by itself, does the same volume as all craft beers put together. Food for thought, mobsters.

Massachusetts: coming and going

I talked about the recent increase in booze taxation in Massachusetts recently (in the context of how a Massachusetts legislator voted for the tax hike and then got caught buying less-taxed, cheaper booze in New Hampshire). But this caught my eye this morning... Massachusetts put this tax in place to raise revenues during the recession, right? I mean, aside from the whole moral issue of raising taxes during a recession, that was the idea.

So how come they now want to ban alcohol advertising on public transit...which is a moneymaker for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority? The ban "could benefit about 25,000 children" who ride public transit. By what, not letting them look at booze ads unless they look out a window at all the beer billboards? Hypocrisy. Ludicrous. How about the definite benefit to those kids of subsidizing public transit by selling ads?

Kim Jong Ale?

Reuters reports that North Korea has run what appears to be its first ever television ad: for Taedonggang beer. Here's the story:

In what is reportedly the first television advertisement ever run in North Korea, the Taedong River brewery got nearly two and a half minutes of airtime after a "news" show on Thursday. The spot is about as weird as you might expect: The commercial informs viewers that Taedonggang beer can relieve stress, improve health, and even lengthen your life. The brewer may be making a feint toward Western capitalism here, but it didn't go so far as to claim that drinking beer would get you laid. Too American?
The North Koreans purchased an old Ushers brewery in England in 2000 and moved the whole thing to be reassembled in Pyonyang. Some commenters on the BBC News Web site say the brew tastes pretty good.

Well...what's this mean? Nothing surprising: even the wacky rulers in North Korea know that what Queen Victoria said is true: "Give my people plenty of beer, good beer, and cheap beer, and you will have no revolution among them."
The commercial follows.