It's Still Just Bud, Folks
Advertising Age this week published an article speculating that Anheuser-Busch's impending buyout by Belgian-owned, Brazilian-operated InBev would tarnish Budweiser's patriotic brand position. While Budweiser may lose the right to mix heavy-handed US patriotism into its brew of marketing, advertising and sponsorships (would this be such a bad thing, anyway?), the presence of foreign interests is nothing new to this brand. For example...
- To this day, A-B pays a Czech brewery in exchange for rights to use the Budweiser name in the US. Paying royalties to a Czech brewery for your name isn't exactly what you'd expect of this allegedly "great American brand."
- Clydesdales are another legacy in A-B branding and marketing. That's a Scottish breed of horse, for those of you keeping score. Again, not exactly Americana in origin.
- Beer is not an American invention. In fact, its origins are traced to Egypt and Iran. The word "beer" is derived from the German "bier". American beer is the Johnny-come-lately in the history of the drink.
Would you stop drinking your favorite beer if the parent company - and nothing else beside perhaps the amount of patriotism in its advertising - changed?
6 comments:
Not as egregious as R,W, and B (last brewed by SABMiller) but the same ultimate point. Fuck Budweiser. I like Goose Island.
Hurt Bud's patriotic image? I didn't know that's why people might drink it but I guess that's what decades of commercials with clydesdales running past American flags will do.
Put me into the category of people who drink it when nothing else is available. If I want a cheap beer you know it's going to be old style fan cans.
If I want a good beer, there's so many to choose from it could be anything. In the summer I like 312. Would I stop drinking that if it wasn't brewed in Chicago? Civic pride may have got me to try it but I probably would not stop drinkin it. For all I really know it's brewed in Wisconsin.
I've been following this little story in the news, and I've decided that I am in favor of the buy-out. I happily drink Bud (in spite of the certain headache after a night of too much) but would welcome them slipping a little Belgian know-how into the process. Also, I don't give a fuck who owns it.
What's on tap now for Budweiser? CNBC takes you inside America's 130-year love affair with the King of Beers. Now that InBev has agreed to purchase the iconic American brand, CNBC's "American Originals: Budweiser" offers a first look at the new reality for Bud. Watch CNBC on Thursday, July 17 at 9p/12a ET to see the side of Budweiser you've never seen before... the past the present and the future. Click here for web highlights.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/25348737/?__source=bg|pst|budprem|07102008|&par=bg
Hope you enjoy, let me know if you would like more info!
Thank you for the mini press release, but I don't see what Budweiser-braised shrimp recipes have to do with the buyout.
Victoria, do you happen to work for CNBC? Looks to me like CNBC is shilling for A-B with this fluff piece you're pushing on my blog. They're all sides of Budweiser we have, in fact, seen many times before.
Plus, your link appears to have a tracking code in it... is your comment's text known as "Blog Post B" by any chance? Because that link (which you should have made "hot", BTW) works just fine without the "/?__source=bg|pst|budp".
And how can I let you know if I want more information when your profile is marked private? I think you're using my blog to draw traffic to CNBC's fluff piece on Budweiser. That's not cool.
If you never turn up here again, you'll have only confirmed that you're either a bot or a sloppy attempt at "viral" PR. It'd be great if you could prove me wrong, Victoria.
Honestly guys, it's beer.
I enjoy drinking Budweiser because it's better than Miller or Coors (to me) and it's cheap. As long as it isn't removed from the market or the priced jacked up like crazy, I'm cool with the take-over.
Case in point, in my home town my dad worked for a cryogenics company (used in a lot of hospitals and such) that was was taken over by a French company shortly after he started working there in the 80's. Not only did conditions improve, pay was better and the company expanded almost 5 fold than what it was when the original family owned it.
Could this happen to Bud? Possibly. As long as it's still brewed and sold at its modest price, I'll drink it. Nothing wrong with patriotism, but when you become so nationalistic to the point of insanity, there lies a BIG problem.
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