Budweiser Commercial Bashes Craft Beer?!
Personally that commercial pisses me off something fierce. It's true to an extent but most craft breweries make at least one lager style, just because you can hide flaws in a beer doesn't mean that they are, and I think the thing that pisses me off about it the most is that most people are actually going to believe them.
Most intriguing or enlightening answer for the 10.
Answers: Has anybody seen the Budweiser commercial in which they essentially bash the entire craft beer segment by saying they all brew styles which are easy to hide flaws in (ales) vs. their highly difficult and immaculate Budweiser lager? Thoughts? Opinions?
Personally that commercial pisses me off something fierce. It's true to an extent but most craft breweries make at least one lager style, just because you can hide flaws in a beer doesn't mean that they are, and I think the thing that pisses me off about it the most is that most people are actually going to believe them.
Most intriguing or enlightening answer for the 10.
Great topic. I was an employee of a local Budweiser distributor for 7 years. I can tell you from experience that company's evil starts at the top and trickles down all the way to street-level vendors.(when Miller or Coors would come out with a new package, we would break them in the coolers when nobody was looking) The commercials make false claims to Bud's superior quality. Ten years or so ago, they led everyone to believe that beer over 110 days old is bad. That particular little piece of trickery made being a "Budman" a nightmare. We would have to dig through cold boxes, (stocked at the end of a long night by a worn out bartender) every day to insure not one bottle or can was out of rotation. One out-of-date can, and you could be fired on the spot. One beer out of rotation and your supervisor had to write you up. It got so that the stress was impossible to live with. Every day they would tell you what you weren't doing a good enough job at, and positive feedback was NEVER heard, in fact, middle management frowned upon it. I have never worked anywhere that morale was so low, yet we ran as hard as we could every day for fear of getting the axe. If you made the sales manager mad at you, ( like maybe you were dying of the flu and had the gaul to take a sick day) he'd make it his pet project to go digging through your accounts trying to find out-of-date beer, which was bought back at full retail, poured out, and taken out of your check. I was threatened with the loss of my highest paying account constantly, an account which I'd carefully nurtured for 2 years to build it's sales to second in the whole area. It was their old faithful way of blackmailing me into doing whatever they told me to. The old saying "s**t rolls downhill" could have been coined to describe working for an A-B distributor. I'd work 10-12 hour days in the heat of summer, with never a bit of help. Rolling 600-800 cases of beer, pricing it, rotating it, stocking it. Then get chewed out for not getting to work BEFORE 7am the next morning. This is all in addition to the crap you had to take from sadistic store managers who'd make you park your truck a mile away, and bitched endlessly because they knew you couldn't talk back, or else you'd be fired. The only thing that keeps you going is that the money is good, but when the stress never lets up for 3 years or so you get burned out and the money seems less of a motivation. I had trouble sleeping on the weekends because of the pure dread of Monday morning. There was an ex Wal-Mart manager who went to work for Coke that abused me verbally so much that to this day, if I ever see him I'm gonna punch him in the mouth. Yet if you lost your temper and said something back, you'd be barred from the account and likely fired. A-B is an evil corporation that breathes down it's distributors' necks 24/7/365. They intimidate owners by threatening to pull their distribution rights, which would render a multi-million dollar company virtually worthless. Owners then ride upper management's backs relentlessly. Management in turn intimidates the supervisors and street level salesmen to the point of physical and mental exhaustion. The distributors in this area have a strict "you mention a union and you're fired" policy, so chances of fair treatment are zero. I have been gone from there since January,2002, and I still think I need therapy. That manager from Wal-Mart? I'm still looking for you, ya little bastard!
Hope you guys come back to see the comment I'm adding. When it comes to brewing extremely light, flavorless, highly accessible beers, A-B is indeed the best. However, in my opinion, anytime they try to brew something with more flavor and character, it usually sucks. Their idea of flavor is to me like wine that has turned to vinegar. Yuck! I hate Mic and Mic light, Mic Amber Bock is hideous, and Ultra doesn't taste like a Mic brand at all. It's just Busch Light (my personal favorite A-B brand) in a different package. Bud Light or Busch Light are both good when extremely cold if you are thirsty. I am a Guinness man myself, it suits my Irish ancestry, and my taste for bold flavors to a tee. Personally, I think Auggie Busch is a whiney, smarmy little a**h**e, who has never had to work a day in his sheltered little life. I'd bet if you stacked up 15 suitcases, the little weasel wouldn't even be able to kick a handtruck under it. Get on a route when it's 98 degrees outside in the shade, or 38 degrees in the rain. Until then, you don't know what pissed off means. Since I read that, I think I'll raise a glass of real beer tonight in his honor. Cheers, Auggie!! Kiss my a**!!!
By the way gentlemen, I propose that at least one of us pose a topic of discussion here most every day and we can form a nice little beer appreciation society. Cheers, and I hope to see you all here soon.
No and frankly if I did I'd lose what's left of my respect for them. I respect them because they can make batch #1 taste like batch #40000. I also respect them for the history they have with this country and what they did for it during prohibition. Do I drink it? Helles no. Woops take that back, I've had a local bock they made a year ago and it was fantastic. I think it was called Burnin' Helles.
They're a business though and they're plenty scared they can't produce the same quality ales and lagers the smaller brewers are making. Which is why they make the claim. I've even seen Jim Koch make almost the same slam against local brewpubs. It was a while ago but he really pissed me off with that little statement.
The thing about most people believing them is normal. I would do my best to make sure the people around you know it's not true. I've converted plenty bud/miller/coors drinkers in my time and my job isn't finished. (They're mostly drinking the stuff I brew now lol!)
Prost!
PS Got a favorite?
ttommy:
Wow! I have to say I am quite impressed by your answer. It's refreshing to hear of others fighting the good fight in support of craft beer!
On that note, I have not seen the entire commercial, though I have read plenty of articles regarding the controversy. Here's something else to ponder...
In their latest running of Michelob ads, A-B attempts to pass off Michelob as "America's first craft beer," or something to that extent. The commercial talks about the numerous different styles produced under the Michelob name, including Hefeweizen, Porter, etc. When questioned as to why Michelob Ultra was the only franchise not included, some Marketing representative from A-B said something to the extent of, "the Ultra drinker would not drink the other Mich. beers and vice versa." In all reality, we know that they are trying to distance the Michelob name from the Ultra brand, in order to put Mich. up on a pseudo-craft pedestal.
It's also a nice hypocritical slap in the face to know about all the pseudo-craft beers A-B is currently producing to try and dumb down the entire category, such as Shock-Top Belgian (style) Wheat, Bare Knuckle Stout, their new Blueberry brew, etc.
The sad thing is, most people still don't know what a good beer is. Just look to Y!A for proof of that. 95% of the beer posts concern Coors Light, Bud, Corona, Heineken, Stella, Miller Lite, and Bud Light.
I'd rather scrape my gums with a rusty screwdriver than drink any of those beers ever again. And if it wasn't for the fact that it's 7:30 am and I haven't even had my Grape Nuts yet (beer in a bowl), I'd be cracking open something tasty from the fridge, such as Dogfish Head Midas Touch, Rodenbach, Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout, Abita Strawberry Lager, Arcadia Witsun, etc.
Cheers!
(EDIT)
Jay G - I feel for you. I worked for a multi-brand house for 5 years. They sell pretty much all the major brands except AB, but the hold the same type of mentality. Even people from Miller Brewing say that our GM is running a Miller house with a Budweiser attitude. Reading your rant was like reading my autobiography. Cheers to you, sir.
I have not seen this commercial but I would appreciate it if you mailed it to me.
i haven't seen it but i support your enthusiasm over it...i love all beer and if someone is gonna trash another beer they could atleast get the facts straight....though i do prefer bud light to all other beers.
I personally think that due to the recent report of craft breweries increasing sales at a good clip and American craft brews enjoying a more interested palate in the consumer, that Budweiser has to say whatever they can to do some damage control, try to retain their 'crown' as king of beers, and discredit the competition.
When I say they have to, I mean in order to maintain a monopoly, which they can't without keeping people from tasting real beer, real alcohol levels, real finesse in flavor, and real variety.
It's like McDonald's saying that the local burger joint doesn't know how to make a great burger, really - they're really just trying to follow McDonald's lead. In reality, the local burger joint does everything they can to distance themselves from the flavor of McDonald's -- why would they want to try to achieve mediocrity?
I can see why they're doing it, but the wounds are already starting to seep. Why would anyone who's tasted anything by Victory, Dogfish Head, or Stone ever want to taste a Bud, other than trying to save some money - certainly not for the refined lager crispness.
Give me a HopDevil, I'll show you something to try to achieve.
j.
The real sad part is most bars in the mid west still only have the crap beers like Bud and Coors and they charge $3 a bottle for it. Bud is #1 only because it spends the most on advertising. #1 in selling crap to people who don't know what's out there. That commercial only means they are worried, and they should be. I can't believe it took this long for good beer to return to America. Prohibition must have wiped out all knowledge of good beer.
Well , your question is a good one. Many excellent responses! Budweiser is just a like a big bully [monopoly]. they don't want to Share. considering the volume and quality[not as great as they say] the prices are way too high. I think Miller Hi-Life is actually better than Bud.and obviously a lot cheaper! I can drink bud, bud light,etc. but I have seen the commercial and agree, its bs. anyone can make a pilsner. THEY are just a little scared of Sam Adams, smaller craft companies,etc. Even they can't BUY ALL the competition. Cheers!
I read a quote one time by one of the high ups at A&B saying something along the lines of "Augustus Busch IV gets angry as hell everytime he reads a review about craft/micro brew beers being great, and how great it is to have a choice other than budweiser." Not an exact quote, but something like that. If anyone can find the exact quote, I'd like to see it again.
I'm looking around for the commercial you mentioned, but I'm not finding it on youtube. However, It doesn't surprise me. A&B markets beer to be sold to the masses. They're losing a small percentage of sales, because craft brew sales are constantly increasing, so they're going to to what they can to keep the ball in their court. Here's an article (below link) I read just the other day about how they're setting up Michelob as a seperate brewing company to experiment with the craft brews more fully. Technically, with the money, the equipment, and the high paid brewers that A&B has, they have the power to make any style of beer they want, and make it the best in the world. However, they want to sell beer to the masses, so they always go out of their way to water and bland down their beers, so they are least offensive to the general A&B drinker.
Every Christmas, I usually buy one or two of those Michelob Samplers, and you know, they're usually not all that bad, at least compared to what is usually sold. Plus I like to keep the box because they are great for storing homebrew bottles.
If they're trashing craft brews, and also trying to make their own Michelob Craft Brew line, it don't bother me too much. The trashing craft brews is just another one of their many gimicks to make the competitors look bad. It's a marketing ploy they've done a million times over, and A&B is all about the marketing. As for Michelob being a craft beer company now, well, it just goes to show that everyone was right in saying that craft beers are better than A&B, and even A&B realizes that. They're even using the quote "crafting a better beer". Personally I think it's about time they started making better beer.
The market they are going to pick up with it however, is going to be their own beer drinkers, or new curious ones. And it will most likely be a gateway beer for people to drink to develop a taste, and then move on to better Microbrews. I doubt just because they start brewing more craft styles, that all you beer lovers are going to stop drinking your Dogfish Head, Bells, Schlafly, Rouge, New Belgium, Sam Adams, etc etc.
So in conclusion, I don't care what they say in their commercials, they're all about marketing, and thats what they're going to do. It's meant for bud/budlite drinkers. I doubt any micro/craft beer lover is going to go, "wow, Auggie IV is right, craft brews do hide flaws, I'm going to go out and buy me some Bud Select!" Second, its about damn time they started making better beers, so now when you're in some small town/bar/liquor store and have no choice on good stuff, you don't have to settle on Bud. Lastly, we're all going to keep drinking what we like and brewing what we like, no matter what A&B says. It's also satisfying to know, that everytime we buy and drink craft brews, it makes Auggie Busch IV angry. So CHEERS! to pissing off Bud!
Brewing and enjoying GOOD beers in Bud's backyard.
Edit: Go to budweiser.com, in the entertainment and commercials section, it's the second commercial, right after the Clydesdale one. The only misconception there is that you can't hide flaws in a lager. I'm pretty sure you could hide flaws in a dopplebock. They should have said, "you can't hide flaws in a watered down, flavorless, rice lager..." These remind me of the Sam Adams commercials. I always liked the, "Hops in beer are like grapes in wine..". Really Jim? I didn't know that hops made fermentable beer sugar juice, like grapes make juice for wine. You can make beer without hops, you can't make wine without the grapes (or other fruit).
Edit: Ahahahah, they are so innovative, they use oxygen barrier caps. They brew beer the way it is supposed to be brewed. Their brewmasters oversee all of the brewing. WOW, budweiser is amazing. Now that I've seen these commercials, I'm going to quit drinking my homebrew and craft brews, and go buy some Bud Select. It's a light beer, but marketed to look hip. Hahahah!