Sunday 2 November 2014

There's A Beer For That



I'm standing in a crowded bar on the 28th floor of Millbank Tower in Pimlico and I'm surrounded by people in suits. This has made me uncomfortable, I'm very much a jeans and trainers kinda guy and I find it difficult to associate people clad in suits with the beer industry. Perhaps I'm partially blinded by my craft beer blinkers and cautiously optimistic perspective. I'm handed a shot glass filled with Fuller's Vintage Ale which has been meticulously paired with a cheese pastry twist. It's not exactly the most inspiring combination but thankfully I'm not here for a culinary experience, I'm here as a member of the press to witness the relaunch of the much maligned Let There Be Beer campaign. 

But first, a little transparency on my part. I first got in contact with Frank, the PR agency behind the campaign, several months ago. They had tweeted a picture of some 'his and hers' beer glasses and while the 'his' glass contained beer the 'her' glass appeared to contain something resembling Ribena. I'm sure there was no real intention to offend but it did. I decided to take it upon myself to email them and tell them why this wasn't good enough and that they had a responsibility as beer communicators to offer something better. It got me on their press list at any rate. 

Fast forward a couple of months and I'm at the European Beer Bloggers Conference in Dublin enjoying some lunch and lashings of unfiltered Pilsner Urquell. Myself, Chris Hall and Craig Heap are approached by representatives from Frank PR and are quizzed about what we thought was wrong with their existing campaign. In our inebriated state we probably gave them far too much free information and they were recording our conversation (we had agreed for them to do this). At the end of our chat they hand us a USB stick each that contains a few details about the next stages of their campaign but it's all pretty run of the mill stuff with no mention of a grander plan. 

It's now August and I'm on my way to the trade session at the Great British Beer Festival. I'd agreed to meet with the same two reps from Frank PR for a morning coffee and a chat about their future plans. Against my better judgement I thought it might be worthwhile to give Let There Be Beer another chance. They used me as a sounding board for a few of their ideas but ultimately I tell them that I wouldn't be interested in working with them unless I saw some genuine change in their practices. I was not paid nor did I ask for payment, to be honest the conversation never got that far and I didn't feel that it was a terribly worthwhile avenue to pursue as a writer.

They tell me a big change is coming but I had no idea what this was going to involve at this stage. I had little to do with them after this meeting bar a brief exchange about a poorly constructed infographic they put together for Cask Ale Week. Once again I felt incensed to contact them about the misinformation in the graphic, they took it offline and then invited me to the press launch that I am now attending.

We're ushered into an adjacent room, Chris is with me once again and he sensibly decides to take notes while I just sit there, drink beer and develop increasingly deepening feelings of cynicism. Soon the presentation starts with a brief overview of Let There Be Beer and what it 'achieved' over the 18 months since its inception. Then they unveil what it is that they've been working away on these last few months, the newly rebranded campaign; There's a Beer for That brought to you by the newly formed Britain's Beer Alliance. 

There were elements of Let There Be Beer that I kind of liked, it looked relatively modern, fresh and in the right hands probably could've done some real good. Now all that hard work has been boiled down into something that has all the gravitas of a Mitchell and Webb parody. Say it out loud, go on, say it with a big beaming grin, why not stick your thumbs up and crack a wink in the mirror while you're at it. It's ridiculous and what's even more ridiculous is that they've spent ten million pounds on this new campaign. Chris and I look at each other in horror and we haven't even gotten to the worst part yet. 

With a hundred thousand pounds you could renovate a pub, start up your own brewery, or if you've already started one you could leave the days of hand bottling behind and buy a canning line. For me, ten million pounds is a ridiculous sum of money to spend on a project like this, but not for the multinationals behind it.  

They then give us the premier of their brand new TV advert that will air for the first time tonight in the ad break during Downton Abbey. It's directed by the genuinely brilliant Michael Winterbottom who is responsible for, amongst other things, 24 Hour Party People and The Trip. He'd never done an advert before but apparently he really loves beer so he decided to do this one, also he probably got a decent wad of that ten mil. By now most of you have probably seen it and I'll agree that it's kind of nice. The twee music offset with some Yorkshire poetry cutting between shots of people just really enjoying themselves and most of them are having a beer. Immaculately presented, full to the brim, stemmed glasses of beer. Doesn't it just make you want to get in the car, drive down to the supermarket and load up with as many slabs as possible?

Where are the brewers? The publicans? The draymen? Where's the story? It's forgettable and throwaway but hey, it might shift a few thousand extra cases of Stella down the supermarkets this week because of course, people have just been forgetting to buy beer all this time, haven't they? 

The crowd which includes members from SIBA and CAMRA clap and cheer a project funded by multinational brewing corporations and designed by suit clad executives so that they can carry on meeting their sales targets. I'm left feeling cheated and angry, especially after witnessing the 30 second sped up and cut down version of the commercial which almost obliterates the message they are attempting to convey. Pete Brown then takes the stage and explains his involvement with this project and how he has helped with the rebrand. He seems to really believe that this can get more people into beer, good on him. I'm still skeptical. After Pete's speech we're then treated to details of the next stages of the campaign.

The thought is that people who watch the advert will then want to engage with the campaign through social media. That's exactly how these things work right? You watch an advert when you're tired and malleable on Sunday evening and then when you're bored out of your mind on Monday morning, sick of clicking the refresh button on your preferred social network over and over you need something else to pass the time. Hey, I know! Let's give those beer guys a follow because beer is good because it gets you drunk! Top engagement, ten million pounds well spent right there. 

Essentially the campaign will continue to spout the same level of consumer driven bullshit, talking at those who choose to engage rather than to them. This is the polished turd your mother warned you about. All on a website that looks like a carbon copy of the wonderful Good Beer Hunting (which will be launched in a few days time.) Good news, they've paid established beer experts to make their level of communication 'better' but how long can they sustain this for? How long will people continue to pay attention? 

The main focus of 'There's a Beer for That' is on food and beer matching and they've even developed a twitter algorithm that, and I quote, is 'designed to feel human' that will pick a beer match for you if you tell it what you're having for dinner. That's right, just tweet 'roast chicken' and use the hashtag #beermatch (at the time of publication this hasn't gone live) and presto, you now know exactly what to drink with your chicken. Heavens forbid you just go on twitter and just ask a real beer expert who does this kind of thing for a living, no way, there's a bot for that!

So that's There's a Beer for That. More of the same that Let There Be Beer oh so dutifully provided but a lick of battleship grey paint has been smeared liberally over the existing ocean grey finish. You're probably still wondering why all this has got me so worked up and well, as much as I dislike the idea of this campaign it's the concept and my perceived aim of Britain's Beer Alliance that has had me spitting hellfire. 

Sales of alcohol, not just beer, are on a slow, gradual decline. Generally, people are drinking less be it because of financial restraints, choosing a lifestyle they perceive to be healthier or just drinking less but drinking better. It's the better that the people behind this campaign are worried about, craft beer is bucking the industry trend and growing at an exponential rate. Beavertown have expanded three times in four years, Magic Rock sell out gyles of Cannonball months in advance, Brewdog are one of the fastest growing businesses in the UK and in the USA the Great American Beer Festival sells out thousands of tickets priced at 100 dollars a pop in minutes. Craft beer hasn't just got its foot in the door to the mainstream, it's already in the room throwing a party and it brought beer. So why do we need There's a Beer for That? Well, multinational corporations really don't like it when small businesses infringe on their market share.   

So who are the major players behind Britain's Beer Alliance? Well you've got Carlsberg (Denmark), AB-InBev (USA/Belgium), Heineken (The Netherlands), SAB Miller (South Africa/USA) and Molson Coors (Canada/USA) and these are exactly the kind of guys you'd expect to invest ten million pounds just for the good of the beer industry right? RIGHT? Joining them are The British Beer and Pub Association, SIBA, The Beer Academy, Fuller's, Shepherd Neame, Enterprise Inns, Cask Marque, The Institute of Brewing and Distilling, EverardsRobinson's, Liberation Group, Thwaites, Budvar, Daleside and It's Better Down the Pub. 

I'm sad to see certain names on that list, I'd like think they're strong enough to trade on their own merit without needing to trade off the back of a generalised campaign such as this. That's what There's a Beer for That is to me. It's a reaction from the global beer corporations who simply don't know what to do about the rising threat of craft beer, they've tried copying it but got figured out so instead they've just tried to lump all beer into one category and say 'hey we don't care what you drink, just so long as it's beer!' Instead it's about finding new ways to meet their targets and keep their shareholders happy. 

I'm well aware that as a beer enthusiast I see things very differently from the majority that this campaign is targeted at. Unfortunately I think this will largely pass the people they oh-so-dearly hope to engage with by as the twang of a ukulele is drowned out by the hiss of a boiling kettle. It would be fantastic to get more and more people into beer and as a rule people are getting more interested in food and drink in general but this is not the way to grab their attention. I've tried being the beer evangelist, the guy who questions his friend who prefers a light lager over a pale ale and it just doesn't work. If people want to find out more about beer and you communicate about it well then they will seek you out when they want to know more. People are happy with their cup of tea or bottle of Blossom Hill or gin and tonic and I say if they're happy then leave them to it. I fail to see this campaign getting enough people into beer to make the investment financially viable. 

What would the reaction be if a similar campaign was run for pies, gin or chocolate? Would people suddenly down their pints and rush out to the shops for a bottle of Gordon's? Imagine if that money was used on a campaign to get people down to their local or drink British beer, something with a genuine focus rather than something so generalised and vague. There's a Beer for That is a sign that the big guys don't know what to do about craft beer so instead of trying to beat them they're attempting to piggyback on that success. In six months time it will, with any luck, have largely have been forgotten about bar a pre-programmed twitter robot still spouting out nonsense pairings to people who've hijacked the hashtag and the suits will have to go back to the drawing board and work out what they're going to spend their next ten million pounds on.  


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Addendum 
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Here's a selection of other bloggers making their opinions known on the Beer for That campaign:

Chris Hall makes similar points in his post 'Designed to be Human' which also features an excellent response from Pete Brown in the comments sections which is followed by a similarly excellent response from Chris. It's the way I wish Pete had approached this from the off. 

Ruari O'Toole takes an in depth look at the Beer for That commercial and a look at advertising alcohol on television in general.

Craig Heap also takes a look at the advert and draws parrells with a similar campaign from McDonald's.

Pete Brissenden doesn't like Downton Abbey and compares his dislike of the period drama to his dislike of the advert.

Suzy Aldridge takes a more balanced look at the advert and the Beer for That campaign in general.

Ed Wray doesn't know what all the fuss is about when the advert isn't even aimed at ardent beer lovers.

Boak & Bailey take a typically measured look at the commercial and decide that they don't hate it.   

30 comments:

  1. You've perfectly captured the total lack of any point that There's a Beer For That has. It's like they weren't even trying. The ad doesn't actually provide any examples of what beers there are for when or any, I don't know, content of any kind.

    I imagine there was a meeting between representatives of the Big Five and somebody said "We should have and ad that just says "Buy Beer" on a black screen for 30 seconds" like in the film They Live, but decided it might be a bit pushy so added some smiling people and a nice song. It doesn't really advertise anything so much as force beer down their throats, which to some seems like a dream - but the general public who haven't joined in on the rise of craft beer? They're going to be put off.

    Honestly, I think this is going to do more harm than good, for craft beer and the macrobrewers too. I doubt very much that it will lead to increased sales for anyone - the best that we can hope for is that it's too unnoticeable to have a negative effect.

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    1. Thanks for the kind words Niall.

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    2. The best you can hope is that people who see the advert will google "There's a beer for that" and fall on pages like this... Quit whinging about the ad and do the talking the advert doesn't..... Let's do the job for them..



      My favourite beers are Proper Job from St Austell Brewery, Mild from Penzance Brew co., & Beast Porter from Exmoor Ales..
      & there are some amazing Lagers coming out of the southwest atm too!

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  2. You do know Pilsner Urquell is a SAB Miller brand?

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    1. Yes and it's totally delicious (especially unfiltered and straight from a barrel)

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  3. I was also interviewed, and recorded, at the Dublin EBBC by the two girls from “Let There be Beer” (I didn’t know the name of the agency they worked for until just now, after reading your article, Matthew).

    Like yourself, I’d probably had far too much un-filtered Pilsner Urquell, but I did allude to the 3 different types of “pour” for said beer that was being demonstrated, and the fact that more should be made of how beer is presented. I also mentioned beer and food pairings, especially in the light of the previous evening’s function at the Guinness Brewery, but I’m sure they had already taken this on board.

    I don’t recall being handed a USB stick though; perhaps I lost it!

    Ps. call me a philistine, but I preferred the filtered Pilsner Urquell; the stuff straight from the cask tasted a bit “woody” to me!

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    1. I think they rinsed all of us for our insights that weekend Paul. Interestingly I had a good chat with the PU guys about the barrel served beers and the barrels are actually lined with pitch prior to them being used for storing beer. This means that no flavour from the barrel is imparted into the beer and that any woody notes you detect are either from the high amount of yeast/protein in the beer or it's totally psychosomatic!

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  4. This isn't the angry rant we were promised. I want my money back.

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    1. All apologies Cookie, next time I won't work on a post for five days in order to create a (relatively) well reasoned response, I'll just knee jerk one out straight away.

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    2. thank you, it's what us readers want.

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  5. 'falafel' - why not try with a delicious bud?
    'cauliflower soup' - why not try a Coors light?
    'chocolate cheesecake' - why not try a bud light?
    'your mum' - why not try a Goose Island ipa?

    I have looked into the future and this is how the bot conversation will go.

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    1. My Mum quite likes GI IPA as a matter of fact.

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  6. Great article Matthew. You have perfectly skewered this example of corporate smoke and mirrors.

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  7. Bang on Matthew, excellent article, a great assessment

    The beer and pub industry is divided, broken and completely insensitive to and missing the point of where contemporary society needs to be going with beer and the places it's served in. It's all the above corporates wot dun it and the BBPA who shines out at representing their message and perverting the course

    With ten million quid we could set up a revolutionary, ground breaking radical pub company that would change the face of British pub sector forever. Been working on it for years. @peoplespubptshp www.peoplespubpartnership.org

    I'm working on raising sponsorship and grants to bring it to market now.

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  8. The most dreadful point about the whole Let There Be Beer and all that nonsense you describe so well is that because of the way our beer and pubs sector is structured all of this is inevitable and NONE of the players behind the damp and completely badly packed together squib that this campaign have even the faintest realisation that it's totally shit. You can guarantee that as this was coming ready to go live loads of them were thinking 'This is REALLY great!'

    They start out on a mission to change the image of beer. They realise there is a problem about the image of beer. They think it is a marketing thing. They are incapable of reflection and understanding that it is the way they do their business from start to finish that is the problem. They make profit so they are right. They think that consumers are as thick as pigshit and if consumers don't 'get it' it's because they have not delivered a c l e a r e n o u g h m e s s a g e to the thick consuming public.

    They, the 'industry' come up with the proposition to set up an impressive budget that gives huge creative scope to clever marketing professionals they commission to deliver what is needed. They allow access all areas to a bunch of creatives, give them as much information as they could possibly need, at the click of a mouse and the snap of fingers, to do anything they think will drive change in the market and there is a world of multi media magic at their disposal. They then get the first thrust of the campaign totally wrong, offend and totally piss off loads people everywhere; and go quiet for months. Then they put huge energy and earnest work into revising the whole thing - they do research and idea development and seek input from people who really DO get it - like you Matthew - and then employ the completely breathtaking and amazing range of resources at their disposal to develop a new approach, change the name and go to Boards of Directors for approval, feedback and go ahead for further development and completion, burning cash at every leisurely moment along the route.

    Everyone in the chain thinks what they're doing is right, on the nail, clever, savvy on the nail all the rest of it, and as ever they end up with another dull pile of shite.

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    1. Thanks for your kind words and comments, it's really reassuring to read that a lot of people are on the same page as us here. Best of luck getting the Peoples Pub Partnership off the ground, I'll be watching with interest.

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  9. I'm not really sure what you are angry about to be honest. Is it the money you think is wasted? Well it's the big boys dosh so who cares if they waste it. Is it that they aren't showing themselves as the evil peddlers of piss we all know them to be? It's not exactly a new thing for the breweries to try and show themselves as having a quality product. That's been Stella's selling point for the last 15 odd years. Trying to piggyback on craft beer? I'd agree if you are talking about them releasing new beers to try and take control of that market. But this campaign doesn't seem to make any reference to craft. I'm not sure what you expect or want 'big beer' to do. Other than maybe slowly whither away and die.

    I think the campaign is quite good in terms of being a positive message about alcohol, when we are bombarded by negativity all the time. And it's nice to see some beer advertising that isn't overwhelmingly laddish. I'm not convinced it will change much, but at the same time I can't see that it will harm anything either.

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    1. I'm not sure if I'm angry, at least not any more, although I certainly was when I left the corporate backslapping session that was the campaign launch last Wednesday.

      I think what really gets my goat is that the campaign leaders openly admit that both the Real Ale and Craft Beer sectors are growing whilst beer in general is on decline - meaning that it's the big, low cost, high turnover brands that are suffering. The whole point of this campaign IS to piggyback off the success of real ale and craft beer by attempting to lump these categories in with their own. I personally feel that the positive message you speak of will actually largely pass the people this campaign is aimed at by. All of the discussion about it is seemingly only happening within the industry be it from breweries, bloggers or publicans and very little of this will actually influence anyone outside of the drinks trade.

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    2. I'm not in advertising so what I'm going to say is probably all a load of crap....

      Big TV advertising campaigns don't generally get talked about by the general public. The only one I can think of that has been is the John Lewis Christmas ads. So judging the success of something by how much it is talked about is a limited thing. If this campaign gives people 'good vibes' about beer, which maybe counters the steady negativity we often see in the media, I think that is positive. If people feel good about buying something they will buy more of it. And that is going to help the smaller players as well as the big. Particularly as there is a 'quality' message rather than beer just being treated as a commodity. I just don't see the piggybacking that you seem to...not denying that the big boys wouldn't love some of the cachet that craft and so on currently has, but I can't see that this advert is doing it.

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    3. If it's a quality message they're trying to convey then without question it's piggybacking. We're talking about the people behind Stella, Heineken, Budweiser here. They're not suddenly going to discontinue these products and replace them with higher-end versions. Their sales are on the decline and they need to shift units, serious units. Underneath it all that's what this campaign is about.

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  10. First things first, this is terrific writing and that should be noted.

    I was surprised by the initial reaction to this campaign, as it was fairly positive. There's no doubting the new advert looks perfectly nice, probably because it's so heavily plagiarised from others. What I’m missing about the entire campaign, that started with the first phase, is the point. I don’t understand what is planning to be achieved from lobbing £10million at this. Who is the target? Who is supposed to benefit?

    It’s been stated plenty of times that this campaign “isn’t for us.” We should not criticise it because we’re not the target audience. But, even though people have come up with all manner of lists as to who actually is, I am still confused. “Beer,” used as a loose and generic term by the bigger companies who all seem to be involved in this, doesn’t promote anything to a crowd who see drinking Hoegaarden in the way Beer geeks see drinking Pliny the Elder. Ultimately, people will watch the advert and think “Hey, I like beer,” as if they’d forgotten and then reach for a pint of Carling. If that is what they like, then fine, but they haven’t rethought the way they drink beer at all.

    As for food matching, I still see that as something that is for beer enthusiasts – and why not? It’s a next level idea, a step up from simply going to your favourite beer shop and buying the most exciting new beer imported in. Going to the shop and choosing a beer based on what you are having for tea – even I don’t do that. I wouldn’t have an Imperial Stout with Kung Po chicken, but that’s about as much as I care to acknowledge. If I do want to take it further, there are plenty of blogs and sommeliers out there who I could just ask directly. This beer match bot is just the worse.

    So I am left still scratching my head as to what this campaign will achieve. I agree that it’s a little bit of a shame to see the names of some of the people involved in it. I also agree that some of them could have utilised that money for something much better than a twee advert anybody could have thought of. It is their response to an increasing interest in independent, and better, brewers. It tries to be inclusive of all beer, to be the utopian family under one roof as if that is what any of us want. We don’t want that because of corporations like those involved in this who are responsible for so many pub closures. 'hey we don't care what you drink, just so long as it's beer!'Nailed it.

    So by all means, let’s try and ignore it, since it isn’t for “us” anyway. The advert itself did make me smile when I first saw it, so they obviously managed to reach me with it in some way. It’s where the rest of the campaign goes from here and what it stands for that will annoy me. I can generalise “Beer” too – and it’s a great community with great people. There’s already a lot of beers for that - and I’m tired of people who weren’t invited to the party trying to gatecrash, destroy and then copy it. I’m glad you were at the launch so you could write all this up for us. Great post

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    1. Mark, thank you kindly for your comments, almost a blog post in its own right. Great to see so many people are on the same page here.

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  11. Hi matt. You succinctly managed to point out that there is no point in this campaign. Have you googled it? Your blog post already posts higher than the actual website for there's a beer for that. Excluding paid advertising. Even the website is a useless holding page with no information. If it gets people drinking beer and thinking about beer, great... Hopefully they will discover proper beer not the sponsor's dishwater. I hope the events and tastings themselves are well thought through although I wouldn't fancy trying many of their beer with food.

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    1. Thanks for the support mate. Time will tell if the rest of the campaign is worthwhile but my judgement is remaining firmly reserved until I see how it all pans out.

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  12. This is a great analysis and the point about the campaign showing that the 'big boys' don't know what to do is spot on. I also spoke to the Frank PR duo at EBBC14 and one thing that worried me was that they didn't seem very interested in beer; that's why they were sober and we were more exuberant I guess. I found the ad reminiscent of the early "Every little helps" Tesco ads, so the catch phrase might just work out (referencing Apple is a bit naff but probably won't hurt), and obviously men with northern accents have a natural air of trustworthiness, but the lack of focus on a brand makes this very difficult to pull off. I don't see the point either.

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  13. Well done Matt, the whole thing is a Trojan Horse, I think you totally get what the campaign is about. I written my thoughts on my blog.

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    1. Thanks Dave, I'll leave some further comments over on your own excellent piece.

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  14. Since reading your post I've read numerous other posts about the same subject, and all of my musings about it, I think, have been said. What got me first when I saw the ad and then looked at the ‘TBFT’ website, was the thought of 'big business, what are you up to?’. I'd read an article from a web post last year about 'real ale' and it was the writers opinions on the 'business' of real ale that was interesting (link to article at bottom). One quote that resonated was "Real ale, according to conventional business theory, should no longer exist". I think the article could be from 2011-2012, I'm not sure, but knowing the growth of craft beer in the last few years even, this has always stuck with me as an interesting comment, on the business of beer.

    As many people have clearly pointed out, this is the mega(tron) brewers not knowing what to do about the continuing growth in ‘their market’. I work for one of the multi national/global food/personal/home product manufacturers, and I see week on week what changes in the market can do to a company. How they have to react to changes in demand, and predict what consumers will want. There’s been some hilarious ‘dad dancing’ moments when it comes to approaching social networking and trends! [Did you see any at the ‘TBFT’ launch Matt?]. They are selling brands, hoping consumers will stick with a brand, getting sold its ‘quality’ and ‘how great it can make them feel.

    I’m sure the mega brewers want this too. Craft beer drinkers I’m sure don’t. That’s the whole point: ‘Choice and variety are market strengths’. All the craft brewers win, from the drinkers everyday search for the next great beer!

    The ‘trojan-horse’ is a good metaphor for what the mega brewers are doing. Or, ‘that cousin that seems nice and wants to hang out with us as he’s got no friends, but then gets really drunk, is a bit racist and thinks he’s really funny, makes us look like racists, and we can never get rid of him’. Basically, a bad idea in the long-run.


    http://www.businessballs.com/realale.htm
    Original blog contained within piece: http://www.charlesfoster.co.uk/?p=500 [March 2011]

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  15. I just hate the twee poetry in the ad SO MUCH. So much that I had to make this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYVkwr_Og_w

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