Katy Perry’s creepy dancing sharks and Malcolm Butler’s game-winning interception aren’t the only tirades the opinionated people of the Internet are on right now.
Now that the smoke is settled and we can look at the tiff more clearly, let’s take a sweet little gander at the growing outrage of the craft brewers vs. Anheuser-Busch controversy, shall we?
The thing is, Katy Perry’s creepy dancing sharks and Malcolm Butler’s game-winning interception aren’t the only tirades the opinionated people of the Internet are on right now. In the midst of all the chaos of the Super Bowl, Budweiser not so quietly snuck in boatloads of insults with its ad attacking basically everyone who has ever enjoyed a craft beer.
In its spot titled “Brewed The Hard Way,” Budweiser proudly affirms its status as a macro (produced in huge quantities) brewer and challenges growing perceptions of the craft beer industry.
“It’s brewed for drinking,” one flash of bold words says. “Not dissecting.”
“Let them sip their pumpkin peach ale,” reads another. “We’ll be brewing golden suds.”
It also lands a few visual snarks poking fun at hipsters — something already out of style aside from a few slow-reaching bloggers and even slower mainstream media.
The world quickly erupted on the assault with the seemingly hypocritical nature of the commercial. Keyboardists were quick to point out only a few short weeks ago Anheuser-Busch (which owns Budweiser) acquired a 20-year-old Seattle outfit named Elysian — a brewery that even makes a pumpkin peach ale named Gourdia On My Mind. Interesting …
Even if in poor taste, it doesn’t appear Budweiser cares much about the outrage. Lately there have been half-ass attempts at apologies via its Twitter page, but the company is standing behind the ad.
Elysian is the fourth craft brewery A-B has acquired recently, along with Goose Island (Chicago, IL), 10 Barrel (Bend, OR) and Blue Point (Long Island, NY), as a way to gain back some of its prowess by taking back market share from the growing craft industry.
Dick Cantwell, one of the owners of Elysian (also a vocal dissenter against the sale to A-B) told the Chicago Tribune recently, “I find it kind of incredible that ABI would be so tone-deaf as to pretty directly (even if unwittingly) call out one of the breweries they have recently acquired, even as that brewery is dealing with the anger of the beer community in reaction to the sale. It doesn't make our job any easier, and it certainly doesn't make me feel any better about a deal I didn't even want to happen. It's made a difficult situation even more painful."
In 2008 — about the time the craft-craze began its tenure, at least here in CO — Anheuser-Busch held a 50.9 percent share of all U.S. beer sales. Not too bad. In 2013, however, that share dropped to 47.2 percent, and while that doesn’t look like a lot on paper, those measly percentage points account for millions of dollars lost.
So would they be so stupid as to alienate even more customers while spending $9 million to run said Super Bowl ad?
Unlikely. As of Nov 2014 Forbes lists Budweiser the 23rd most valuable brand in the world with a value of over $21.4 billion dollars. There isn’t any earthly way to get to such an impressive point without knowing exactly what to do at all times.
And as the old adage goes, “Bad press is good press.” This may be the case, but we think it may go a smidgen deeper into the rabbit hole. In fact if we look at the kerfuffle with a quick “Budweiser” Google search, it’s clear the $9 million paid off. The now calculated war is begun, and everywhere we click, the brand name is at the top emblazoned for the world to see amongst every title bar this side of HuffPo.
Because Budweiser knows its popularity with the younger generation is tripping down the tubes, even if it’s a fraction of a point at a time. There needs to be a spark — a simple back-and-forth — to get the iconic brand name at the forefront of the media again. And wouldn’t you know it, here it is …
The company has already lost craft beer drinkers, because as any of them will tell you — multiple times — they’d rather die a sober death than go back to drinking mass produced swill ever again. Steering them back isn’t just impossible, it’s a waste of time and money.
But to use the consumers lost as their own personal army of PR representatives? Brilliant.
It’s a reverse psychology model, one that hopes the staunch craft drinkers will be so loyal they’ll stick to the industry and tout it for its superiority — all while Anheuser-Busch buys up smaller breweries to profit from the chaos they created.
The “Us vs. Them” mentality is already taking over, and those loyal to a brand like Budweiser (surely those who would rather spend $12 dollars on 12 beers rather than $13 on 4) will take arms, professing support and likely taking on the same bullying mantras towards “dumbass hipsters.” It’ll cause hell in rural area bars. But what does Budweiser care — they’re not door guys, they’re beer sellers.
It's created a sub-cultural war pitting one type of drinker against the next, while large brewers quietly move in to regain lost share.
Marketing is a mind-fuck. It’s intelligent deception and (here comes that pun) crafty. It’s vehemently applied by celebrities, corporations, big pharma, the government — and likely your mother — to gain the upper hand. To automatically assume one behemoth company made an error in offending customers they don’t even want is shortsighted and plays into what — we think — Budweiser is doing just as it suspected all along.
Because if you can’t win back people who have already jumped ship, the next best thing is to use them for free promotion while they blanket the web sphere with vitriol and — more importantly — your brand name.
So no, we don’t think Budweiser made a misstep in offending craft beer drinkers. They look like asshole while doing so, but what American society has shown us over the years is that looking like an asshole is perfectly fine, so long as there's money and brand loyalty to back it up.
Our advice is if anyone is against the ad or the company, ignore it, and it won’t work. But here we are, 1,100 words later. It works.
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