AB InBev Bashing Craft?

I doubt that will ever happen. If they ever have to do advertising for Bourbon County it means they killed the Goose Island that laid the golden egg!

 

They are bashing craft so much that they are buying craft breweries left and right.

 

First of all, the majority of opinions on what is gobbling BMC market share say it's craft. There were one or two articles written last year that said something about millennials reaching for adult beverages other than beer. Haven't heard a peep since. However, we have seen chart after chart showing gains in the craft segment. And we have seen multiple articles complaining of craft stealing women wine drinkers.

And I never said the Budweiser ads were directed at craft drinkers. I said they were directed at macro drinkers in an attempt to preempt their decisions. I've seen it at work first hand, but it doesn't stick in the long run. I've casually converted a handful myself since the airing of the ads. In fact, the ads came up in conversation and only gave me ammunition. I normally don't bother, but when people ask me what I'm up to I talk about homebrewing, beer **** and hanging at breweries and tap rooms. The conversation goes deeper and a few days later, Budweiser has lost another customer.

 

I'll take it you were being sarcastic about the manboobs, because that pseudoscience was disproved and remember was originally published by fox news.

And yes, since the 1950s some advertising has been designed to appeal to the subconscious which is oft intertwined with the evolutionary need to procreate. But that wasn't my point. My point was that macro drinkers don't stay macro drinkers because of the taste. Ultimately, "Proud to Be Macro," when used by consumers for group identification, means "Proud to Let A Global Processed Food Manufacturer Make My Decisions for Me."

 

No, I said that BMC ads were directed at folks who already love AAL, in response to your comments about their ads.

You said that macro drinkers were a glass of craft beer away from permanently foregoing BMC, if my aged memory serves me, and I disagreed that was generally true.

Of course, I have been drinking fine beer for over 35 years, so I, as well as all the other folks my age drinking fine beer since then, are converted BMC drinkers, so there is that in favor of your point. Cheers!

 

No, not "originally". This has been circulating among health-scare blogs and such sources for years. The Fox article I recall was re-hashing an article in the on-line magazine Vice, not presenting original content. It is, nontheless, pseudo-science, as you say.

 

I don't think AB InBv is doing anything that any major company doesn't do.

Hypocrisy, propaganda, lies, slander, misdirection - it's all in the game, baby...

 

I didn't mean to insinuate Bud doesn't want to market to retirement age people at all, and they should for all the reasons you stated. I was just thinking this particular ad campaign was targeted more at the younger generation, in my (mostly worthless) opinion.

 

As an AB employee who drinks craft 99% of the time, the commercials bashing craft do not make me feel better.

 

What is most interesting to me is that so many of those 40-70 year olds are drinking IPAs and "craft" in general around here. Don't get me wrong tons of the macros, but beer is big here.

 

Not surprising at all. If it wasn't for older drinkers (like us) turning to craft, craft would not exist.

 

I'm probably being sarcastic about the entire thing, cos AB InBeb bashing craft by declaring themselves the anti craft and macro is also showing that they are acutely aware of what road the biggest breweries in "craft" are headed down, they after all have been shopping in our backyard, so they know exactly what, and why some of them are selling. The commercial and the series of them don't offend me, and they don't get me worked up either because I find them pretty damned funny due to them being so arrogant about being macro, and apart from what so many people into micro / craft take for granted with locally owned and produced product.

Um. Try the mid 30's for the first use of that bit of Freudian sleight of hand in advertising.
It turned out to be dangerously effective, and in turn was used in a lot of propaganda pieces.

 

The thing that bothers me most about those Bud commercials is the line "proudly domestic". I have met many non-beer drinkers and beer novices who think "craft beer" is usually imported. I explain that America has thousands of breweries and really leads the world in producing high quality beer. That surprises a lot of people. This claim from bud seems intended to intentionally mislead people to believe craft is "unamerican".

 

Not sure if it's an intentional misleading so much as an intentional alignment; especially considering they are essentially NOT an American company. Moreover, you'd have to have your head pretty stuck someplace to not have seen the amount of press. Free marketing via beer tourism t-shirts and the like which american "craft" breweries have been receiving over the last several years.

 

They also are taking a shot at imports. As @jesskidden pointed out before, they are loosing more sales to imports like Corona than to craft. There is a big difference between being brewed a company that in not American and being imported.

 

"...they are losing more sales to imports like Corona than to craft."

It is indeed true that Corona is the 'big boy' of the imports but there are others as well. I have been seeing a lot of commercials for Modelo Especial lately and let's not forget Dos Equis (and the most interesting man).

What Bud has in common with the above Mexican beers is that they are all AALs.

If AB could ‘cannibalize’ sales from Corona, Dos Equis, Modelo Especial, etc. by ‘featuring’ their Americanism that would be a major coup for the AB Marketing & Sales folks.

Cheers!

 

Yeah, like where do the people employed in brewing live and spend their paychecks.

 

They can actually side step the "American non-ownership issue" by focusing the "domestic" production.

 

I would be interested in knowing what percentage of BMC drinkers (folks who exclusively drink AAL beers) know that AB is no longer a US owned company. I would be willing to bet that it is a minority.

Cheers!