When I first discovered the wacky world of craft beer 15 years ago, there were lots of small breweries that put out a product just as eccentric as they were. Now that the market is more competitive, and since so many experimental small breweries have fallen by the wayside, with many of the good ones being bought out by the macro-brewers, I wondered if the trend continues to the artwork. A couple of days ago, I visited the Three Floyds kiosk in Munster, IN. I was pleased to see that they revived their barleywine, Behemoth. The label used to feature a double-chinned morbidly obese beauty queen with the heads of two ogling male admirers. I was disappointed to see that the new label has only the two ogling guys' heads without the BBW. Can others post before and after beer labels that are more socially acceptable than they used to be? Is anyone creating beer label art that is more controversial than that brand used to be?
Hold My Russian Imperial Stout....OOPS... i mean Ukranian Imperial Stout.....OOOPS!!!!?!?! I MEAN IMPERIAL STOUT. Didn't they rename Brown Note to Latinx Note? And Westbrook Mexican Cake is now TheyThemCake? My feelings...they hurt!
Sign of the times. I recall when Gandhi-Bot got changed a decade ago. I never found it offensive, but then I took a step back and thought, it was never my place to be offended. I'll say this: "Any great tasting beer supersedes fancy artwork and theatrics. You can sell magic w/ a plain label." Cheers!
I kinda like the move away from all the beer names and labels that objectified women in some way or another. I always tended to veer away from them. Makes financial sense for breweries, as well. When every article is about how beer and craft beer in particular are struggling, why would you want to alienate half the population?
I’ve always like the eccentric nature of craft beer and the quirky excentrisities that are expressed in the taproom decor, label art and beer names etc. . I don’t want art and self expression to be stifled by the whatever current wind is blowing by the social media police. If you are offended or don’t like the artwork or names on labels, simply buy something else. But to the OG’s point, unfortunately when independently owned brewers sell to larger conglomerates with boards etc, there will always be greater political correctness and cleansing of the tougher edges of the past marketing with goals to sell more product to a wider base.
I picked up a “Nuclear Chichis” from Left Coast Brewing the other week and washed it down with a brown sound where the guy on the label is shitting his pants. we will prevail. stay strong.
Your images didn't come through (posting images on this site is a PITA), but I found the change you mentioned. Seems like they've also switched to 6-pack bottles instead of (or maybe still along with?) 22 oz bombers. I much prefer the 6-pack format so, if the trade-off is a bit of proactive self-censorship to avoid controversy, I'll take it!
For me a politically correct beer label would accurately list all ingredients and precise nutritional information. Also, the bottled on date. Not best by but bottled on. From there I can do my own math.
IIRC, there was another Behemoth label with a zombified-metal-warrior person of color (?) with a pentagram after the beauty pageant one. Three Floyd’s has always included a hodgepodge of colonialism, Orientalism, Satanism, machismo and metal in their labels. I’m not sure if I’d hold them up as an exemplar of a company trying not to offend. Happy Holidays, though.
Yeah, using a brewery that leans into the Metal ethos (a genre that not only supports death and brutality (hell there's even a Metal band named Xyklon, which is the brand name of the cyanide the ****s used in the gas chambers), but celebrates it) is a good example of a brewery trying to be more 'Socially Acceptable'.
(Jim Ross voice) My Gawd! Adroit Theory is heading to the ring with a STEEL CHAIR! (for reference, AT is another death metal brewery) If I recall, the (awful) Founders rebrand of brefus stout etc. was in response to a state law (unsure if it was Michigan itself...). Can't show an imaginary baby eating out of a bowl. That imaginary bowl may be filled with beer. Think of the children!!! AtG Brown Note label... not offensive to me. Childish maybe, not offensive. Unless someone put out a beer called Dead Kitten ale with realistic pictures on the label... that'd probably be the line for me.
Isn't that the simplest explanation of what's likely happening here? Breweries know what sells more. If they change a label and sales go up, well, they're gonna be changing labels. If sales were going down when breweries changed these labels, we wouldn't be seeing it happen as much.
I love a good label. The weirdly racist or sexist stuff was just off putting, but these corporate rebrands also put me off too. I'd rather buy a can with shitty hand drawn art opposed to some sort of minimalist design to just fit in with BMC.
Is it really about being politically correct? Thirty years ago, I thought Adam Sandler was funny. In hindsight, I think the target audience of his humor is junior high school. His humor no longer appeals to me. In the same way, the joke on a behemoth woman on the label may have grown stale in an embarrassing sort of way (like Adam Sandler jumping around with a golf club between his legs).
Adam Sandler’s humor didn’t grow stale, you just outgrew it. My kids think Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison are as funny as I did growing up (actually I still kind of enjoy it, but give me Tommy Boy, anyways…) That doesn’t mean movies like his shouldn’t be made any more.
