Boycotting Is a Slippery Slope

"Oh, ABI just bought a few small craft breweries, that's terrible."
"Oh, ABI just bought RateBeer.com, that sucks."
"Oh, ABI just bought a few more breweries, oh well."
"Oh, ABI is advertising on Untappd and BeerAdvocate, but I guess that's okay."
"Oh, ABI just bought a few more breweries, eh, who cares."
"Oh, ABI just bought BeerAdvocate. Cool."
"Oh, ABI is making great beer, at a lower price, and it's an extra $2 OFF this week at Harris Teeter. Wait, why did everyone hate ABI so much? This is great!"
<consumers slip slowly, gently, comfortably into the loving and inevitable arms of the ABI machine>

 

It's not their acquisitions they ruin, it's the small breweries that lose business. If half a bar's taps are AB, those are taps that could be independent breweries. Eventually, when AB owns even more brands, we could very easily see even more taps/shelf space taken over by AB.

I agree, which is why I don't respect companies who made their billions selling carbonated piss.

I commend you for that. But you may have headed down a "slippery slope," after all, there was a Lagunitas ad this month...

 

So much for my comment about BA taking a reasonable stance on this.

Sigh. On with the culture war!

 

Don't ever recall anyone from BA railing against Lagunitas.

 

And, even from my non-insider perspective, there are clear, major differences between AB InBev and the "smaller" big boys (Constellation, Heineken etc.). But don't be surprised if you run into some backlash against running any non-independent brewery ads. Then, of course, the slope gets slipperier. What about Founders and breweries that are partially owned by other groups?

So, I definitely understand BA's tricky position. I'll continue to subscribe even if you have Bud Light ads, as long as the content remains independent.

 

I'm sure none are , but they like they're money. I can see the painful decision to see shares , the money allows you to operate with financial security.

 

Sure wasn't a very long slope!

 

Hmm, if you don't take Ad money from Inbev would this be Miller Coors too? As fast as they're acquiring in a few year you'll be funding your own business. There's others out there who if you show them the money they'll sell, ultimately a career dream might come in the form of cash, and they're still an operating partner , so who's to say that's wrong? They get to do what tgey love and bank, win win for them and us to a large degree. A few years ago Bcbs was a Chicago distro only, now look you can find at least some most everywhere.

 

This is where I think you overstate the knowledge of the "modern consumer" who thinks they are in touch. Lots of "regular craft drinkers" who feel they "know beer" still missed the Wicked Weed acquisition here in NC. I couldn't believe it until I recently went to Asheville and ran across many folks in causal conversations (and who up there doesn't think they know it all about beer) who were jaunting around and completely unaware of that fact. Sure the locals did.

I think the users of this site greatly overestimate the general knowledge out there of acquisition, distribution, rules, etc.

I for one was not crazy about seeing AB ads (or any brewery held by conglomerate) here but I am not going to tell the "the Bros" how to run their business.

I bet if they suddenly proposed charging 4$/month on this site to be a member after excluding everyone like Lag, Founders, Oskar Blues etc from advertising to maintain all the functionality here that the AB-InBev pissing /moaning would pale in comparison.

Donate to Wikipedia lately?

Just saying'

 

Yeah I get what you are saying. However, the main discussion was about ads on this specific site.

Any user that does more then check a quick beer rating is going to stumble on some ABI hate just out of sheer quantity.

I'm with you that most of the beer drinking population either doesn't know or care about big beer gobbling up craft brewers. However I was discussing ABI acquisition in the frame work of users who would have their jimmies rustled on this site.

 

I stand corrected

Cheers!

 

I try not to give my money to big beer because I don't like the way they do business. But I couldn't care less who big beer gives their money (in the form of ad buys) to. I have so many better things in life to be upset about.

 

I don't have a problem without BA taking as revenue from InBev, but the claim that "selectively boycotting" effectively undermines ones own efforts seriously misunderstands how boycotts work.

Effective boycotts often target one business or cluster of businesses that are particularly vulnerable; then after they change their behavior, go after the next, in the hopes of a cascading effect.

A boycott is not a personal purchasing preference. It is an organizing tactic.