Gimmicks - good or bad?

So I'm guessing that anything you don't like is a gimmick? The post was about whether or not names are a gimmick. There are plenty of other forum posts for IPA haters.

 

Beer is about enjoying something you love. If a brewery can't get creative or put something lame out just because they were up late drinking and watching ghostbusters then what can they do.

I say don't take beer so serious. Relax and have a beer.

 

Gimmicks that result in a tasty beer = good
Gimmicks that can't save the poor quality of the beer = bad

 

It doesn't bother me too much, while I might be tempted to try and pick up a single bottle as a bit of a display item if I had me a beer bottle display wall (which I don't) it wouldn't get me to drink it just because of the cross promotion. If I'd be willing to try a cross-promoted product is going to depend on my confidence in the brewery and their product. If Black Acre came out with a hypothetical (a hypothetical that just isn't ever going to happen) Pacers Pilsener or Colts Kolsh I wouldn't avoid it because of the cross promotion.

Look on the bright side for those who dislike the commercial aspects of such cross promotion, at least they are creating new product for the cross promotion and not simply slapping the movie of the season on the bottle like the soda companies do.

 

Surprised nobodies mentioned Lagunitas Sucks

 

Boy, I wish people could reference beers by name instead of linking to the review for those who don't have the time on inclination to go to another screen....


IN any case, like others have said, I think it has to do with the quality of the product. I personally don't buy anything because of the tie-in, but for the product, and the tie-in later. In the GoT beers, they are good beers regardless of the GoT name. I don't know about the Wheaties on or Ghostbusters; but if they're good they're good, regardless.
It does sort of drive me a bit nuts to see all the movie tie ins all the time, every blockbuster movie all of a sudden has all these ads for unrelated things, like the animated one earlier this year (Inside Thoughts or something like that) that had State Farm commercials featuring the characters. The Fantastic Four / Dennys promotion, etc etc. (I am surprised that Raid didn't come up with Ant-Man traps...)

 

A theme and a gimmick are different. A brewer who gets his inspiration from cultural muses is not gimmicky. A gimmicky beer can be a good beer or not depending on it's merits. For instance flying dogs old bay beer. Gimmick? It's a local familiar flavor that people love and they put in the beer. It's a good beer too. Franks hot sauce beer is a gimmicky beer as well. Is it a good beer? Idk.

 

Agree. Like Carlin said, people driving slower than you are slow pokes and people driving faster than you are maniacs. I think gimmick is probably defined right along one's one preferences too.

 

Narragansett released a honey ale. In a hp lovecraft series of beers. I bought them all, it was like. This is the beer cthulu drinks? Ill drink it too. And it was not good Lol

I like gimmicks. Especially when they are wild ingredients used. Like pb and j or cactus

 

That is what I have heard from others too, even on the regular one. That sounds like a gimmick to me.

 

I just want good beer and if a gimmicky beer is good I'll still drink it.

 

That is fine and well, but using a meat product in the production of a beer is extremely uncommon enough as it is. Then you add the fact that they are using one of the most odd and controversial meat choices imaginable, and it ramps up the 'gimmick' factor to me even more so.

If I considered anything to be a gimmick beer, this one referenced may be the biggest one of them all. It was created for pure shock value and to get people buzzing about how wild and crazy that brewery is.

 

Boy, I wish people wouldn't always look for something to complain about. That one was a reach, it's only one click. You already made several of those to get to the second page of this thread.

Anyways, even if the beer is good and I loved something like GoT, I don't need it shoved down my throat everywhere I turn. It's the never ending reach to spread your marketing as far as possible. I see no point in putting GoT on a beer, good or bad, other than to find yet another item to put your label on.

 

I'm good with clever gimmicks or cool pop media tie-ins (the bottle makes an interesting conversation piece on my shelf), but the breweries who keep getting attention for god-awful adjuncts (beard yeast, semen, etc.) should have their brewers waterboarded with malt liquor. I'm cool with adjuncts which would be considered an actual food by a slightly adventurous foodie, but gimmicks with "what ignorant crap can we drop in this beer and get in the newspaper" need to end.

 

Oh you mean like the new Bourbon County bottles? 100% bad!

 

"One of the most odd and controversial meat choices"? Maybe by North American standards (4% of the global population). For many tossing away protein is not an option.

As for gimmicks, its whats inside the bottle that counts. Not the name not the graphic on the label but the liquid inside the bottle is where i place my judgments on. If it tastes good then carry on, if it doesn't i won't buy it again.

 

Exactly, so why would a brewery in North America use an ingredient that has a small audience of consumers? (Made even smaller by the fact that not all of that 4% of the population will be consumers of beer.) Simple answer: To gain attention.

I completely agree it is what is inside the bottle that counts. I simply cannot get past some of the tricks used to market said beers though.

 

Presuming "gimmick" is a co-marketing ploy, yes I generally ignore them, because I vote with my wallet. Do I miss a few good beers? Sure, but there are PLENTY of good beers out there.

One "gimmick" that galls me is naming a beer after/in-honor-of a dead person and NOT donating at least profits, if not a good portion of proceeds, to something for that person. Profiting from someone's name or fame after they are dead is just in poor taste.

One "gimmick" that I tend to support are beers that give back to a specific charity etc, like Firefighters.

GOT? Ghostbusters? These breweries must have paid for to use the names, so it's kind of a wash, I guess. My purchase would depend on the feedback others give the beer.

 

So a Colorado Brewery making a beer using an ingredient that has been used in a dish that is common in the state ( even at Coors Field) and prevalent along the Rocky Mountains up into Western Canada and down towards the Texas panhandle makes it a gimmick? or an untouched niche market?. While the beer started off as an April fools joke, there was demand for the product.

 

I thought these were coined the new cool kid phrase "troll beers."