Thursday’s ad is for Burgie, from 1974, and makes a big deal about its California origins. “The California life. You can live it anywhere, because most of all it’s a feeling. Burgie beer was made for that special feeling. Light. Golden. With the true Western taste. If you live our life, you’re going to love our beer.” The can shows an old-time San Francisco scene and that’s where the can says it was brewed, too. So he kicker is that after lavishing all that attention on California, the tagline veers eastward. “Burgie: Original California Beer. Now in Chicago.”
I was living in the Chicago at the time — and remember the launch well. Absolute flood of point-of-purchase materials and radio spots to support the initial sell in.
Once the unsustainable promotional activities stopped — the brand disappeared without a ripple. This went a long way to putting Hamm’s out of business.
I wonder if they were trying to cash in on the cache that Coors had at the time. It was only sold in the West — and had a bit of cult following, which is hard to believe, in the markets which didn’t get it.