Today’s beer video is a great little isometric motion graphic animated film of the SABMiller Brewing Process, told in about three and a half minutes.
Beer In Ads #1079: The Winner Buys The Budweiser
Wednesday’s ad is also for Budweiser, this one from 1967. I understand the logic to their game of checkers, but the way I see it, everybody loses.
What A Surprise! Prohibitionists Hate Beer-Flavored Jelly Beans
Hilarious. I saw this one coming. The prohibitionists — who my friend and colleague Harry Schuhmacher calls the “no fun bunch” — are already expressing their outrage that there’s a jelly bean with beer flavor. Alcohol Justice (AJ) took to Twitter today to voice their disapproval, even using the photograph distributed by Jelly Belly in their press release.
But let’s look at their nature of their outrage. First there’s this sarcastic sentence.
Kids really need beer-flavored jelly beans.
They do the same thing any time there’s a drawing or cartoon on a beer label. They make the very wrong assumption that only kids like candy. Or that jelly beans are just for kids. I think former president Ronald Reagan would take issue with that. Reagan famously loved jelly beans and jars of them were all over the white house during his two terms. I think it’s fairly safe to assume that plenty of very serious people and politicians ate jelly beans then, and continue to do so.
Could we please dispense with the notion that if children like something, that adults can’t (and vice versa), or that there can’t be adult versions of things that kids like, too? It frankly is absurd and surely they could come up with a better argument.
The company Jelly Belly has for decades made cocktail-flavored jelly beans. “The company first created a non-alcoholic gourmet flavor in 1977 with Mai Tai. Since then, more flavors from Blackberry Brandy to Strawberry Daiquiri were developed, inspired by popular cocktails. Over the years, favorite flavors like Piña Colada (1983), Margarita (1995) and Mojito (2010) have helped carve out the Jelly Belly Cocktail Classics® collection of six cocktail flavors.” Yet as fas as I know, this is the first whining by AJ over alcoholic flavored jelly beans. And it should also be noted that not one of these, the beer bean included, have any actual alcohol whatsoever in them. But none of us who have made it past age 21 should be allowed to enjoy any of those on the off chance that a child might eat one, or even want to eat one. Oh, the horror! What utter nonsense. If you don’t want your kids to eat the nonalcoholic jelly bean with a whiff of some of the same flavors as a hefeweizen, I think I see a way out. Don’t buy them, and don’t let them buy them either. Maybe you could just lock up your kids until they’re old enough to navigate the world on their own. I’m sure that wouldn’t be bad for them. You should definitely keep them as sheltered as possible from anything that’s of the adult world so they’ll be prepared to be adults themselves. What could go wrong? But here’s AJ’s insightful conclusion:
So very wrong.
Why? Seriously, why? What the fuck is wrong with there being adult-oriented flavors of jelly beans for adults (or children for that matter since there’s absolutely NO alcohol in them). Seriously, what is wrong with you? Can you really be afraid that it will give kids a taste for beer so they’ll want to try the real thing? Or that it “normalizes” the idea of drinking beer? Which is, may I remind you, still legal for adults 21 years and over, despite your best efforts. I’m sure there’s some perfectly logical reason why you hate this other than you just hate anything to do with alcohol. So what is it? Let me strap in. Go ahead. Why shouldn’t there be candy aimed at or made for adults? Why can’t there be nonalcoholic candy of any flavor, especially when there already has been other such flavors for decades? Why is it “so very wrong?”
Beer In Film #22: Beer: A Beautiful Artistic Symphony
Today’s beer video is a short film of Charlie Bamforth, professor at UC Davis, waxing rhapsodic about how wonderful beer can be. So many great quotes packed into just under two and half minutes. Beautiful. Artistic. Symphony.
Beer In Ads #1078: When Buffaloes Stopped The Iron Horse
Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1944. Showing an old railroad scene and the tagline. “When Buffaloes Stopped the Iron Horse … Travelers Were Patient.” In the upper righthand corner, there’s also a box that says. “Travel Only When Necessary,” because of restrictions on vacations to save resources for the war effort. But read the copy and it’s almost funny to hear them equate not complaining and being patient with being “a good soldier.”
Beer In Film #21: Prohibition: The Forgotten Crusade
Today’s beer video is a short film about prohibition and its effects. Entitled Prohibition: The Forgotten Crusade, it was created by Jared K. Productions. They originally uploaded it in 2007 but because it uses old footage, it looks much older than that, so when it was actually produced I can’t say.
Beer In Ads #1077: Recipe For “The Grumps”
Monday’s ad is another one for United States Brewers Foundation, from 1943. It’s another one of the “morale is a lot of little things” series, in support of the troops during World War II. This one tells an odd tale. A husband with “the glooms” is cured when his wife lets him listen to his favorite program on the radio, a quiz show. Why did people sit in front of their radios to listen to them, when you can hear perfectly well from any spot in a room? Anyway, the ads with this gem. “A refreshing glass of beer or ale — a moment of relaxation … in trying times like these they too help to keep morale up.”
Economic Impact Of Beer Distributors
We know beer contributes quite a lot to America’s economy, from the brewers who make it, the retailers who sell it, and the bartenders who serve it. The Beer Institute‘s Beer Serves America gives a great overview of the economic impact of the beer industry as a whole, with breakdowns of direct and indirect impacts, and also by related industries that support the beer industry.
But recently the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) published online their own map of how beer distributors are “Fueling Jobs, Generating Economic Growth & Delivering Value to Local Communities.” Not surprisingly, it’s a lot, too, with 130,000 jobs and $54 billion for the entire United States. But you can also break it down by state. So, for example, California’s impact is 11,725 direct jobs, that is people working for beer distributors in some capacity, and $5.3 billion in dollars added to the economy.
By clicking on a button, you can also download additional state economic data, such as a more detailed tally of the beer distributors contribution to the state economy.
And also how different related industries are contributing to the overall economy, as well.
Be sure to check out your own state’s positive contribution to the economy through beer here, and also take a look at the detail for the entire United States, too.
Beer In Film #20: Is Beer In Your Career?
Today’s beer video is an hour long panel discussion at UC San Diego last April, part of their Career Channel programming for UCTV, University of California Television. Entitled Is Beer In Your Career?, and panelists include Stone Brewing’s Greg Koch, Lost Abbey’s Tomme Arthur, Ballast Point’s Yuseff Cherney, and White Lab’s Chris White. They talk about “why San Diego has become such a nationally renowned region for craft beer production, and where the professional brewing industry is headed” during the hour-long discussion.
Beer In Ads #1076: Sure Could Go For One Of Mom’s Bean Suppers
Saturday’s ad is for United States Brewers Foundation, from 1944. It was part of their “morale is a lot of little things” series, that was in support of the troops. I love the last part of the copy. “A glass of beer or ale — not of crucial importance, surely … yet it is little things like this that help mean home to all of us, that do so much to build morale — ours and his.”
