| Home -> April 1997 -> Mmmmmmmm, Beer |
I like the new Miller Genuine Draft commercials. Filmed in black and white, the ads show women and men of all colors working in the Miller breweries, loading kegs, and inspecting bottles. These images mix with young people drinking beer by a pool, or at a bowling alley. Real people engaging in solid blue collar activities genuinely enjoy Miller beer.
On top of these images, solid white block letters declare, "It's time for beer/ To stop acting like wine."
The spots are effective, and they left me with a feeling that I might be silly to seek out the St. Ambrose Oatmeal stouts of the world. The next time people at work break out the Miller High Life, maybe I shouldn't wish for a Red Hook Extra Special Bitter. After all, this is beer, and if it was good enough for our fathers, it should be good enough for us.
But as much as I fit the target market, I happen to think more than advertisers might like. And when I think about it, Miller is somewhat disingenuous for attempting to play the blue collar card against microbreweries.
Granted, many drinkers do not know, or care, what ingredients lend which flavors to beer. But I bet that most of those drinkers can relate more to the hard work that goes into starting a new micrbrewery than the distributor acquisition process and brand maintenace that characterizes the workings at today's Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Just take a look at the Miller Genuine Draft Taproom and compare that with the Flying Fish brewery. The first site is a stage show of links to rock bands and other groups, meant to bolster the Miller Genuine Draft image. The second revolves around setting up a brewery, establishing a business, and bolstering an idea. Miller needs to preserve an image, Flying Fish needs to establish a beer.
They both want to make money, but Flying Fish feels comfortable enough to let us in for a peek at their business. The people brewing the beer, filling the bottles, and building the business are the ones speaking to us. We might see duplicates of memos on their site, but I have the feeling that a company with four employees doesn't have many meetings, or memos, or focus groups. Maybe they can borrow some from Miller.
Miller allows an advertising firm to speak for them, and I doubt they bowl very much. Maybe they do, what do I know about them? I do know one thing. When I drink Schaeffer, or Carling Black Label, or Miller Lite, I am slumming.
I'm not slumming because I look down on "the working man" (whatever that means in a predominantly service economy). I am not slumming because the beer doesn't have berries, or a chocolaty flavor. Nor am I slumming because an ad exec tells me I am. I'm slumming because the beer just doesn't taste as good as Henry Weinhard's, or Red Hook, or any of the other fine beers made by real people in this country.
I don't need a slick publicity campaign to taste that difference, and I'm insulted when Miller implies that I do.
Written: 11 April 1997
Links Last Updated: 16 October 1997
Rant Back!