Fighting commoners for "share of throat" as the kingdom crumbles
ABI abdicates Super Bowl throne, Coke enters RTD chat, Coors recalls "ropy" beer + more
#️⃣ Digits: ABI’s Super Bowl retreat
There was a time, before we were born, when the company formerly known as Anheuser-Busch did not hold the exclusive rights to alcohol-related advertising during the Super Bowl. Well, before some of us were born, at least. It was 1989 when the world’s biggest beer company first cornered the market on booze promotions on the world’s most coveted airtime, which means it’s been…
33 years
…since any other beer, wine, or spirits brand has had the opportunity to hawk its liquid wares on national TV during the Big Game broadcast. The intrepid beer beat stalwarts at Beer Marketers Insights reported this week that Anheuser-Busch InBev has opted to loosen release entirely its viselike and longstanding grip on the drinks-related ad privileges during the NFL’s annual championship programming. It’s the end of an era that’s been ongoing for as long as your fearless Fingers editor has been alive. It’s also the culmination of a few trends: ABI’s post-Brito search for any remaining fat to cut from its debt-burdened books; mounting (and increasingly direct) competition from heavyweights in the wine and spirits categories for “share of throat;” the soaring cost and dubious return-on-investment of Super Bowl spots; and so on.
Mind you, this doesn’t mean ABI’s brands won’t show up during commercial breaks of Super Bowl broadcasts yet to come, only that a Barefoot or Bulleit will now be able to buy spots alongside them. And the local-market loophole, exploited for years by non-ABI brands including Yellow Tail and Sam Adams, remains open to all comers. Still, it’s a remarkable cultural shift, one that will likely create as many waves within the company—where Super Bowl supremacy has long been a point of institutional pride and well-performing spots drive employee and partner morale—as it does with the American drinking public. If not more! Imagine: the once-mighty King of Beers forfeiting the high ground and actually competing for attention—like a commoner—with which to pitch the nation on the vassals of its crumbling kingdom, like Bud Light Next Bud Light Hard Soda Goose Island uh… Cutwater Spirits? Everything about that sentence would have Gussie Busch spinning in his grave.
📬 Good post alert
See a good post that the Fingers Fam should know about? Please send me that good post via email or Twitter DM.
🤝 The rise and fall of a top craft brewery, as told by the comments section
Earlier this week I published a deep dive into the 2019 crowdfunding page of Modern Times Beer, the onetime San Diego craft brewing juggernaut that expanded like mad as industry headwinds mounted last decade only to hit the skids and wind up in receivership just a few years later. Today, it’ll be auctioned off to the highest bidder, with the financial fates of the brewery’s employee-owners and 1,200 retail investors hanging in the balance. For other companies, Modern Times’ rise and fall is a cautionary tale about the dangers of leverage, ambition, and bad luck; for the American drinking public, it’s a sobering reminder that ~vibes~ do not a smart investment make.
This story is behind the paywall and exclusively for paid-up Friends of Fingers. If you’d like to read it and haven’t purchased a subscription yet, now is a great time to do that:
I depend on reader support to fund the boozeletter’s independent journalism. Thanks to all the paying Friends of Fingers who have stepped up to underwrite this work!
📬 Good post alert x2
Thank you to Friends of Fingers Ryan Z., Kristen S., and Blake D. for sending me this good post.
🧾 The Settle-Up
Starbucks Escalates Anti-Union Campaign with Closures, Threats, Maybe-Illegal Rhetoric from Execs; Continues Losing Most Elections Anyway
ABI Continues to Donate Big Bucks to Anti-LGBTQ Politicians, Also Continues to Rainbow-Wash for Pride
Slime Time: Molson Coors Recalls “Ropy” Coors/Keystone Light After Viscous, Bacterial Brews Go… Uh, Viral
Airbnb Rolls Out “Vineyard” Category, Which Definitely Won’t Have Any Negative Impact on Affordable Housing in Wine Regions, No Siree!
Arrest More Drunk People, Demands Manhattan Institute (???) in All-Over-the-Place Op-Ed
Harpoon Buys Long Trail in New England-est Craft Brewing Acquisition of All Time
Bud Light Dumps “Dilly Dilly” Ad Agency, Apparently Unimpressed with Hard Soda Fieri-fication Results
Behold TikTok’s “Hennessey Money Challenge Bottle Bust,” A #Content-Optimized Gen Z Savings Ritual
1st Amendment Lawyers Look to Craft Beer for Litigation Fodder; Odd Bedfellows Abound
With Canned Jack & Coke, Big Soda Makes Biggest Booze Bet Yet; Brown-Forman Joint Venture Soon Come in Mexico, Then Brazil, Then???
A Winemaking Religious Sect Gains Ground Within Google, Years After Shuttering Its Northern CA Vineyard/Redoubt
Bonus: Kate Bernot (Good Beer Hunting, Craft Beer & Brewing), Jess Infante (Brewbound), and I discussing some of these headlines on our most recent Twitter Spaces session of Beer Byliners. Listen here:
📲 The best Fingers meme ever and/or lately
Don’t miss out, follow Fingers on Instagram today. It’s free and your feed will thank you. (Not really, that would be weird. But you know what I mean.)