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Red, White and Blue Marketing (Pabst is Largest, Last American Brewer)
JSOnline ^ | July 16, 2008 | Tom Daykin

Posted on 07/17/2008 7:39:44 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin

(Pabst touts ascent to No. 1 American-owned beer maker)

Pabst Brewing Co. doesn’t operate breweries anymore, but it wants to be the first choice for every red-blooded American beer drinker.

The company, which owns dozens of beer brands and contracts with MillerCoors LLC to create most of its brews, is staking its claim as the largest remaining American-owned beer maker.

Just days after industry giant Anheuser-Busch Cos. announced its sale to InBev, a European brewer, Pabst is conducting an online survey, asking customers about it.

“Did you know that after this sale is completed, Pabst Brewing Company will be the largest remaining American-owned brewery?” the survey asks. “How likely is this information to affect your decision to purchase beer? Would information about Pabst’s American ownership on packaging, like bottles or cans, impact your decision to purchase our products?”

Executives at Pabst, based in suburban Chicago, and spokesmen for St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.

But a Pabst statement noted that it will be “the last of the famous iconic U.S. brewers to be fully independent and American-owned.”

“Most of our brands (Pabst, Schlitz, Stroh, Schaefer, Rainier, Olympia, and others) have been around since the 1800s,” the statement said.

It seems clear that Pabst is poised to snatch at the patriotic appeal long used by Anheuser-Busch.

That’s probably a smart strategy, given that some drinkers of Budweiser, the Anheuser-Busch brand that’s been sold with flag-waving ads, aren’t happy about the King of Beers being acquired by a company based in Belgium, said Mike McCarthy, an associate professor of marketing at Miami (Ohio) University.

“I do think Budweiser has cultivated a very, very strong patriotic, all-American beer image for many, many years,” McCarthy said. “I think there is a little bit of a sense that Bud is a quintessential all-American beer.”

However, with Budweiser and other Anheuser-Busch brands being owned by a European company, calling those brands all-American beers “will be a little hard to say with a straight face,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy said even if just 1% of Budweiser’s customers dropped the beer and switched to Pabst Blue Ribbon, that would bring a huge boost for the brand. Its Americana image was immortalized in the 1973 Johnny Russell song “Rednecks, White Socks and Blue Ribbon Beer,” and later in the 1992 Mary Chapin Carpenter song, “I Am a Town.”

Budweiser has seen declining sales for several years as beer drinkers turn to Bud Light and other low-calorie brews. But Budweiser in 2007 still posted sales volume of 24.6 million barrels, accounting for 11.3% of the U.S. market, according to trade publication Beer Marketer’s Insights.

Pabst Brewing, meanwhile, posted sales of 6.1 million barrels, or 2.8% market share, for all of its brands.

Anheuser-Busch’s 2007 market share was 48.2%, while Miller Brewing Co. and Coors Brewing Co., which have since combined to form MillerCoors, posted a 29.5% market share. MillerCoors is a 50-50 joint venture of London-based SABMiller PLC and Molson Coors Brewing Co., which is based in Denver and Montreal.

Pabst’s possible patriotic appeal could be seen as a bit ironic, given that its beers are made by MillerCoors, which is owned by one company based in Great Britain and another company that is co-based in Canada. Pabst, owned by the California-based Kalmanovitz Charitable Trust, closed its Milwaukee brewery in 1996 and shuttered its last remaining brewery in 2001 after hiring Miller to brew its brands. Pabst moved its offices from San Antonio, Texas, to Woodridge, Ill., in 2006.

Another irony: Anheuser-Busch in 2005 aired a TV spot that featured its employees talking about how they’re proud to serve “the only major American brewery that’s still American-owned,” profits from which stay in the United States.

The spot was a not-so-subtle dig at Coors, which earlier that year had merged with Canada’s Molson Inc., and Miller, which was sold in 2002 to South African Breweries PLC, which then changed its name to SABMiller.

In 2004, Anheuser-Busch put up posters in liquor stores and other retail outlets saying Miller is owned by “South African Breweries.” U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman ordered the posters be taken down, saying they were inaccurate because Miller was actually a subsidiary of SABMiller.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Conspiracy; Food
KEYWORDS: anheuserbusch; beer; madeinusa; pabst
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
We're trying to do all-natural, single berry wines this year, and it is proving tricky. Mulberry Revenge was a cinch--I found two saplings on a river trail and picked five pounds in less than 30 minutes. Chokeberries are proving difficult, because the Mourning Doves want them as badly as I do (I still need another pound). I haven't found another local source of chokeberries yet. I've only harvested half the necessary rose hips I need so far, but there is a public garden close by. If worse comes to it, I can probably contact the gardener and get the AOK to do a little pillaging. We've never made rose hip wine before, so I'm looking forward to that one.

Ritz cracker. Cream cheese. Pepper jelly. YUM! :)

And washed down with a tasty cold brew...heaven! Especially in this humidity!

41 posted on 07/17/2008 8:18:23 AM PDT by grellis (By order of the Ingham County Sheriff this tag has been seized for nonpayment of taxes)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Shiner Bock, 99, Kolsch, etc. from TEXAS.


42 posted on 07/17/2008 8:21:26 AM PDT by manic4organic (Send a care package through USO today.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

First beer I ever drank was Olympia in a very small can when my father took me on a motorcycle ride through the hills in SW Wisconsin - probably 9 years old. I would buy Olympia.


43 posted on 07/17/2008 8:23:03 AM PDT by commonguymd (Freedom and individual liberty is for everyone, including the odd and weird people like you.)
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To: Ron in Acreage
I got to tour their original brewery in Pottsville, Pennsylvania with my sister last November. It was neat. Not only is it free, you get a free sample of beer afterwards!
44 posted on 07/17/2008 8:30:09 AM PDT by Pyro7480 ("If the angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion." -M. Kolbe)
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To: PeteB570
I think that was the most seen beer commercial on TV when I was young.

However, I grew up very close to Colorado. I was weened on Coors, and always reached up to the tavern drive-through window from my bicycle seat to put my quarters up there and get a six-pack.

Then, I went away to college and learned to drink BUD. It was said Lawrence, KS was the 2nd largest consumer location of Budweiser in the country, after St. Louis.

45 posted on 07/17/2008 8:31:31 AM PDT by tdscpa
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To: Pyro7480

Excellent. I love their Lager. Drink it all the time. And it’s pretty cheap too. About $8.99 to $10.99 a 12 pack here in south florida. Costco carries it sometimes for about $16 a case. Great stuff.


46 posted on 07/17/2008 8:34:24 AM PDT by Ron in Acreage (GREEN=The new color of communism)
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To: NVDave
Please report back if it tastes like something other than diluted urine.

Ummmm... how do you know what diluted urine tastes like? Just wondering ...

47 posted on 07/17/2008 8:37:28 AM PDT by ikka
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To: Pyro7480

I’m sitting about 5 blocks from there right now. Drive by on my way to work most days.


48 posted on 07/17/2008 8:38:16 AM PDT by kailbo
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To: Ron in Acreage

“I believe Yuengling is owned by Bud.”

That is incorrect. Dick Yuengling still owns and operates the company.


49 posted on 07/17/2008 8:40:56 AM PDT by kailbo
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To: kailbo

Neat! Pottsville is nice-looking town.


50 posted on 07/17/2008 8:41:05 AM PDT by Pyro7480 ("If the angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion." -M. Kolbe)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
If you want to know America's reaction, there will be no better indication than the reception Kasey Kayne in his #9 Budweiser car get this weekend at Indianapolis.


51 posted on 07/17/2008 8:44:37 AM PDT by TexasCajun
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To: TexasCajun
"Have fun Kasey! "


52 posted on 07/17/2008 8:48:27 AM PDT by TexasCajun
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Decades ago I worked at the Pasbt Brewery in Perry, GA. They had a ‘brand’ then called “Red, White & Blue” ... it was pretty good. Better, I think, that their flagship bottle.


53 posted on 07/17/2008 8:52:29 AM PDT by K-oneTexas (I'm not a judge and there ain't enough of me to be a jury. (Zell Miller, A National Party No More))
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To: Pyro7480
I'll drink to that! Yuengling is America's oldest brewer. It's distributed only in the East though.

Great website: http://www.yuengling.com/distrib.htm

54 posted on 07/17/2008 8:55:26 AM PDT by shove_it (and have a nice day)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
To each his own, but I have never liked American style "beer".

Long live quality and taste, i.e., the American Craft Brewer.

55 posted on 07/17/2008 8:58:47 AM PDT by lormand ("The Planet is fine, the people are $%#ed up" - George Carlin)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

I remember when they built the brewery in Tampa. All Busch Gardens was, was a restaurant with a tied up tiger out front.


56 posted on 07/17/2008 9:03:51 AM PDT by stuartcr (Election year.....Who we gonna hate, in '08?)
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To: shove_it

Georgia and New England are strangely outside of their distribution.


57 posted on 07/17/2008 9:07:15 AM PDT by Pyro7480 ("If the angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion." -M. Kolbe)
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To: MinnesotaLibertarian

The regular Leinies are good, but that Sunset Wheat...I couldn’t give it away.


58 posted on 07/17/2008 9:07:41 AM PDT by stuartcr (Election year.....Who we gonna hate, in '08?)
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To: philsfan24
drink yuengling

Yuengling is one of my favorites. Sadly, it isn't sold here in Connecticut yet. I usually pick up a few cases when I'm in Philadelphia watching the Mets beat up the Phillies, though ;-)

59 posted on 07/17/2008 9:10:26 AM PDT by CT-Freeper (Said the frequently disappointed but ever optimistic Mets fan.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

See my tag line....I love it at this time of year mixed with a little V-8 or Snappy Tom. Especially when I’m at Male Domestic Action Station #1. Also known as the grill....with some Johnny Bush or Johnny Russell on the CD player..


60 posted on 07/17/2008 9:11:18 AM PDT by Crapgame (There's no place I'd rather be than right here, with my FRedneck, white socks and Blue Ribbon Beer)
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