Posted on 11/29/2008 6:07:51 AM PST by PJ-Comix
There are a million ways to slight a rival's manhood, but to suggest that he enjoys Zima is one of the worst. Zima was the original "malternative"—a family of alcoholic beverages that eventually came to include such abominations as Smirnoff Ice and Bacardi Silver—and it has long been considered the very opposite of macho: a drink that fragile coeds swill while giving each other pedicures.
That stereotype has persisted despite the fact that Zima's brief heyday came nearly 15 years ago. The brand was then hailed as a marketing coup, an ingenious way to sell beer—or rather, a clear, beerlike solution—to consumers who eschewed traditional suds. But virtually overnight, Zima was done in by its medicinal taste and girly-man rep: After selling an astounding 1.3 million barrels in 1994, the year it went national, Zima's sales fell to just 403,000 barrels in 1996.
Many drinkers assume that Zima vanished shortly thereafter and has since existed solely as a punch line. But Zima actually survived for more than another decade, until MillerCoors pulled the plug on Oct. 10. Rarely has such a famously maligned product enjoyed such a lengthy run—a testament to its brewers' Madonna-like knack for reinvention. The Zima that died a quiet death last month bore little resemblance to the malternative that swept the nation during President Clinton's first term.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
right, back in the day we called it Sch**z. PBR 16 ozs baby!
The “Airliner” bar in Iowa City had Bud, Schlitz, PBR and one other on tap when I was in school. Donnelly’s Bar had PBR on tap and if you went in and asked Harold for a “Democrat,” you got the 12 oz glass.
When I was young, Coors held some sort of mystique, simply because you couldn’t get it East of the Mississippi. We’d actually organize forays from Milwaukee to the closest place we could get it. Pool a bunch of money, and go in my van and score cases. We used Coors, and Ripple Red to soothe throats made sore by cheap Mexican weed.
That was almost 40 years ago! Now I buy Moosehead most often. Not too expensive, and fairly good tasting. And,,, I like a little “skunk” when I pop the top. Use it to soothe my throat made sore by yelling at the neighborhood teenagers!
Took one swig of that Zima cr@p once. Spit it out, and poured the rest down the sink.
Maybe it’s just me but I never figured out the popularity of Bud.
I had it once at a party where I didn’t particularly want to drink. One bottle lasted the entire night, and half of it was left over.
“Bitch Beer” I hope it died a painful death.
LOL! Great timing! I’ve never had a California Cooler. Most of the wine coolers are too sweet for me.
One particularly infamous incident concerning Zima happened on the TV series “Babylon 5”. In the episode entitled “TKO”, series creator J. Michael Straczynski put a Zima neon sign in the bar at the Zocalo, the central shopping area on the station. Was it product placement? Why did they do it? In JMS’ own words...they “got not a dime for sticking in the Zima sign. We just thought... well, it’d be funny.”
Funny didn’t describe the backlash from fans.
They got a TON of emails, letters, and newsgroup posts about it, and overwhelmingly negative. “How can such swill survive 300 years and still be around in 2269???”
If sci-fi fans (who I know from personal experience will drink ANYTHING alcoholic set in front of them) wouldn’t drink it, and didn’t want to even see it mentioned in one of their favorite series, then it HAD to be bad.
We did it back in high school in the 60s. One guy in our class was 18 and that meant he could buy beer in Kansas. The closest spot was Wathena, across from St. Joe, MO. We took the spare tire and jack out of the trunk to make room for 24 cases of Coors in my Cutlass. We doubled our money on every case.
What human being would drink Zima when Yeungling is available..........
“When you’re out of slits, you’re out of pier.”
Ergo, lime & Corona.
I really like Yuengling.
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In April 1977, the brewery workers union at Coors, representing 1,472 employees, went out on strike. The brewery kept operating with supervisors and 250 to 300 union members, including one member of the union executive board, who ignored the strike.
Soon after, Coors announced that it would hire replacements for the striking workers. About 700 workers quit the picket line to go back to work, and Coors replaced the remaining 500 workers, and kept making beer uninterrupted.
In December 1978, the workers at Coors voted by greater than 2:1 to decertify the union, ending 44 years of union representation at Coors. Because the strike was by then more than a year old, striking workers could not vote in the election.
Labor unions organized a boycott to punish Coors for its labor practices. One tactic was to push for state laws to ban sales of unpasteurized canned and bottled beer. Because Coors was the only major brewer not pasteurizing its canned and bottled beer, such laws would hurt only Coors.
Sales of Coors suffered during the 10-year labor union boycott, although Coors said the declining sales were also due to an industry-wide downturn in beer sales, and to increased competition. To maintain production, Coors expanded its sales area from the 18 western states to which it had marketed for years, to nationwide distribution.
The AFL-CIO ended its boycott of Coors in August 1987, after negotiations with Pete Coors, head of brewery operations. The details were not divulged, but were said to include an early union representation election in Colorado, and use of union workers to build the new Coors brewery in Virginia.
In 1988, the Teamsters Union, which represented brewery workers at the top three U.S. beer makers at that time (Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and Stroh), gained enough signatures to trigger a union representation election. Coors workers again rejected union representation by more than 2:1.
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This is the reason Coors stopped being a quality product back in the Carter administration. One more reason to detest the 70's.
Zima was the very definition of swill.
If I want a wine cooler I just drink Sangria.
The worse crap I’ve ever bought and wont even get you drunk. I got some for me and my girl back in the day and had to run out for real beer a few hours later. Live and Learn... = ¥ + Ü
I remember seeing the Zima sign, both when the series was first on TV and on the DVD. Made me laugh.
I can’t stand the smell of beer, and no matter what they put in it, I can still smell it. I remember when what used to be wine coolers all became beer products, because the manufacturers wanted to lower the alcohol content. I ordered one at a hamburger place we often went to, opened it and smelled beer. I took it back to the cashier and said, “This is beer. I hate beer.” She smelled it and said, “Yuck, you’re right!” After that, I drank Diet Coke.
Yeah, actually. I liked it at first, and then quickly tired of it. (I don’t particularly care how people see it: if I like it, I like it. I did, then I didn’t.)
Current fave: Newcastle Brown Ale.
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