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.
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.
There was this show called Zena that I'm sure is well remembered. Anyway, I knew this rather cute but but dumb girl who loved that show and a few of us nicknamed her Zima for tasteless, transparent, and weak.