NYC Mayor Blasts Beer Maker Rheingold for Its Planned TV Ads

AP ^ | 4-12-04 | Timothy Williams

[Indy Pendance]

NEW YORK (AP) - Rheingold Beer may boast that it is "100 percent New York by volume," but don't expect the city's mayor to stand up and cheer.

On Monday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg blasted the beer maker after it announced it would begin airing television ads this week poking fun at various city laws, including the mayor's smoking ban in bars and restaurants.

Bloomberg noted that Rheingold Brewing Co. laid off thousands of workers from its Brooklyn plant in the 1970s.

"Rheingold is a company that walked out on the city 20 years ago," Bloomberg said. "They fired 4,000 people almost overnight."

Not so fast, said Rheingold chief executive officer Tom Bendheim. The new Rheingold, he said, is not your father's Rheingold.

"It's as disturbing to us as it is to the mayor as to what happened in 1976," said Bendheim, 41. "But we are different owners. We are all about New York."

Rheingold is actually made through a contract brewer in Utica, about 245 miles northwest of New York City.

The beer, launched in 1855, virtually disappeared from the market between 1978 and 1998. Now, Bendheim is trying to resurrect the brand as the beer of choice for drinkers in their 20s and early 30s.

As the company sought new ways to win attention for the beer, Bendheim decided to create a series of ads poking fun at city laws that prohibit dancing in bars without cabaret licenses and ban smoking in public places. The ads are scheduled to begin airing Wednesday.

Bendheim said the company would begin brewing a limited amount of beer at a small Brooklyn brewery in the next few months.

"If capacity existed, we would be brewing in New York City," he said.

As the mayor watched the New York Mets' home opener at Shea Stadium on Monday, he sipped a Coors.

[tphil913]

That brewery in Utica is Matt Brewing Company, the makers of Saranac.

Not only are they doing Rheingold, they're doing a whole line of beers named "Brooklyn Beer". According to the tour guide the brewery was lost several decades ago and Matt Brewery is doing the beer under contract.

It would be interesting to know how this brewery company actually lost its brewery, but I love it that Bloomburg is being made fun of. He certainly deserves it.

[Indy Pendance]

I'd like more info. You know us Wisconsinites and our beer! I love this article, so any additional local reports would be welcome! (Plus, upstate NY and WI are extremely similar)

[xkaydet65]

Try brewing beer in NYC with the cost of our utilities and water. Also national breweries like Anheuser Busch which were sold as premium beers in NYC in the 60s began to undersell the local breweries, of which there were six or seven in NYC and metro NJ. Being able to buy a beer with more kick and taste for less $$ allowed Budweiser to put the other local breweries out of business or force them to move out of town.

Rheingold was a pretty good beer and they used to run a popular beauty contest each summer, the Miss Rheingold Contest whose winner was voted on by New Yorkers in delis, groceries, bars and supermarkets. FYI

[okie01]

"That brewery in Utica is Matt Brewing Company, the makers of Saranac."

Would that be the brewery responsible for Utica Club? Which was responsible for one of the great ad lines in beer history:

We drink all we can. The rest we sell.

[perfect stranger]

Click the pic.

Great marketing!!

Bloomberg can't handle the truth and he should get out of the politics business as soon as possible.

Bloomberg can't handle criticism, and criticism is one of the biggest and most valued commodities in NYC.

[cmsgop]

Now here's a Beer you should be able to get at fine restaurants......

[Dog Gone]

Any beer company that blasts Bloomberg and his policies is okay with me, and I've never even seen a can of Rheingold.

I can't imagine any real Republican voting to re-elect this bozo.

[Indy Pendance]

Isn't it sad when the best of the worst is a democrat? Can Rudy run again? Or are the term limits for life?

[mcenedo]

ROTHLMAO - from a guy who grew up in ny who can still remember the Rheingold girl, then went to college in upstate NY and got introduced to Utica Club.

[Dog Gone]

I don't know NYC term limit rules, but Rudy will never run for Mayor again. Senator, Governor, maybe even President, but not Mayor.

I'd be surprised if NYC ever elects another real Republican as Mayor. The Democrat would have to totally FUBAR his campaign for that to happen.

[Indy Pendance]

I'm not from NY either, but I believe Bloomberg only won because of 911, on the coattails of Rudy. At that time he was the best choice. I hope you're wrong and NY will elect a republican in the future. As for Rudy, he is biding his time. Maybe his political future is to continue, maybe not. To me, after 911, I'd vote for him just on his position on the WOT and his actions in NYC. I was very impressed, but I don't know much more about him.

[mcenedo]

my first thoughts were

and the jerk's drinking a Coors?

very bad pub to be drinking a Coloradan brew.

but then I thought "What were his options at the beer stand? Bud, Bud Light, Coors?"

I regard it as infinetly more important to buy the best beer possible, at every opportunity, rather than ever worry about public perception.

Beer Uber Alles!

[Paleo Conservative]

The Democrat would have to totally FUBAR his campaign for that to happen.

Since when have they not had a FUBAR primary? Look at Guilianis' predecessor. That's the kind of politician you get when the only thing that matters is party loyalty.

[zoso82t]

Old Speckled Hen? Blech. What you need, my friend, is a Westvleteren 12! It will change your whole perspective on beer.

[jaz.357]

My first beer was a Rheingold! Our corner bar sold me a .45 cent "short beer" at age 16! With the dark lighting, mascara mustache, and my Irish-Italian features, I looked 18, the LEAGAL drinking age at the time. (Bud was .60 cents!)

[concentric circles]

[tphil913]

Hmmm. Our tour guide said that the brewery for Brooklyn beer wasn't "lost" until the '70s. It wouldn't suprise me that the national breweries ran them out of town, but it is surprising to me that the company itself would survive with the loss of their brewery.

As for the Rheingold, I wasn't impressed by it. I still prefer the Saranac Black and Tan (Or the real thing when I feel like getting it). I never knew that they ran beauty contests and such though. Very interesting.

[tphil913]

One in the same. They brew quite a few beers, both under their own labels (Saranac, Utica Club, Two Dogs) and under contract for other companies (Brooklyn, Rheingold, and even for their competitor Sam Adams). They have a line of soft drinks (1888) and a "low carb" beer, Accel, which doesn't seem to be going over well in it's targeted market. I would like to try their hard cola, but then again I'm a cola addict to being with. :)

I still don't understand their old advertising campaign with the beer steins (Something and Shooley IIRC). A piece of history lost on this Upstate New Yorker.

BTW here's some interesting trivia: In one of the rooms on the tour they have a cabinet with every single beer Matt's Brewery has ever made in its 100+ year history. Some of the cans have seen WWII in the Pacific and made it back to the brewery, and there was even a point where the beer cans looked like motor oil cans.

[leprechaun9]

Reingold (as well Schaefer) moved out of New York because of the high cost of doing business there. Schaefer relocaed to the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania and saved (in the 70s) more than $8 milion dollars on their annual water bill alone. I have a relative who was a brewer for Reingold at the time.