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Headache in a Suitcase

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With the other morally corrupt bootlicking rubes.
MILWAUKEE - A federal judge Friday night ordered Anheuser-Busch Cos. to pull one of three sets of ads in a new campaign that targets its chief rival, Miller Brewing Co., as being South African-owned.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman said the ads that must be pulled ? posters displayed in liquor stores ? falsely state that Milwaukee-based Miller is owned by South African Breweries.

The judge said in issuing a preliminary injunction that two sets of television ads Miller wanted blocked can continue to run.

Philip Morris sold Miller to South African Brewers PLC in 2002, which formed a new company called SABMiller PLC, based in London.

Adelman said it was clearly untrue that Miller is "owned by South African Breweries," as it said on the posters, but he could not rule on claims that the company is still largely South African-owned.

Anheuser-Busch claimed the judge's decision upheld the truthfulness of its campaign, despite the ruling against the posters.

"We are pleased that the judge agreed that our ads are truthful and should not be censored," said Francine Katz, Anheuser-Busch vice president of communications and consumer affairs. "We will continue to tell the public that Miller was purchased by South African Breweries and is South African-owned, a fact they seem to want to disavow."

Miller spokesman Mike Hennick said his company also considered the ruling a victory.

"We're pleased that the court has found A-B's ads false and deceptive and that the court is ordering them to remove them immediately from the marketplace. We look forward to pursuing the broader issues in a trial," he said.

Miller wanted all the ads blocked during the Memorial Day weekend, saying they would do irreparable harm to Miller on a patriotic holiday that is typically one of the strongest for beer sales.

The nation's two biggest brewers have been making unusually pointed references to each other in recent advertising for their light beers, as consumers look for lower carbohydrate alternatives.

Miller attorney Christopher Cole said in court that the Anheuser-Busch ads were false in claiming that Miller is owned by a South African company and were misleading to consumers because they imply Miller beer is not brewed in the United States.

Anheuser-Busch lawyer Peter Moll contended that SABMiller is a South African company because a majority of its stockholders and its top three executives are South Africans.

The judge said it was unclear what standard should be used in deciding ownership, particularly since both companies made competing claims.

Miller's motion claimed St. Louis-based based Anheuser-Busch, maker of Budweiser and Bud Light, is unfairly hurting Miller Lite sales with its recent "Unleash the Dawgs" campaign.

Friday's injunction is a temporary remedy until Adelman can hear all the arguments for both sides in a formal trial. A date has not yet been set for that, but Adelman will hear Miller's claim for another restraining order June 29, for promotions in which Anheuser-Busch calls Miller Lite the "Queen of Carbs."

Adelman also set a $2.5 million bond for Miller, to cover possible penalties for Anheuser-Busch's sales losses in case his decision is reversed at a trial.

The judge watched commercials from both companies, including a Miller ad in which a man tries to debate a Clydesdale, a symbol of Budweiser beer, over its "American-ness," and an Anheuser-Busch ad in which two lizards discuss Miller's acquisition by a South African company.

Miller also alleged Bud distributors put 3-by-5 inch stickers on Miller Lite products, calling it the "Queen of Carbs" and "Owned by South African Breweries."

Miller gave the court photos of Miller Lite with stickers bearing the Bud Light logo that read, "All light beers are low in carbs. Choose on Taste."

In a deal worked out Thursday night, Anheuser-Busch agreed to send a memo to all distributors reminding them that stickering or defacing competitors' products is illegal, but the company did not admit any guilt.

Miller attorneys said distributors had reported the stickering tactics in California, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia and Florida.

Miller Lite sales allegedly rose 13.2 percent by May 8 after the company launched an ad campaign last year saying it had half the carbs of Bud Light. Miller's motion said sales of Bud Light dropped 0.8 percent in the period.

Katz said the company's "Unleash the Dawgs" campaign, launched a week ago, was designed to help company wholesalers prepare for the Memorial Day holiday.

Anheuser-Busch, the world's biggest brewer, held 50 percent of the U.S. beer market last year. Miller, the world's second largest brewer by volume, had 18 percent.
 
Headache in a Suitcase said:
a pint of sam adams light... 126 calories, 10.9 carbs
a pint of heineken... 150 calories, 12.2 carbs
a pint of corona... 148 calories, 14.1 carbs
a pint of orange juice... 165 calories, 39.0 carbs
a pint of skim milk... 135 calories, 18.0 carbs
a pint of guinness... 125 calories, 9.8 carbs.

This settles it......don't drink anything BUT beer. If only we could get away with being drunk at work.
 
since i work for a miller/coors beer distributor in michigan, this is rather pertinent :) i say A-B can afford to lose a few marketshare points. where miller lite is really hurting in sales is coors light, labatt blue light, corona light and the malternatives or flavored malt beverages, such as mike's hard lemonade and smirnoff ice.

anyway, screw bud. i'm gonna go crack a high life or a stroh!
 
oh, i figure maybe some of you might want some upcoming beer news. i know that i'm not very social on the board and an unknown but the beverage industry is my jig.


Now, these are all new products to my distributor. some are rereleases (such as the "new" redesigned molson chiller packs.) some are just new to the distributor (miller lite 7oz bottles) and some are just plain new. read on


NEW! Raspberry flavored Killian's, by Coors.

molson:
- new, better "chiller packs" - 18 cans canadian, 18 light.
- 28 can pack "race pack" in the shape of a tire, complete with hole in the middle. molson canadian
- the pregamer 55 can pack is coming back. 48 pounds, 55 cans of molson canadian
- "cold shots," 8.4oz cans a la red bull. molson canadian as well.

labatt:
- labatt sterling low-carb beer. gag.

dos equis:
- 24pk bottles, half special lager, half amber.

Smirnoff:
- 12pk bottles, 3 each of all 4 flavors of the twisted.

7oz bottles of miller lite and miller geniune draft

12pk bottles of blue moon

12pk cans of killian's irish red and keystone ice

a new logo for old milwaukee brand

oh, in case any of you were wondering...

who owns who:

smirnoff ice (and captain morgan's gold) are/(were) produced and owned by guiness-diageo spirits limited. they are made in canada. so is guiness and harp and kaliber NA.

miller makes skyy blue, stolichnaya citrona, sauza diablo and jack daniels hard cola.

miller brews 50% of sam adams in the us, all pabst/stroh/heilman products (including carling, hamms, strohs, old milwaukee, old style, pearl, colt 45, oly,pia etc...)

if you go overseas, bud will not be made in america, rather, a-b has signed agreements in most countries to brew it there. so in china, it's brewed by tsingtao. in japan, it's brewed by kirin ichiban (and kirin is brewed by budweiser in the us).

bud owns 50% of cervezeria modelo, aka corona.

molson brews asahi (from japan) and foster's, which is owned by sabmiller.

labatt, rolling rock, tecate, dos equis, sol, bass ale etc... are owned by Interbrew of belgium.

the world of beer as you may know it has collapsed, kinda. the bottom line is, it's all international, like the rest of the economy. beer is representative of locales, however, and that's why some people have trouble getting over the international-ness of it all.

websites:

http://www.interbrew.com/index2b.html

www.sabmiller.co.za/

my favorite: www.beeradvocate.com
 
Cool post! Thanks for the info.


Now, this cracks me up! I know this is an American distributor - but is this a Canadian promotion? I mean, if the pre-gamer is 55 BEERS, what is the "Gamer" and "post-gamer"?

The Canadians sure know how to deal with their problems! :drunK:

CampbellMSU said:

molson:
- the pregamer 55 can pack is coming back. 48 pounds, 55 cans of molson canadian
 
Bonochick said:
The best beer is cold and free.

You kids ever wonder what we (former cops) did with all that beer we confiscated from you on Friday and Saturday nights?????

That's right; it never made it to booking, matter of fact, it never made it past the end of watch two hours later!!! Consider that your community service!!! Free beer from the jumping juvies!!!

:up:
 
:wink: Well, with your rate of pay..you deserved it!! ha-lol! that said, I DO NOT LKE BEER!! I don't care what-u-call it!:barf: Aste' spumonte now you're talking!!:drool:
 
Okay to anybody who is considering being drunk at work here is some handy advice.

1) Quit your job
2) Get As Drunk as your going to get - I suggest one of the brewskys the Russian soldiers have in Chechnya, 1 part cheap vodka to 5 parts even cheaper beer swirled around in a bucket.
3) Turn up to job interview and manage get a job (one good way is to not hurl on the potential employer :)).

This way your new employer will just assume that your drunk self is your normal self and you won't have to worry about people noticing your subnormal mental faculties during the day.

The only flaw of it is that when you come in early looking like crap and smelling like an ashtray you may actually perform better than at any other point in the day.

enjoy!
 
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