I really thought that the trend of creating beers for a certain demographic would peter out, but instead they just keep on coming. First we reported on Calsberg’s beer for ladies (and stylish men), then it was the Mexican beer aimed at the gays, then there was Chick premium lager. Now Molson Coors are jumping on the pander-wagon with a beer designed for the delicate sensibilities of ladies in the U.K., called Animée.
Animée is as feminine as the name implies, coming in three dainty flavors – clear filteed, zesty lemon and crisp rosé. Ugh. The beers are various shades of pretty and sound more like wine coolers than products having anything to do with the Reinheitsgebot – it’s basically the Bartles and Jaymes of beer, a reference that anyone who tried to get in the pants of a young woman in the late 80’s will understand. I’m sure British boys are queuing up for six packs as I type.
Molson Coors said some stuff about under served markets, inclusion, blah, blah, blah – the usual marketing-speak that flows from one of these spreadsheet driven ideas.
I actually think they missed the mark here by not making the product girly enough. At least Carlsberg went the distance and made a beer that really looks like Chardonnay bottled in beer-shaped vessels. To my eyes, Animée’s packaging retains enough of a resemblance to traditional beer that the ladies won’t pick up on the cues at the shelf – it’s kind of feminine, but still retains a manly quality. It looks like this product was designed for hermaphrodites, which is a pretty narrow slice of the market if you ask me.
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Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
Oioi, our lads aren’t that bad…. OK I take that back- you’re probably right.
Lads are lads wherever they are!
“Hermaphrodite” is an antiquated term. Instead, you should have used the term “intersex” when describing someone with both male and female anatomy. Somewhere between 0.1% and 0.2% of all live births are ambiguous enough to be classified as such. Coincidentally, the percentage of products made by Molson Coors that are drinkable, successful beer marketing toward women, and beer bloggers who know the correct term for those born with both genitalia lies between 0.1% and 0.2% as well. 😉
That is correct. Intersex a more appropriate term. And the percentages are spot on.
I’m not sure if I’m bummed or happy to be so out of the loop that I don’t know the appropriate moniker for a dual-junk individual.
Actually, I like “dual-junk individual” even better, but I’ll probably stick with “intersex.”
I actually laughed out loud when I read you comment, Zac. Hilarious!
Yeah, I wanted to inform and entertain at the same time. Hopefully no one heard you in the next cubicle.
Thanks for providing me two raves for the price of one:
Firstly, Hermaprodite vs inter sexual: Its just “Tomato..Tomahto”, another case of political correctness, aka “much ado about nothing”. We use a a perfectly functional English word or phrase for years and then someone with too much time on his hands decides that its demeaning. Why? both words mean the same damn thing! (Not your fault but one of my pet peeves (blame it on age–it ain’t my world any more!))
Secondly: the product in question: Calling this stuff beer would be like calling a Twizzler a Bratwurst. Molson-Coors has simply produced an alcoholic soda, but then, you guys already said that didn’t you? I’m sure that there’s room for this stuff in somebody’s fridge, but not mine. Its all image over substance, the last resort of the corporate marketing mentality.
On the lighter side..this thread could lead to a whole series of punny monikers such Jim’s “Dooku Dunkel and the Empire Strikes Bock”. How ’bout Tyrannosaurus Rex Stout, or Good for What’s Aleing You, for a start?
And let’s not forget “You Kids Get Off My Lawn” Lager!
The acceptable medical term is “intersex.” The use of “hermaphrodite” is misleading and stigmatizing. Many intersex people are subjected to sexual reassignment surgery when born so as not to burden the parents. However, what often occurs is confusion over identity over time. Who knows, massugu, you could have been born intersex and your parents just decided to assign you as a male. It could be the dark secret of the family. Of course, this is rare and you were probably lucky enough to be born mostly male (or so I assume from your pic).
Whenever someone makes the anti-PC argument, it just speaks to their unwillingness to accept difference or practice common courtesy. I could call you many names that are both misleading and stigmatizing, but I won’t as it would make you uncomfortable or angry. It would make it a lot easier to insult you but etiquette and respect would be thrown out the window.
I’m sure I haven’t changed your mind, but I thought you should know that it is important to some people, especially those who were born or love someone who is intersex.
I grok you man but just feel I have to draw a line sometimes–changing a name doesn’t change people’s attitudes about something it just sweeps the problem under the rug. After many years of observation, I’ve come to the realization that, like so many things, gender is not a this or that proposition but rather it exists on a spectrum with many determining variables. Each of us has characteristics that can be classified as masculine or feminine, but in the end we’re all just people. It’d make things a heck of a lot easier if we’d stop emphasizing our differences and recognize how much we are alike.
I was going to make a point of leaving these kinds of debates alone, but it seems we may actually agree more than we disagree. In other words, we have more in common than we have differences. Cheers, massuga (if that is your real name)!
Ha! You leaving a debate alone? Double ha!! 🙂
Debate is healthy (though we may want to choose our subject matter to better match the subject of the Blog, i.e., beer & whiskey). And I guarantee that we have more in common than not–I’ve just never believed that changing the name of the Titanic wud have kept it from hitting that iceberg. LOL.
Massugu (Japanese for straight, my surname) is just a handle I picked up while in the Army. Our Okinawan houseboys cudn’t pronounce either of my names so we agreed on massugu. Later, when our eldest daughter married a Japanese national, it was revived (though now my son-in-law calls me ‘Papa-san’).
Gotta say, I actually prefer the hemaphrodite talk. Maybe Don and I will work it into the title.. 😉
Hate to be picky ol’ buddy but the term is “hermaprodite” vice “hemaprodite”. Its derived from combining the names of two Greek gods, Hermes (the male) and Aphrodite (the female). In old Chinese dialect (and modern geek-speak) its Yin and Yang, usually shown as a circle representing the merger of the masculine and the feminine. (I’m sure Don will have some creative ways to misconstrue this last, LOL.)
That stuff is supposed to be beer? Looks more like an artisanal soda. Kinda like the stuff I saw on the shelves at Eataly. Weird.
Probably tastes a lot like it as well.
Why would you name your beer after a Japanese style of animation? I think this would go over much better with the folks at Comic-Con. It even comes in light-saber colors!
If only they lit up from the bottom and came in flavors like Dooku Dunkel and the Empire Strikes Bock.
Imperial Stout Trooper is real and looks delicious:
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/357/34484
We need a metrosexual beer now.
You mean one that isn’t labelled “Blue Moon”?
Living in New Orleans, the equivalent of a moon base for the mothership of intersexual beings, I dumped a bottle of this “fruit-punch” in an icetray, stuck in a few toothpicks and, 4 hours later, sold em to the neighborhood kids as “huck-a-bucks”…they didn’t bat an exquisitely festooned eyelash. With a drive up Daiquiri Shoppes on every corner and more than Hurricanes a-blowin’ throughout the Vieux Carre, our five o’clock shadowed lovelies already have a myriad of much harder (more stiff?) and garish libations from which to choose…
If you’re a dude that wears a skirt and wants to have a drink with “the boys” that’s fine, I’ll even order your table a round of Zima, but please, for God’s sake, leave our beer the way God intended it to be, dark, slightly gritty, room temperature and meant for only the manliest of men….Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to pull on my Kilt, skip on down to the pub and draw me a pint of McEwans.
So I guess it’s not hermaphroditic enough for the intersex(uals?)(ers?)(odites?) and in clear violation of the Napolianic man code. Good to know!
Graham, that description, “dark, slightly gritty, room temperature”, sounds like a damn good beer to me!
With name like that I think this is the beer industries “Joe Camel”. Clearly trying to get young children to chug kool-aid-esque alcoholic beverages. They should be ashamed of themselves! But of course our main concern should be the correct usage of the word hermaphodite which has apparently been changed. Why didn’t I get the memo?