We had quite a dust-up in the comments here yesterday, where a fella calling himself “Geez” questioned whether or not I had any facts to support my assertion that Natty Light’s recent “Beer in Space” viral video campaign was hatched by an advertising agency. Well I didn’t until he got involved!
Here’s an excerpt from my post, where I state the obvious – the video is too well done to be created by two “fans” like Natural Light was claiming – it was clearly a brand-funded viral campaign:
If you haven’t seen through it yet, this is obviously a PR stunt paid for by Natural Light. Looking at the slickness of the video, the way this stunt is integrated into Natural Light’s Facebook page and the use of the word “Nattmosphere” (double ugh), this is clearly something more than “two guys with a big idea.” The fact that they are trying to pass it off as such shows you that Natural Light thinks you’re a moron.
Geez didn’t like this assumption on my part and decided to take me to task in the comments. Fair enough. But as he did, I began to realize that he was a little too well versed in marketing-speak. What unfolded was one of the most heated and most fun comment exchanges I’ve ever been a part of on this blog. I’m usually the peacemaker (Don’s the egg breaker), but I smelled a rat. Turns out he’s a Creative Director for one of Anheuser-Busch’s agencies – most likely the one who created the video.
Here’s our exchange broken into five rounds – I think I scored a TKO in the third! I’ve cut out all the other comments in-between so you can more easily follow our exchange. Enjoy!
[Click to make the text clearer]
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Marketers please take note – don’t wade into this or any other blog and think you can pull one over on the readers. It’s best to just let it go and understand that you can’t control the conversation in cyberspace, and that you can get a black eye when you try to.
In this case, I think Geez learned that lesson, and he also seems to have converted Liquor Store Bear into a Natty Light fan, so I guess it wasn’t all bad!
Anyway, it was a lot of fun being the Google freak I am and figuring out EXACTLY where this guy was coming from! I’m just sorry I called him a douche in Round 2 – that’s not my style. Hopefully it won’t happen again soon – I’m a lover, not a fighter!
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Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
Finally, something on this blog worth reading about. Way to be a dick Jim, you know, a detective.
You’re probably right on both counts.
I’ll admit that I might’ve pumped my fist when I figured out who this guy was.
I notice you removed the “asshat” comment too.way to hannitize, Jim!
I did that immediately yesterday. Felt like too much. I did leave douche in there tho…
I also fail to see how calling us wankers who drink “sissy” beer helped his cause in any way. In my case, he was only half right. Know your audience!
Yes, our sissy beers are manly!
Since AB beers tend to be lower in alcohol, I suppose O’Douls is the manliest beer out there.
I guess that fits his “logic”…
That may be one of the best examples of the extreme arrogance that is the stock in trade of AB-InBev and the other swilleries. Thanks for calling him out and exposing him (and the campaign) for what he is.
Oh, and did you catch the “sissy craft beer drinkers” comment? I doubt he’s be so quick to plant a derogatory moniker on “us” if we sissies hadn’t been putting such pressure on the swilleries margins over the past, what is it now…..8-9 years?
Thanks Geez, you’ve confirmed once again what the swilleries are really all about. Wait…sorry, I forgot that you’re just a “Natty drinking dude who likes to get a buzz…” Have a great afternoon at Wal*Mart and don’t forget to pick up that discount 4 pack of wife beater tank tops (the ones that come with a 10% coupon off of bail bondsman services at AAAsshole Bail Bonds).
Jim,
I don’t think you should regret calling him a douche, anyone who takes money from AB/INBev to do viral marketing IS a douche. 😉
I think it’s okay to do viral marketing for big beer and even to try and pretend it’s by “fans” – that’s just the way the world works. But don’t come into a place like this throwing stones and acting high and mighty when you know you’re perpetuating a lie, especially ONE YOU TOLD IN THE FIRST PLACE.
I thought the TKO came in the flurry of body blows you landed in round 1. Or at worst, you put him on his heels there and then finished it off in round 2.
But I enjoyed Round 3 the most 🙂
Round 6, you ready?
Low Blow in the 3rd…had ya on the ropes… then ya went for the IP address and destroyed the privacy of posters on your page. Which is just as offensive as any of my actions. But hey this is the only stuff worth reading on the blog, thus the 2nd story. I just wish someone read this crap besides me and you.
I’ve been saying that for a long time! Do you like bears?
Geez,
Most posters on this page are members of the craft beer community – so privacy to us sissy craft beer drinkers doesn’t do us a lot of good. Being transparent about who you are and being respective is what keeps us posters coming back. We enjoy good debates, difference of opinions, and in the end, a cheers to all.
Tamre Mullins
(google me! I live in Indiana! I like suede boots and coffee!)
Respective? Ugh, I mean respectful* see….too much coffee.
Or maybe your suede boots are too tight…
But do you drink Natty Light, Tamre?
If I’m in the mood for frat beer, I stick to Little Kings and Hudy Delight.
I’m okay with sniffing you out because of what you were trying to pull, but I feel like I totally crossed the line when I put your name and agency on the blog for all to see, so I quickly pulled it off. Then again if it’s only you and me reading this, why bother protecting your personal privacy, right? 🙂
As I said in the email I sent you, if you’re going to troll for your corporate overlords (and I don’t recommend it), at least use a disposable gmail account that DOESN’T include your first initial and your last name in it (like the email you used does).
I know you want to get an email every time some replies to your comments, but you made it way too easy to discover that you were an agency person defending your work and not an actual Natty Light fan, kind of like Neal and Bob or whatever their names are – oh! (that’s my Dice impression).
Anyway, if you want to protect your personal privacy, don’t use your personal email.
Wow, Geez just won’t drop it and adds several more low blows. Geez is complaining about his privacy because he got caught red handed? I’ll be sure to avoid Natty Light and the rest of the brands that use this sleez (Dickies, 5-Hour Energy, Vitaminwater, Southwest Airlines SWA, MLB, Elsevier, Muscle Milk). Companies should be more careful about who they hire–it’s not just Natty Light that will see a sales loss from me. I would be interested what other slimy companies Geez is in bead with, but I’m sure that he would just lie about it if he were asked anyway.
This made my damn day. Everyone doing their job, in an entertaining way.
He’s totally right, no amount of negative attention hurts his work, it all helps. It is really his job to be a douche in ways like that, and even getting his ass handed to him is a form of success. After all, we’re all talking about his product and campaign. Whether or not that douchiness comes naturally is a whole different question.
My favorite moment was round two, when you pulled the “I know you” move and called him out as the guy who totally kills creativity. Maybe not the TKO, but that’s where you grabbed the dominance. And satisfying for all of us who have wanted to throttle that guy in those meetings.
Great work, Jim. Way to represent the good face of an oft-maligned industry.
Thanks Greg. Not all marketing people are sleazeballs, but as Geez has demonstrated, some certainly are.
It is kinda sad that the Natty boys are getting this desperate. Anything to try and
regain any market share.
It’s worth remembering that Natty has more market share than ALL of craft beer put together right now. It’s less sad and desperate than it is like many, many other not-that-well-executed corporate campaigns. Also, remember their target market probably isn’t the readers of this blog.
Still, it is a particularly inept way to try and engage consumers.
I agree that there stuff is pretty cool from a marketing standpoint, but it’s also clearly not fan-driven!
This is like the debate on South Park between the Giant Douche and the Turd Sandwich. Speaking of turd sandwiches, a running buddy sent me a message about his brother who is a engineer for Miller/Coors dropping some of these on his lap.
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/306/54083
Interesting to see that the bros gave the Blue Moon Grand Cru a D+ and the readers gave it a B-. Wonder if that demonstrates a bias against the big boys by blogger types.
When is someone on this blog going to go by the moniker of Keith Stone?
Is there a female equivalent of Keith Stone? I’m on it.
Mandy Hatten…
Great job Jim that was awesome. You should really learn the rear naked choke, it will finish the fight faster. I posted this story on my blog as well and assumed it was most likely a shallow coporate ploy but it was pretty funny. In my estimation I would think it is impossible beer has never been in space before. Doing a quick Google search there has been beer actually brewed in space and it was sponsored by Coors Brewing Co.. So I don’t know who came up with the original title “First Beer in Space” but it is untrue. Perhaps they meant first “Shitty Piss Water Beer in Half Ass Weather Balloon Space”. I also ran across an Australian beer from 4 Pines Brewing that is scientifically made for space. It has been tested in a “0 gravity flight” of which doesn’t necessarily mean it’s been in space I guess. By the way did the AB marketing dingle come up with this idea all by hisself? Isn’t there a TV commercial on now that protrays the exact same thing? Wow that marketing firm is GENIUS!
I’ve been working on my takedown moves, Fat Cat, so I’ll work in that “rear naked choke” thing. That “marketing dingle” sounds interesting too… 🙂
This is an awesome exchange. I am shocked that anyone would even think this isn’t a video created by AB. I mean look at the freaking youtube page. Some random dude’s just tossed all that crap together? I tossed this video on my blog yesterday as well because a beer floating in space is rather cool, but it doesn’t change the fact that the beer taste like crap. Just think if they spent that kind of money on making good beer instead of good marketing?
Great stuff. One of the reasons I always read your blog.
Thanks, Jeremy. I agree that it’s a cool stunt, and would’ve been just as cool in Natural Light copped to being behind it from the outset. Instead, they tried to pull one over on their fans, which appears to be working (just not here).
“Just think if they spent that kind of money on making good beer instead of good marketing?”
Hallelujah and amen Brother Jeremy! That is the very crux of the whole thing. Instead of lowering the standard and then spending your $ convincing the consumer that the reduced (lite?) version is superior and the standard to which aspire, produce a product that is worthwhile in the first place. What a unique notion, eh?
Geez — you play with fire you get burnt. Privacy of the posters? That’s a lame attempt to justify astroturfing. As anyone will tell you (and as Jim handed your ass to you) astroturfing is lame. Any expectation of privacy on the Internet is laughable. If you’re going to astroturf don’t expect privacy. If you wanted privacy you should have kept your fingers off your keyboard. It’s the brother’s blog and they’re free to run it as they see fit. I don’t blame them for wanting to know who was taking a crap in their yard, err blog.
This makes me feel better for all of the Stone and Bell’s (along with some Schlafly) beer I consumed while in STL over the holiday weekend. Better to keep the my money supporting US craft brewers than the big European brewer from St. Louis.
Nice work Jim!
I agree that if you play with fire, you’re going to get burned. I’ve never even thought of outing who a poster is, even when someone is trolling or being an ass. But when you’re clearly shilling for a corporation while pretending to be just a “regular guy” I’m gonna put on my detective cap and see what’s what. In this case, he got busted. Case closed.
Now lets get a beer!
Ugh! I post on your site and now guys are trolling my facebook page asking me to get them Sun King beer! Where’s the privacy! Oh wait….
Guys, please stop bashing Natty Light….I love it!
http://media-cdn.pinterest.com/upload/56365432805937449_jIOFv4A6_c.jpg
Are those cans full? Pretty hardcore.
Empties.
Yeah . . . I figured. 🙂
Added the picture that you linked to in your comment. I hope you don’t feel violated. 😉
Thanks! You invaded my privacy….(not really).
🙂
nice cans.
oh, we’re going there….
He was already there – he’s just calling you over…
True….though not a new concept – it’s pretty rad and I always have beer cans handy. Harder to do with 16oz cans. Maybe when I do a craft beer photo shoot, we’ll do some photos with the rollers in.
I kind of liked the video. It gave me a chuckle seeing a beer so integral to my Midwest school years perched precariously outside a styrofoam cooler floating into (near) space. Maybe I am being soft because my site’s “Pretension Ombudsman” has been on me lately about being an elitist douche. And I have to admit, I did feel a little dirty and used after reading the exchange with Geez.
Well if there’s anything we’ll make you feel around here, it’s dirty and used!
And there’s nothing wrong with drinking what you like or doing something cool like sending a beer into space – it’s a fun stunt. It’s the lack of authenticity that I think underscores what companies like these are all about.
Indeed. Geez’s lack of authenticity made me feel like I needed to go shower….that, and not having showered for about 48 hours.
So you were predisposed to skeeviness…
This is your best post ever, Jim. I’m proud of you, as a journalist. Excuse me while I go post this on the Natty facebook page.
Thanks KC!
Maybe skip Facebook (let them have their fun I say) but you could post it to Reddit Beer…we sort of banned over there… 😦
Never mind, RJK already did -sweet!
So it look like they pulled your respectfully-written post off of their wall and also deleted your comment that stated the campaign wasn’t really viral.
You’ve been sanitized!
That whole thing was awesome. Jim, I’m your newest fan.
Thanks, Chase. I’m usually much more chill (Don starts the fights around here and I make the peace) but this got me totally wound up!
Soild exchange Jim! As well as some awesome Cybersleuthing. And just for good measure, whoever invented the word “asshat” should get a golden star. Love that word! haha
Yes, I learned “asshat” on Fark and have adored it ever since…
Ah, I’m redjameskidd on reddit, if that wasn’t clear. I wasn’t smart enough to keep all my names the same.
Okay then, thank YOU KC/RJK and whatever other aliases you enjoy online.
See, some people know how to protect their identities if they want to!
How have I missed all this? Well done, Jim. Well done.
Also, a few months back, a video went viral where these guys sent some figurine or toy into space, basically exactly what Natty Light tried to do. I was going to mention it, but it seemed you had sorted it out already in your post.
I dunno – maybe you were too busy agreeing with Don…
Was not! Why do you spread such awful rumors, Jim? Gawd!
Fantastic 🙂
I think all of us are secretly jealous. I mean, who wouldn’t love to be able to pull such a perfectly placed body slam on a corporate ‘know-it-all’ who tries to defend the indefensible. I know dream of such an opportunity…
Keep it up, and cheers!
Thanks, Wim. It was fun, and I decided to post it as it’s own thing so everyone could enjoy it – that was fun!
I won’t agree or disagree that his was a viral campaign, but your assertion that this has to be professional is false. There are hobbyists out there who send stuff into space, primarily for the purpose of doing it and to see what information they can collect and how far they can take it. Here (http://hackerspacesinspace.com/) is a group who hosts a contest doing just this. Saying it must be professional because of the quality of video, equipment, etc is just false. Hobbyists are more than capable of doing this, and they do. Also, “natttasphere” does sound like some dorky slang I might expect from amateurs. The only thing really working against this as evidence of being done by professionals on behalf of Natural Light is that they chose to use Natural Light. I doubt any real “beer enthusiast” would purposely choose to send this piss water into space.
Also, it is pretty freaking creepy to see that your site pulls facebook avatar, probably based on the e-mail address.
I think it uses Gravatar’s (an online avatar service) not Facebook avatars, but I dunno – we’re a WordPress hosted blog, which is kind of like the EasyBake Oven of blogging. I have no idea how most of this stuff works!
I think you can look at each aspect of it and say an enthusiast could have done it – I agree 100%. But add them up and then combine them with the way this is being clearly controlled and marketed by Natural Light and it’s hard to think it’s anything other than a manicured marketing exercise – that’s where they screwed up. It’s way too polished at every turn.
I’d be happier if Natural Light would have said we saw these guys and asked them to send a can of our beer into space. It’d be a cool stunt and get their fans psyched and gain them some new ones along the way. It’s the insincerity and the dishonesty that bothers me.
Anyway, I agree that non-professionals can do some amazing stuff – just look at homebrewers!
Re: “I’d be happier if Natural Light would have said we saw these guys and asked them to send a can of our beer into space. It’d be a cool stunt and get their fans psyched and gain them some new ones along the way. It’s the insincerity and the dishonesty that bothers me.”
In other words, you’re suggesting to a big corporate advertising firm, representing a big corporate international brewery that honesty is the best policy? Bet that’ll go over like screen doors on a submarine. You’ll have ’em laughing all the way to the bank.
When it comes to things like this, honesty (really authenticity) is the best policy. Just like celebrities must now wrestle for fans on Twitter, the corporate giants must find ways to connect with their customers in ways that matter. Pretending to have enthusiastic brand fans who are actually paid stooges isn’t smart…
We had a similar situation at Aleheads during the Terrapin/MillerCoors imbroglio. A commentor bashed us relentlessly for taking issue with Terrapin’s sale of an equity stake to MillerCoors. After an IP Lookup, we discovered that he worked for the largest MillerCoors distributor in Georgia.
Personally, I take it as a good sign that Big Beer is so nervous about craft that they’re willing to anonymously attack completely insignificant beer blogs with absolutely no influence on the industry (I’m referring to our site, of course…not to the unstoppable dynamo that is Beer & Whiskey Bros).
I think we fit that bill as well.
I think this fight was a little too polished. Is it possible that Jim is a viral marketer for Schlafly?
More likely for Troeg’s Mad Elf don’t ya think? LOL
Trolling for Troegs, that’s me!
Now THAT is totally possible!! 😉
WTF?!
I turn my back for a couple hours and all hell breaks loose.
Good job holding down the fort, Jim. Very nicely done.
Actually, I just fully read the entire thing and there was no reason at all to make nice with that jack sock.
I’m reducing your score by 1.
Ah, I love Navy slang–its so thoroughly descriptive.
Excellent work Jim, or as the gamers would say, PWNED. I wouldve pulled his IP address too. In another site I’m involved with we do that to police trolls.
My son would be proud that you think I PWNED someone!
Great work!
Thanks, Johnathan – I do’t like trolls, especially corporate ones pretending to be “regular guys.” That’s SOOO 2003!
Nice work Jim, nice work.
Thank you Scott, thank you. 🙂
I… I… I kind of want to buy a Natty Ice now because I got the warm fuzzies after reading through all that.
It takes a man to call a truce.
Not so much when he’s losing badly…
Great post Chris – reminder that brands cant (shouldnt) string along bloggers (or social media in general) without letting people in on the joke.
Will certainly aim to NEVER get the douche label through my posts here.
Cheers
FK
Who’s Chris?
I love that a guy from InBev/A-B is lurking on a blog for craft beer and whisky. Are you really that scared of a bunch of American-owned small businesses? Has InBev gone Terminator on us, searching for the last remnants of creative American capitalism, or Borg, determined to assimilate?
Maybe it depends on how you prefer to get your sci-fi fix?
If you are reading this, you are the resistance, which is NOT futile.
If I could, though, I’d commission a bumper sticker for my car: My sissy wanker craft beer can beat up your industrial lager.
Maybe if the glue decomposed immediately upon nearing a DUI check-point?
Can’t believe I missed this one. I still need to do my shit beer shootout.