American Beer at the World Cup
 

You might find this article interesting:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...188537,00.html


McDonald's was bad enough but American beer...ugh

"Franz Maget, a Bavarian Social Democrat, has entered the fray, calling Budweiser “the worst beer in the world”."

I couldnt agree more, redneck beer at its best. But most probably the beer will not be the classic trash that it is here. It will probably be made over in Europe somewhere and hopefully taste better.

But to all you that love Bud, to each is own, I just hate it, me and Franz that is.

That's only the top of the iceberg. Mercedes taxis musn't enter the zone, since a corean company sponsors the world cup. Ferrero candy can't print "World Cup" on their bars, since that's a registered trademark, but there will be (awful imho) german Bitburger beer sold as well in the stadiums. They sued Anh-Busch because their beer the "Bit" is a registered german trademark too and "Bud" thank god isn't sold in Germany. They could have easily banned ANY Budweiser from the german market!, but opted th share worldcup business with Anh-Busch. Money makes the world go round!

I'm neither German, nor American, but I still think it's a travisty that the Germans can't even sell their own beer at a major event hosted by their country.

Is Budweiser anything like Fosters? ie the beer to export because nobody at home will drink it.

In Australia the premium beers are the major European lines with a few better quality Aussie beers. I never see anyone buy US beer here. I think maybe it has a slightly lower alcohol content than the Aussie and European beers and is therefore shunned.

Any chance of the football fans staging a protest and not drinking any beer??? Don't bother to answer that last question..

It's like boinking in a canoe...

speckles: lots of Americans drink Bud, don't know why. It's not cheap enough to be "cheap beer" (some of those are truly awful, even make Bud and Coors and all that taste good), but it's not good beer either. Don't know why America can't produce good, mass market beer like the rest of the beer-drinking world (Yuengling is the closest we have, and that's regional at best, and I guess Sam Adams, but that's a cut above mass-market).

<i>Is Budweiser anything like Fosters? ie the beer to export because nobody at home will drink it.</i>

As grsing wrote, sadly Budweiser is widely consumed in the US. This is because 1) it is incessantly marketed and 2) most Americans drink their beer ice-cold so you can't taste anything.

I read this article this morning, and it made me smile. I particularly liked the fact that in Germany , American Budweiser isn't even technically a beer (Because rice is used in the brewing process , and in Germany only hops water malt and sugar can be used).

It is all about sporting events selling their soul to the corporate world. You cannot blamethe corporations for taking advantage of the deals.

Warm beer....Ugh with a capital U...

Ah a nice cold Heineken makes my day every time (Heineken light is probably a better choice for me now) but of course ice cold.

&quot;...during a game the average World Cup fan drinks half a litre [17 ounces!] of beer...&quot;

Of course, it will probably cost 10&euro;...

Last year in northern England I noticed most of the young beer drinkers were drinking Bud. I asked one fellow why he didn't drink the many good ales, stouts or local lagers. His reply &quot;thats me da's drink, we like Bud cause we can drink more of it&quot;

It's about peer pressure and marketting. There was a radio documentary about the UK's biggest brewer and the main budweiser like lager that they brewed. It emerged that it didn't really matter what the beer tasted like - providing you could get the punters to drink it very chilled, and could get people to subscribe to the &quot;Premium larger lifestyle&quot; idea.

One line was particulaly revealling - to paraphrase &quot;We have found that customers don't really want a beer with a lot of flavour, they want one that they can drink a lot of during an evening&quot;

Speckles, you made me laugh. In my two trips to Australia I never saw anyone drinking Fosters either. Too bad they don't sell Cascade in the UK instead of Fosters. I also liked VB, and when I could get it, Matilda Bay or Redback.

As for Budweiser, they might be scoring an own goal themselves in the World Cup if German fans react to it as I think they will.

Aha, another example of US culural imperialism.

OTOH, no one forced the World Cup people to take the money.

((I))

Will there be a stand that sells corn dogs? They're so good topped with processed cheese. Hmmm!!

Over the past 4-5 years of visiting Germany I've noticed that Bud is being sold in more and more places. It's not my cup of tea (or beer) but Germans seem to like it at least occassionally. Perhaps they sometimes getting tired of the high alcohol content German beers. I doubt I could ever tire of German or Belgian beers, but to each his own.

Back here in the States I can't understand why ANYONE would drink Coors Light. Isn't that redundant? And I seriously question the masculinity and good sense of any guy that drinks Corona - the worst beer from another land of great beers. You get more of a buzz from tap water.

The 15 Official Partners of the 2006 FIFA World CupTM are: adidas, Anheuser-Busch, Avaya, Coca-Cola, Continental, Deutsche Telekom, Emirates, Fujifilm, Gillette, Hyundai, MasterCard, McDonald’s, Philips, Toshiba and Yahoo!.

it's called the &quot;world cup&quot; and typically the sponsors are large international companies as listed above for this year. the charge of &quot;imperialism&quot; is laughable when speaking about sponsorship of an international event.

there are hundreds of examples of sponsorship deals in football that cross international boundries (emirates sponsorship of arsenal for example).

anyway, since when are football fans known for drinking fine beers?

logos999,

What are your top 5 favorite beers? In the USA we rarely get to sample other than the typical mega-breweries offerings.

Not being a wiseguy, just honestly interested.

MvK

speckles, it seems you haven't tried Samuel Adams Boston Lager. This may be heresy coming from another Australian, but IMO Sam Adams (which has an alcohol content somewhere in the 5.0-5.5% range I think) beats most Australian beers hands down - and although Bud is admittedly pretty dire stuff, I actually think it's a notch above Victoria Bitter.

&gt;top 5 favorite beers?
- 1 Straubinger Dark Weissbier (Bernstein)
- 2 Huber Weisse
- 3 Andechser Dunkles
- 4 Schneider Weisse
- 5 Augustiner Helles
- 6 ...........

&gt;...the charge of &quot;imperialism&quot; is laughable when speaking about sponsorship of an international event.&lt;

You get a gold star for perspicacity. :)

((I))

Germany is far to big to worry about foreign &quot;imperialism&quot;. Maybe some people just haven't realized who their friends are on this planet ;-) No &quot;Bud&quot; for me, however...

&gt;Germany is far to big to worry about foreign &quot;imperialism&quot;. &lt;

France is almost the same size and they worry about cultural imperialism all the time, except for Jerry Lewis movies.

((I))

Germany's 1/3 of the USA ;-), but the Us is growing fast!

Come to think of it ;-), the Texas Lightning song will make money on the charts 2 to 4 weeks from now, the Finnish song will be forgotten by tomorrow. (Although it may well be better than Texas Lightning)...

logos999,

Didn't need to stop at 5, looks like you had more to add. Please feel free.

MvK

I won't be doing justice to all those geat local beers... but
-6 Prinzregent Luitpold Kristallweizen
-7 Maisacher Helles
-8 R&auml;uber Kneissl Wei&szlig;bier
-9 Kaltenberger Helles
-10 Weltenburger Dunkle Weisse

Open day at Erdinger Wei&szlig;bier..., they had three tents, one mark (=50ct per half liter) oompah bands and dozends of cops at the parking lot. Not a chance. That was evil.

Have I got this straight?

American beer
German police
English football supporters....

Suddenly, New Zealand seems an enticing place to spend June.

Before everybody gets too wound up, I think the only one who mentioned &quot;American imperialism&quot; was Ira, and I thought it was almost tongue in cheek.

I do find it ironic that an appalling beer like Budweiser should be official beer of the world cup in a nation renowned for brewing - I would be equally appalled if that beer were Fosters, Chang or any other &quot;megacorp&quot; beer.

The only &quot;cultural imperialism&quot; issue I have with Budweiser is their lawyers chasing through various courts in European countries trying to stop the Czechs using the name Budweiser.

Budweiser is widely available in Britain but is only drunk by the Burberry wearing classes.

To my continual chagrin they sell Carlsberg at White Hart Lane and no British beer.

&gt;Have I got this straight?
Even better..., England lost, Hooligans pissed (on cheap beer), Berlin riot police.
Maybe everybody should stay home!

I presume, even worse , is the thousands of English (and presumably Dutch, German and French) supporters wandering around trying to get tickets for games where 50% of tickets went to corporate sponsorship - so therefore mysteriously ended up on the black market).

Let me put ist that way:

If you are in business administration in general or marketing in special, or in legal questions about marketing, do not miss the World Cup (TM).

You can learn there more than in books, or courses. You have the chance to take part in a giant, the biggest ever, see, field study in marketing.

FIFA did an excellent job on marketing that event. They are professionals. It isn´t soccer anymore, just FIFA, but nobody will know about the difference.

OK, a German friend explained the reason behind this. In order to avoid the problems associated with drunken hooliganism, the World Cup officials decided to only serve water at the venues this year...

&gt;the only one who mentioned &quot;American imperialism&quot; was Ira, and I thought it was almost tongue in cheek.&lt;

Almost?

((I))

Soccer is big business. World Cup is big business. Beverage making is big business.

FIFA sold exclusive rights. Anheuser-Busch bid big money for it and won. German beer maker did not. End of story.

If German people don't like it, they can blame 1) FIFA, and 2) their own beer makers.

Instead, Bitburger uses lawsuits to force itself to be sold, and Anh-Busch caved in. The German people should be thankful of Anh-Busch for allowing that.

And don't worry about &quot;American Imperialism&quot;. Say if SAB Miller had won the bid and decided to push Miller Lite at the World Cup, do you complain about that since SAB Miller is HQ'ed in London, but was originally a South African company?

Like everywhere, the motto is privatize gains, socialize costs. The Munich stadium is build with taxpayers! money too. Like Oktoberfest, the benefits go to few (big) companies, the costs are a burden for the public. The public doesn't fight these policies, because the individual person only pays litte money.

I would expect SAB miller to be very heavily involved in the next World cup in South Africa. Castle was always a perfectly drinkable lager (But only the stuff brewed in Capee Town) , but there were significant rumours about the old Apartheid government &quot;channelling&quot; money through SAB to &quot;Sponsor&quot; rebel tours during the sports boycott.

They have become another corporate monster as well.