First off, my hats off to the guys at New Brew Thursday, who put the video together. I can assure you that what they've put together here was a far more ambitious project than we at HBG are capable of. I understand the motivation for the project, and you can call me a curmudgeon, but the video contains a laundry list of things that annoy the hell out of me. 1) The Opening: The statements "I am a craft beer drinker. I love craft beer. I am passionate about what I drink", delivered over and over again by a cast of craft beer enthusiasts (and a few beer business folks) in deadpan reminds me a little bit of the Simpsons opening. Or a hostage video.
2) The History of Craft Beer as delivered by the craft beer stereotype guy: The history of poor oppressed American drinkers pre-craft beer is a tired, 40 acres of hops and a mule story that I've heard enough of. If you open a brewery in America today, deliver a good product and know how to run a business, you can succeed. AB/MillerCoors are not going to stop you.
3) The Walk Through Stone Gardens: Stone's Bistro and Garden are as common to these videos as the pizza delivery guy is to a porno plot. For people that profess a love of variety and pushed boundaries, a step outside of Stone property would be a good start.
4) An Even More Dramatic Version of that Sigur Ros Song: Look guys, I like Sigur Ros. A lot. But the violin version of Hoppipolla (as opposed to the "I Am A Craft Brewer" video's use of the original version)? It's a little much.
5) "The average beer drinker thinks they must settle for lower common denominator beer." - Do they really believe that? Have they ever tried serving craft beer to a lifetime Miller Light drinker? Come to my family reunion some time and see what the average beer drinker thinks of your craft beer. Some people actually like what they drink.
6) "We Must Spread the Message" - We must? Really? We love to talk about beer. We've been writing about it for four years now. We've made some converts. But we mustn't do anything. If people are looking, they'll find the message. And if they're not looking, then we must leave them the hell alone.
Or maybe it's the lack of enthusiasm in the video - if you're going to go out of the way to make a video about who you are and what you love, really let people know. Throw a party! Or get some kids involved!
You guys are half-assing it.
I agree with you on much of this, but I think I agree with the label the most.
ReplyDeleteTook me a minute to figure out what you meant by "the label".
ReplyDeleteI agree w/ most of the post, but also the idea the video was trying to get across. Best part of the video, the no look pour while not flubbing his line at ~3min in. DID YOU SEE THAT SKILL! That's the kind of skill you only find in california, us midwesterners could never hope to achieve anything like it!
ReplyDeleteThis video needs more hashtags.
ReplyDeleteI just dropped the better part of $50 at Kahn's for a 4-pack of Dogfish Head 90 Minute, two Southern Tier bombers and a Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, watching this video right after made me feel like a twat.
For the most part, I don't have a problem with the video. In fact, I'm on board with the sentiment that they're trying to express. But where I really agree with you Mike is on point 6 - that we "must" spread the craft beer message. I would venture to say that most people don't appreciate have something pushed on them. You're much more likely to win converts without using a heavy hand.
ReplyDeleteClassic: "For some reason, watching this video right after made me feel like a twat."
ReplyDeletefunniest thing i heard all day.
Annoying thing #7 - Slogan attributed as anonymous quote. If you don't know who said it, there's really no purpose in attributing it to no one, especially if it's something generic like "life is too short to drink cheap beer."
ReplyDeleteBetween the cheesy music and the splicing together of random people saying scripted lines, I felt like I was watching a United Way commercial. Maybe they should have just had some craft beer enthusiasts tell the camera what they actually liked about craft beer. Instead: "Really? 'Or Super Bowl commercials' is all you want me to say?"
Amen 100 times over, Amen.
ReplyDelete-Lost
I am passionate about bizarre facial hair.
ReplyDelete