IF THE SUPER BOWL HAD CRAFT BEER ADS

You’d barely know that craft beer existed when watching the ongoing calvalcade of Super Bowl commercials over the years. It’s long been the domain of big beer companies – the Anheuser-Buschs’ of the world. Global titans still have a stranglehold on this game.

 And as far as we’re concerned  they’re welcome to it. 

, IF THE SUPER BOWL HAD CRAFT BEER ADSIn spite of craft beer’s emergence and its unparalleled growth over the past decade  we still can’t compete dollar-wise with the majors who control the Super Bowl’s ads and we don’t expect that to change in the near future.

As Jason Notte reported in The Street, not even craft brewers the size of Samuel Adams can afford to compete in this arena:

“The big brewers are 80 times our size,” says Jim Koch, president and founder of Boston Beer. “Advertising on the Super Bowl is out of our league when one ad costs $3.5 million. Our money is better spent on hops.”

Jim makes a valid point and we share his perspective. American craft beer brewers know that it’s always been about the quality and the vision  and that’s where their money is best spent. Big beer is oftentimes about brand saturation first and quality second. The craft , IF THE SUPER BOWL HAD CRAFT BEER ADSbeer industry thinks differently  for us, quality is the brand.

Our industry is made up of artists and entrepreneurs, craftsmen (and women) and colorful characters. People who like to celebrate and many who couldn’t do a straight job if their lives depended on it.

Yes, we’re business people too. We all want to be successful and build something that matters. But we are not Big Beer  nor should we ever aspire to be! We’d have to give up everything that makes us what we are to be like them and none of us want that.

So let’s take some solace in the fact that we probably won’t be seeing any craft beer ads airing during a Super Bowl any time soon.

And although it might be fun to see what people like Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione or Stone’s Greg Koch might do with an expensive Super Bowl spot  Is this really what we want?

And even if we had the millions of dollars necessary to orchestrate one of these primetime commercials – is that really who we are? Is that really where we want to go?

ACB doesn’t  think so…And we expect that you don’t either.

 

 

 

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