February 6, 2014--Macro Beer

Super Bowl ads often mark changes in the social culture.

This year there were all the warm and fuzzy ones that were clearly produced to pitch women who now constitute a growing, almost equal share of the NFL audience--46 percent of viewers of last week's Super Bowl were women. Forty-six percent. That's a surprising cultural shift in itself. Further, for obvious reasons, the League produced an ad that was designed to raise consciousness about the physical abuse of women. In desperate need of such conscious raising itself, the NFL probably feels it has discharged its duty.

Other ads addressed other changes in the fabric of America. One that stands out is the commercial for Budweiser that asked, "How should real beer be brewed?" Answering its own question, Bud proclaimed--"MACRO BEER." A clear slap at micro beer.

I wondered why Bud, so dominant in the beer-guzzling market, would waste millions to produce such an ad and then spend many millions more to broadcast it since and micro beer, to me, exists at the margins and comes with funny names such as Bad Tattoo, Fat Head, and the well-named Trouble.

But what do I know.

In yesterday's New York Times came the real answer--so-called craft beer now accounts for nearly 15 percent of the $100 billion US beer market. So Budweiser can no longer ignore these funky brewers, which I consider good news since Bud is literally tasteless and I am delighted to learn that more and more of the small, micro brewers are surviving. Some even thriving.

An earlier straw in the shifting cultural wind wafted by almost unnoticed two decades ago when sales of salsa surpassed ketchup. I do remember reading about that at the time but, like many others from marketing mavens to political pundits, missed the meaning, which is now so clear. Not only are Americans seeking to spice up their lives and enjoy full-bodied flavors but the population, in addition to getting older, is getting more youthful and more Latino.

Implications abound.