Maori King Belgian Ale

[Reviled]

This made me lol

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=1...

[Tilt]

Regardless of politics of this the health facts speak volumes:

• Māori suffer a disproportionate amount of harm from alcohol; one in five Māori men have indicated that alcohol is causing harm to their health (MoH 2001).
• Multiple research projects show a fair proportion of the NZ population level health disparities can be attributed to alcohol use – have a look at this nzmj article

PC or not many Maori are sick or die from the effects of alcohol. 

With this in mind it doesn't seem savvy marketing to me to connect a brand of beer with a group of people whose health suffers disproportionately as a result of alcohol misuse.  Its like trying to sell razor blades with pictures of emos on the box - just dumb.  I'd sack the marketer for not doing their research.

[Stu McKinlay]

guess you should sack everyone who ever put out a Scotch Ale while you are at it... granted "Scotch" is not a race or ethnicity but it does derive from the Scots, who are (in general) a bunch of boozers.

 

Renaissance... Andy and Brian... sacked!

[Ralph]

I dont think there would have been many of the Maori population that would have ever been able to even get hold of this beer, or for that matter would have ever have been aware of it until it hit the media. In fact even now that it has hit the media, there is probably not that many of the Maori population that are really aware of it.

 

Surely the beer guys who market cheap beer to the masses are doing more harm to Maori population with the effects of alcohol than some craft brewery in the States?

[Tilt]

Good point Stu - but didn't the Scots coin the terms themselves and, myself included a couple of generations back, seem proud of the connection - no problems there.

 Makes you wonder what the French think of their namesake letters and, well the Brazilians....

[Greig McGill]

Sorry, what?

 

a) The beer is released in the USA. Not here.

b) "Māori men have indicated that alcohol is causing harm to their health" - nobody is forcing them to drink it! Maybe they should, you know... stop?

c) Even if it had any merit, none of what you've just said is specific to this particular beer, and doesn't explain the public health angle featured in the context of the original article.

 

Tilt mate, you've lost the plot. You've basically just joined the neo-pros in saying that beer is evil because it causes harm. Never mind that people are free to not drink it. What are you doing on this forum again?

[Tilt]

Grieg, far from losing the plot, you've misconstrued what I'm saying if you take "beer is evil" from what I've written. 

My point is that their marketing research didn't seem to take into account many of the facts - and as such they got it wrong.  Why link what is probably a damn fine beer with any sort of potential negative associations and piss people off as you do it.  Doesn't make sense to me.

As an advocate for good access to quality beer I'd want to avoid any sort of negative connotations that might come from poorly conceived marketing plans.

Having said this - perhaps the marketing had a clever angle - they've now had extremely good exposure, probably far beyond what they would have had if they started off with the brand name they've now switched to. 

 

[Hugh Grierson]

Firstly,Tilt, emos need the clean shaven look, ever seen a bushy bearded emo?

Secondly, my point was the whole thing is (as well as a media beat up) poorly thought out, obviously with no research before the labels got printed. They have Google,should have used it. They did not call the beer Crazy Horse Ale or Pocohantas Pils did they?

[Tilt]

True Hugh - perhaps could have chosen a better analogy - I can't get the image of Robert Smith with a ZZ Top beard out of my mind now.

Agree on your point two too.

[Stu H]

I hear what you're saying Tilt. Politics aside, I think it's just lame/lazy marketing.

[Ian]

I respect what you say and believe it to be so - mostly, Hugh. But these guys were shooting at peccodillos and in this instance I'll stick with my PC whingers as being a measured response.

[Kelly Ryan]

Speaking of Crazy Horse...

http://siba.co.uk/2011/08/oakham-ales-launch-dreamcatcher-for-peter...

 

No outcry by the First Nation/Native Americans over this??

 

Kelly 

[martin w]

i asked all the kiwi's at work today to see if they knew there was a maori king and if whats his name.

 

none of them knew there was a king!

 

as for the marketing,

did someone once say there is no such thing as bad publicity.