Burnin’

Coors Light has turned a corner. No longer will consumers see Pete Coors standing in front of the San Juan Mountains (nowhere near Golden, by the way). Today, it’s the twins, and other hotties, flagrantly used to attract millions of young men to the brand. The objective is to get ‘em in the franchise early and it’s working. This is a case where bad advertising is actually quite effective.

But, I don’t like it. It’s highly offensive to women. So my question all along has been, “What? You don’t want to sell Coors Light to women ever again?” The answer has been equally emphatic, “No, women are not in our target market.”

One current headline–that thankfully I did not write, although I’ve written some just as bad– says, “Here’s to the Wingman!” A wingman in this context is the guy who volunteers to go home with the ugly chick, thereby saving his buddy the humiliation.

Now, that I’m moving off this client, I don’t mind stating that I find these tactics horrid, at best. In the brewery’s defense (for they are a great client in many other ways) it’s merely a guy insight. This shit really happens out there in meet market land.

Lots of terrible things occur at the hands of drunken frat boys, but why choose to use these occasions to market beer, or any other product for that matter? For money, of course. And I love the pursuit of money as much as the next guy. All I’m saying is higher values, like integrity, need to be recognized and employed, at least by me.

How many years can a mountain exist
Before it’s washed to the sea? _Dylan

It’s on. I’m moving to daWindy, a.k.a. Chicago, which means “plentiful onions and garlic” in the native American tongue. I lived in the Chicago suburbs from 1975 to 1980, finishing grade school in Wheaton, and attending junior high and my freshman year of high school in Elk Grove Village. These were pivotal years in so many ways. My mom got remarried. I developed an interest in girls. I played basketball and baseball non-stop and developed my allegiances to the Cubs, Bears, and Bulls at this time. So, this is a homecoming of sorts, and I must say I’m thrilled to be moving back to the Midwest, the region where I am most at home.

Chicago inspires me. The architecture. The lake. The neighborhoods and all the global citizens who reside therein. The food. The El. Chicago, like San Francisco and New York, is a great American city.

I often like to analyze things from the geo-cultural perspective, and if I look at my career path through this lens, it’s plain to see that I have been charting a course for The Loop and North Michigan Ave. for some time. Portland > Salt Lake City > Denver > Omaha > Chicago. No need (for me) to go further east. Along the sands of Lake Michigan, I make my play.