Anheuser-Busch launches watermelon-flavored malternative

Anheuser-Busch launches watermelon-flavored malternative
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

ST. LOUIS - Anheuser-Busch Cos., the nation's biggest brewer, is adding a watermelon-flavored brew to its Bacardi Silver lineup, hoping it will give a warm-weather boost to a company with suddenly sluggish sales. Bacardi Silver Watermelon is the latest flavored malt beverage, or "malternative," whose sweet taste is expected to appeal to people in the 21-27 age group, Geri Hirsch, brand manager for High End Products at the St. Louis-based brewer, said Wednesday.

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7434791/

Thanks Anheuser-Busch for aiming yet another alcoholic product at our children. No, I don't buy that your appeal is to people in the 21-27 age group, but more likely, age 16 and up group. Why else would you need a sweet drink? Could it be that making bland-tasting, mediocre, post prohibition beer can't compete with better tasting mirco-brews?

If your children drink, it's because you're a poor parent.

like candy! I'm a woman and I can't stand super sweet drinks.

So what exactly is your point? Just because it tastes like Watermelon it must be targeted toward kids?!? Well I guess wine has always been targeted toward kids because it has a fruit flavor.

You better believe edible undies are for the 18 and younger crowd...cause you know they have that yummy candy flavor.

Get real, your logic doesn't make sense. Since you don't like sweet drinks, it can't be targeted toward women...and I guess since I don't like watermelon it can't be targeted toward underage drinkers.

So there ya' go.

This is the exact same crap you hear about violence in video games. It's simple, if you don't want your child to drink....DON'T put them in position to drink. So many of you parents are afraid your children will drink....well maybe if you watched them more they wouldn't.

Tell them not to go to university? Forbid them from moving out of your house - and put a curfew on them?

If the 18 year old wants to break the law, it is his/her adult decision and he/she can bear the consequences of the decision.

he said that the problem wasn't that this product is sweet, but that if under 21s wanted to drink then this was because of poor parenting, and that the parents should be watching their children more carefully.

My point, and the point of several others, is that sweet drinks are aimed at the under 21s - illegal, but they are not under the control of their parents.

Get real... there is no comparison. The market is already saturated with plenty of sweet drinks and this huge corporate entity that had a low profit the last quarter is aiming at children. Just like the tobacco industry.... what a better way to insure it's future than to create a whole new generation of alcoholics? Instead of making better quality in their beer it's easier to aim at the children. You're not going to be able to convince me that this corporation has the mature drinking woman in mind when making this watermelon concoction.

Wine is fruit flavored. Drinks have been fruit flavored for a long time. Bacardi is a drink popular with women....many women like fruit flavored alcohol.

If your kid drinks it's because you're not a good parent to begin with. I never drank when I was in my teens and that was with a father that had liquor all over the house. Alcohol is made available because of the poor judgment of parents.

except the last part. just because your kids drink, does not make you a bad parents. hell, i drink, but my parents were great, and kept a close watch on me. i just make my OWN decisions, and don't blame my parents for problems that may arise

I've gone to parties where alcohol is being served. Most of the alcohol served is non-flavored beer. BEER! Kids will drink whatever they want when they want....so adding watermelon flavored drinks aren't going to make them drink more...and taking away watermelon flavored drinks aren't going to make them drink less.

i know. i said i agreed. but i take exception to your statement that if your kids drink, you're a bad parent

This makes it so much easier and kids that wouldn't drink because they don't like the taste of beer will be that much closer to the siren's song.

ex-bartender and ID nanny here.

as being the same in the face of mega-corporate advertising blitzes is not sound. Well-raised children with great parents have been known to give in to drink when placed in certain situations of peer pressure. Making a fine wine, over time, with grapes and flavor that blends a gourmet cuisine is not the same as marketing a sugar-coated, soda-pop like beverage with the sole purpose of getting drunk. Alcohol is readily available throughout our entire society and is quite easy for minors to acquire. This is not the fault of the parents, not even the worst of parents, but the condescending attitudes of people thinking they know all the answers in spite of the environment, societal acquaintances, and media-type influence.

I love super sweet drinks. :P

Oh yes and women between 15 and 25. No argument from me there. Also, the most militantly anti-alcohol kids seem to come out of homes where there is a drinking parent. But there are families out there that don't parent and drink at the same time. These are the kids they are after. Not only that those sweet drinks are easier to hide in pop bottles and other innocent looking containers.

:eyes: I agree it targets teen-agers.

... why not eat watermelon? If you like the taste of candy, why not eat candy?

:shrug:

Get a watermelon: Punch three one inch holes on the top. Put funnels in the holes and fill with any liquor that goes well with fruit like rum or tequila. Let it soak into the watermelon. Refrigerate overnight. The next day wrap in plastic wrap and put it in your cooler. After barbequeing your burgers, slice and enjoy for desert. Stay out of the water or doing anything stupid afterwards. Do have a designated driver. This watermelon packs a punch.

I've never tried this with pineapples, but it seems like it would work.

On edit: I know this has nothing to do with your post. You just reminded me of this.

Since I stopped drinking about 14-15 years ago, I've had no inclination to do so again. While I occasionally have nostalgic thoughts about winery hopping in France, the Finger Lakes, and Napa/Sonoma, and about pub crawls in London, I've never missed anything less than drinking. (Not even my ex-wife.) :silly:

But yeah, I had to leave the party years behind, too.

because once you turn 21, you only like plain oatmeal and water for your flavors

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taste gap between the soda pop years and the keg years. Marketers took note and they have been putting out stuff like this all along since then. When I was a bartender back in the seventies, every day there was a fresh faced twenty-one year old celebrating their birthday and drinking their first legitimate wine cooler or any other number of sweet drinks that made alcohol more palatable.

now take it back!

Call me spoiled by the miro-brews of the Pacific Northwest, but I think all beer made post-prohibition tastes pretty much the same. Go out and pick up a Red Hook bitter and drink it next to a Bud..... betcha never go back!

on edit for better grammar and spelling.

Micro brews aren't exclusive to the Pacific Northwest. You should check out Boulevard Beer, Missouri' second largest brewery. :D

:toast:

Budweiser is mass produced beer that is meant to appeal to a large degree of tastes. Like anything that means that by default it won't have the complexity or complex taste of say a micro-brew. A burger at McDonald's really doesn't have much taste to it, but you can be pretty certain of what it will taste like and be confident that the taste will be consistent. This is the strength of Budweiser. I myself am I bigger fan of Mexican beers(not Corona) and Guinness. A strange combination I realize.

i've never heard such blasphemy. of course, i get all bud products for free because my dad works in the plant... so i could be biased. :)

aimed for the teen demographic and very young women who don't ordinarily drink. By the time they get to college they will move up to more "adult" brews.

ex-bartender writing here.

If I told you the original network run of The Flintstones (1960-1966) was sponsored by a cigarette maker and that you could watch the main characters smoking Winstons at the end of the show, you probably wouldn't believe me. This animated series was a prime-time show, considered adult fare in 1960, so I guess nobody thought any better of it.

With a large audience of youngsters tuning in at 8:30pm, was this proof that the tobacco companies were targeting younger potential smokers decades before Joe Camel? The Flintstones could also be seen selling beer in commercials, for what that's worth.

Steve Byrd tells us, "By the time Pebbles was born in 1963, the Flintstones were no longer pitching Winstons... they were selling Motorolas and Welch's grape juice. No way would Winstons have sponsored a cartoon sitcom with a baby character." Especially since, in 1964, the U.S. Surgeon General declared that smoking was harmful to one's health.

Of course, the Flintstones weren't the only cartoon characters making cigarettes appear cute and cuddly in the early-sixties - there were original tobacco company concoctions.

The Chesterfield King and his lovable friends were animated animals that hawked Chesterfield King cigarettes in a stylish set of commercials produced by Daws Butler.

The main voices for this spot (and the next example) came from Butler himself, the guy who voiced many of the most memorable kidvid characters of all time (like Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Snagglepuss, Mutley, Quick Draw McGraw and dozens more).

In fact, some of the characterizations he used for these cigarette spots were identical to voices he used for those Hanna-Barbera favorites. Then again, how many voices can a guy have?

In another Daws Butler spot, average (cartoon) guys Harry and Juggernaught Jones sell Marlboros from the sports booth. "You get a lot to like in a Marlboro - filter, flavor, pack or box" was the catchy musical jingle everyone was humming.
http://www.tvparty.com/vaultcomcig.html

I was surprised, but I'm sure stuff like that back then was pretty common.

of cheap beer! :P But then I'm not a big fan of sweet drinks OR fake watermelon...

Artificial watermelon flavor--makes me queasy just thinking about it.

I won't let my son even have watermelon-flavored candy or gum in the same room as me. Revolting.

Redstone

:shrug: The proof is in the puking.

Shandy, is a drink of half beer or ale mixed with Ginger Beer (or Gingerale) or lemonade. The Brits traditionally gave it to their kids as a treat and to get them used to the taste of brews so that eventually by the time they turned eighteen, they would be drinking the draft in a pure and unadulterated state alongside dad at the pub.

Now, before you start screaming bad parents, remember that beer was consumed traditionally on a daily basis as part of one's meal. A lot of this had to do with the quality of the water during times of plague and beer was a safer drink. It also provided calories and nutrition to what was often a sparse diet.

So you see this isn't new.

After a night of much indulgence, my friend Steven will invariably order one or two of these concoctions. He's had to instruct a few bartenders on their proper makeup, too.

Thanks, Cleita.

products like this are the brewers attempt to try to appeal to those young adults who never experimented with beer but went straight to drinks like sour apple martinis (a blasphemy in and of itself)

eom



John

This kind of crap infuriates me! Why would a brewing company know for it "beer" have to start screwing around with other, weird flavors? Instead of trying to improve its own line of beer (a monumental task), AB decides to go the way of the junk-food industry (which in itself speaks volumes about its quality): instead of improving a product, create a whole shitload of crap on the side!

I'm surprised AB hasn't come out with "action figures" corresponding with the next Disney/Pixar/Time-Warner/Sony/etcetcetc blockbuster release.