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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

A "Revealing" Promotion?

Just yesterday, I was arguing vigorously that craft brewing promotes an atmosphere of family-friendly conviviality and enjoyment. But today I get an email touting a secretive after-hours pub crawl of establishments where children definitely aren't allowed:
I hear that you are attending the Beer Blogger Conference this weekend in Portland. As you are aware Portland is known for making some World Class Ales and Lagers…. and also for its wide selection of Gentleman Clubs with good beer. How convenient! With that said an “Unsanctioned” group of us from [redacted brewery] would like to load you up on a bus (no pun intended) and take a tour to the following Portland Iconic locations; Acrop, Sassy’s, Mary’s, Union Jacks, or Cabaret. [Redacted brewery] has been known to throw down and the bar tab will be taken care of, but sorry, not the lap dances!
I don't disapprove of this, and I don't want to get anyone in trouble or scotch the event--thus the redacted names. I found it so remarkable, though, that I thought I'd pass it along. To the [redacted brewery]'s credit, lady bloggers were also apparently invited.

For all those visiting bloggers, this is actually a perfect example of the strange city that is the People's Republic of Portland. We have, on the one hand, an ethos so crunchy and socialistic that we have a TV show to mock us, but on the other a classic pioneer libertarian streak that has led to the greatest number of strip clubs per capita in the US. Those strip clubs are also the most flamboyant; the Oregon supreme court has ruled that stripping is expression, and the Oregon constitution has an even more expansive definition of speech than the US constitution. All I'm sayin' is, if you go on the tour, don't expect thongs or pasties.

13 comments:

  1. Dear lord I love this town!

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  2. And now I really wish I was going to the conference! Sounds like a great time.

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  3. As a ,"lady blogger," I was invited. I don't understand the desired outcome. Are people going to go home and blog about how said brewery rocks because they bought beer for attendees? Or is it simply a unique idea?

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  4. @Nicole: It's all about branding. Earlier this year I wrote about how the new marketing angle for this label is "its 'unique big personality': the company describes it as 'edgy' and 'approachable'".

    The strip-club crawl is not being held in the name of the parent company's beer-geek brand. It's being held in the name of the bad-boy brand.

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  5. How desperately sad.

    Perhaps they will bring out a beer with tits on the label next.

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  6. I see that this can be about branding but i see it more as a scheme to "buy votes" so to speak. I don't think a lot of bloggers will write about their strip club expererince. So where does that leave the brewery as far as gaining exposure through marketing? Will bloggers promote the brewery without mention of the stripclub crawl? Maybe, I bet that is what the brewery is hoping for. The bloggers I know won't fall for this kind of tomfoolery!

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  7. Redhook obviously. Any extra tickets

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  8. Wait a second, this cant be real! Did someone just use the word "tomfoolery" with no hint of humor intended?!

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  9. Kyle if you had a blog I'm sure you'd be out of singles by now

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  10. pffft.

    Haven't decided if I'll write about it yet, but I won't separate the brewery from the strip club experience, in fact, that's the lede.

    As an out of town blogger with a focus on beer culture I can't ignore that your cities strip clubs have better beer choices than 90% of the taprooms in my city.

    If they took us to GLBT clubs that had fantastic beer, I'd write about that too.

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  11. Pity about the lack of pasties - I like a nice pasty with a pint.

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