Monday 13 September 2010

I Am A Craft Beer Drinker

I love the Americans, and I say that totally without irony.

I love their earnest sense of straightforwardness. I love the way they are mostly without guile. I love the way they have so little holiday that they organise their fun so as to make best use of what little time they have. I love the way they know that they might only have time for a couple of beers, so they'd better be damn tasty, and medium-strong to boot.

I'm sure you've seen this video by now. I like it, but I'd love to see it remade with British craft beer drinkers. The dentistry wouldn't be as good, for a start. And I think quite a lot of us would struggle to stare into a camera and deliver the same sentiments with that sort of sincerity, that lack of irony, that wholesome earnestness.

20 comments:

  1. Perhaps I am a cynic, but where was the altar call at the end of the video asking drinkers of PBR and Butt Wipe to come forward and repent of their sins, receive Yeast into their hearts, be baptised in the Hoppy Spirit and go forward in a new relationship with godisgood?

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  2. I got grumpy about this one. I thought the earnestness had a lot to do with the earnings of those involved.

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  3. I'm sure they love the way they have so little holiday too.

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  4. If you said it WITH irony they wouldn't understand it anyway, ho ho!

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  5. Al - aww, come on, it's a good start.

    Baron Orm - there's no doubt there!

    Alan - I saw that you posted about it just after I did the same. I agree with a lot of what you say, although am surprised that you think that the number of industry people in the video somehow detracts from its honesty. Nobody ever got rich working in the lower tiers of the brewing industry, and doubly so for the craft beer industry. A lot of people (myself included) do it because we are genuinely passionate about good beer and the people that it attracts. Plus the fringe benefits aren't bad either :)

    Ed - come on now, what I said was I like the way their lack of holiday makes them behave. When it comes to holidays, EVERY SECOND COUNTS!

    Dan - that's the danger of internet irony - it doesn't come across unless you use tags

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  6. Dan - GAH! Apparently, you can't use < irony > tags in HTML. Oh, the / irony

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  7. I am not so worried about honesty as taking the thing as an advert rather than a short documentary. Why would they not walk around pubs and taverns and ask people if they are craft beer fans? Because it needs to be a controlled presentation in part. It needs to be back by the quartet and come off as somewhere near profound. Not really against it so much as missing what it might have been.

    You know, I was turned off at the first suggestion that "I am a craft beer blogger" needs its own video but maybe that bit of either fun or satire needs to be done.

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  8. Alan - I take your point, and to be honest, I was playing devils advocate a bit. I like the idea that someone realised that the whole craft beer movement is nothing without consumers - thanks to the brewers, but double thanks to the people who drink it (repeatedly). As I said in my original post, I love the earnestness of the whole thing - I'm not sure that you'd get that by wandering around with a camera at GABF (or GBBF for that matter).

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  9. I got a little grumpy about Alan's post. I see the whole thing as harmless, passionate, enthusiastic fun, much as it sounds you did, Zak.

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  10. It seems to me it's just advertising pap. Not really worth getting grumpy over but also not something to be inspired by.

    American culture could definitly use a good dose of irony.

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  11. Stephen - I think the same as you. I certainly dont think it's some cynical marketing ploy. It's an example of what the Americans do well and the English (British?) are bad at - being unashmedly proud of somthng, accompanied by a little mild trumpet blowing. Bring on the trumpets!

    Kieran - it is an advert, but its an advert for something I like. I think it's important that craft beer fans don't pull the drawbridge up behind them, but seek to include and educate our less fortunate brethren.

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  12. Difficult one this. For a start I reckon you could play a clip of the average office Christmas party with that pseudo-epic Sigur Rós track over the top and it would look like The Seven Samourai...

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  13. Hmmm... Maybe the "I am a Craft Beer Blogger" video will have a Fellini-esque scene between me and Stephen playing grumpy chess as Ron Pattinson reads 19th century brewing logs in a monotone slowly, looking the other way. In grainy black and white.

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  14. "I love the earnestness of the whole thing."

    You mean the way they all just read from the script with a blank face as they were told to do and all made to laugh for the ending and it was all made slick in the edit.

    Did we really watched the same video? This is just as disingenuous as any Apple/Microsoft/IBM advert. You have to question the honesty when they have so accurately mimicked all the editing techniques that multinational corporations use to convey their pseudo sincerity.

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  15. Maybe I'm a bit grumpy today, but this seems more than a little patronizing. You're extrapolating a "national personality" from a four minute piece of marketing. You're pigeonholing 300 million plus Americans through back-handed compliments like being "earnest" and "straightforward". I read that as "simple" and "naive". Then you and your commentors drop a bunch of tired cliches like Americans don't understand irony and that we're all workaholics who like to cram things in (while presumably shouting "yeeeee hawwwwww!").

    Sorry if I'm taking this the wrong way. I know you mean well, but I get a little touchy when Brits start proclaiming "Americans are like this" and then proceed to list a bunch of lazy preconceptions.

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  16. Chris - sadly the clip stops short of someone photocopying their arse

    Alan - of course, not all craft beer drinkers are the same. Which brings me to...

    Anon - I'd warrant you are being a bit grumpy, but I wasn't being intentionally rude. And if I've unintentionally offended you, then I apologise. And if the commenters have offended you, then I'm sorry too, but I've opened the blog up to anonymous comments by popular request. Here's the skinny: I've got lots of American friends, and I even lived there for a while. One thing that I honestly love about America is the freedom from cynicism and the lack of need for ironic distance. Yes, that's a sweeping statement, but it is heartfelt and based on personal experience. As to whether the video is a cynical load of nonsense, I refer you to what I said to Kieran - it's an advert for something I like. I'd level everything I said about this video at the "I am a craft brewer" video. I admire the American craft movement's determination to promote themselves - I sense you find it a bit cheesy and cynical. If you choose to read what I say as criticism, then I'm honestly sorry. But equally, you've heard that offence can really only be taken rather than given?

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  17. This was sickening, Avery. How dare you exploit my people like this. The only thing missing was Tandleman chiming in, giving his two pence.

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  18. Monty - I'll be speaking Mr President and making a formal apology shortly.

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  19. I felt the urge to stand up and salute the Stars and Stripes towards the end of that, but it passed very quickly.

    Thankfully.

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Sorry about the word verification - the blog was getting spammed to bits.