Flavor is the new taste

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If, like me, you watched more than your fair share of football over the holiday season, perhaps (again like me) you encountered the sports fan's version of the old Chinese "man-butterfly" dilemma. To wit, am I watching football with beer commercials, or beer with football commercials? No matter how much you cling to the worldly illusion of the former, those beer commercials sink in a little.

And so, one of the things I've noticed lately is how beer companies are no longer content to exaggerate the "taste" of their product. Now, they are skirting the issue of bad taste by speaking instead of the amount of flavor, as if there's a certain amount of flavor that's significant. First time I saw this was from Miller Lite during their really stooopid "Election 2004" campaign. In one of the ads, reporting on the results of a national taste test, they beam with pride over the fact that a majority of tasters found that Miller "had more flavor" than Budweiser. Not that the majority of tasters preferred the flavor (as you learn in the small print to the ad), but that Miller has more. At least one more company has followed suit in their ads, and recently, I saw that KFC has taken up the "more flavor" banner.

Umm, ok. I'm just going to say this once: motor oil has more flavor than water (I think), but that doesn't mean that I'm going to go out and start ordering pints of it at my favorite bar.

Somewhere out there, there's an ad executive who's feeling all smug and self-important, believing that this strategy is cleverness incarnate. Don't. It's dumb, and more than a little pathetic.

That is all.

4 Comments

Oh man, I just recently saw an MGD print ad in a magazine:
"The richer the color, the richer the flavor. Which is why we use a clear bottle..."
Uh-huh... Well anti-freeze looks prettier and in some states still tastes better (and gets you trashed to boot!).

Back in the day, my roommates and I used to argue that Milwaukee's Best was better than Old Milwaukee, because the former had more flavor. Bad flavor, but nonetheless flavor.

Now, thank the gods, I brew most of the beer I drink.

The fact of the matter is, the Colts won. Can they win in Foxboro? I THINK so, but my betting dollars would say No. Typically, it's a 9-6 game when NE and IND match up. I expect more this time. Who you cheering for in NFL?

I'm less bothered than by the fact that "flavor" is the new "taste" than I am by the fact that "fresh" is the new "new." But both are annoying.

Tune in tonight for FRESH episodes of Some Stupid Show on the WB! Seems the show should come with an expiration date...

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This page contains a single entry by cgbrooke published on January 7, 2005 10:55 AM.

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