High Road for High Life

21 July 2004



SAB Miller Needs a Sense of Humor

SAB Miller, megabrewer that makes Miller in addition to others, is suing some T-shirt makers. The problem is with the Mullet haircut -- long in back, short up front. Fashionable back when David Bowie first showed if off when he put out Diamond Dogs (for readers under 30, that was a really long time ago), the Mullet is now the great laughing stock of hairdos (except for the Combover balding men wear). A rather cheeky T-shirt maker has decided to mock the Mullet using a parody of Miller's slogan's and logo. SAB Miller has shown no sense of humor and as a result has missed a great advertising opportunity.

Manufacturer BrandLabs and retailer Nordstrom, according to the suit, should cease making and selling the shirts and turn over any money made to SAB Miller. One shirt, reads "It's Mullet Time." Another uses the same logo shape and colors of the original to announce "Mullet Low-Life." For SAB Miller, it is an open and shut case, and the brewer will probably win. Unfortunately, free speech lampooning of corporate logos is more protected in American that free speech lampooning of politicians. Burning the flag will cause angry words, burning a corporate logo will result in a lawsuit.

However, if SAB Miller had a sense of humor about this, it could wind up using the T-shirts to its own advantage. Put a couple of modern Visigoths in the T-shirts and stick a brew in their hands. Have them complain about it and then have one of their buddies (less Visigothic), give them a Miller. Their haircuts change from dopey to whatever passes for cool these days, their sloppy cruddy T-shirts morph into new ones with the proper logos. It's been a long time since the glory of "tastes great, less filling;" here's a golden opportunity. And SAB Miller decides to sue instead.

This is the company that already got burned in a recent ad campaign when running for "President of Beers." It was a swipe at Budweiser's self-awarded nickname, "The King of Beers." Bud's brewer, Anheuser-Busch, killed it off by pointing out Miller couldn't be President of Beers because it is not American-owned (it's South African). Anyone who has had Fischer d'Alsace, Ruttles County, Newcastle Brown Ale or even Stella Artois will laugh at the idea that Miller is even considered beer, let alone the president of it. But if SAB Miller could have laughed at the Mullet move, it might have bumped sales up a bit, using BrandLabs and Nordstrom's money to do it.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


Home

Google
WWW Kensington Review



Search:
Keywords: