16 thoughts on “Texas-based small brewery responds to blogger after call-out for sex-themed ad”

1. You missed the story.
   And what South Austin did by dragging her poor health into the conversation was manipulative and possibly more exploitative than the original ad.
   Did you even read the OG article Bitch Beer posted?

2. Thanks for the comment, Chris. When approaching news/coverage/linkblogging/curating or whatever you want to call it, I have to make a judgment call on what angle to take. In this case, I covered every angle in this story evenly and presented it in a way that maximized reader interest and ultimately drove more traffic to your friend’s blog than I would have otherwise. I leave it up to readers like yourself to draw your own conclusions. It’s not necessarily my job to come out and defend sides, but rather just to present the information. I realize that your emotional investment may sway you towards one side though I haven’t met any of the subjects personally so I’m giving them all the benefit of the doubt. If you want to claim that South Austin is manipulative, you are totally free to do that.

   Cheers!

3. You’re assuming it’s my friend’s blog.
   The way you chose to frame your story and your conclusion with “Just goes to show that there is more than meets the eye sometimes.” puts the Bitch Beer author in a bad light. As in those dumb bloggers are ganging up on a poor sick model and the brewery is innocent as can be.

   The conversation is about craft breweries using women to market beer in the same way macros do and if we should have greater expectations for brewers making higher quality beer to also have higher quality advertising.

   My response was not due to an emotional investment, it was about pointing out, in my opinion, that you selected the easiest and (like you said) most likely to grab readers’ interest piece of the conversation and missed what the whole story actually is.

   And if you choose to respond, please do not talk down to me again.

4. Okay Chris, I’LL TALK DOWN TO YOU.

   Adam did nothing wrong here. The writers at Bitch Beer got caught, like many bloggers do, rushing to judgement without considering anything at all whatsoever as motive, back story, anything.

   The beer company in question clearly has many ways to reach them, the writers at Bitch Beer could have easily reached out and said, “Hey what gives”. But typical of so called “media” these days, people think they can create a firestorm without checking to see if their is anything worth burning.

   The whole story is what it is, a emotional overreaction by a set of bloggers that did not even take a second to fire off an email to the brewing company in question to get a hey what gives.

   They look stupid. You don’t thinks so. That much is clear. But at least in the end they know they jumped the gun.

   Expediency in publishing does not circumvent sourcing and authenticating ideas before hitting the send button.

5. I really hope PC isn’t going to overtake the world of craft beer. If this ad offends people so much (Chris, the Bitch Beer Blog folks, etc), I’d hate to see how they react to Foothill’s Sexual Chocolate, Cantillon Rose do Gambrinus (yes, it has a nude woman on it), or pretty much anything my favorite local brewpub does (they had a beer called Bloody Show, for crying out loud).

   It’s your call not to like the advertising, but just because you don’t agree with it doesn’t mean you should run to the internet and spread word of its evil. Hell, if breweries had to make logos/ads that didn’t upset/offend anyone, they would pretty much have to put the name of their beer in black font on a white backdrop, and even then the folks who prefer grey would probably complain. Just my $0.02.

6. I don’t see that identifying Bitch Beer as your friend’s blog (ok, maybe that was a bit of a presumption) or identifying your emotional investment is talking down to you. In the same way I don’t see, “Did you even read the OG story?” as talking down to me.

   In one of your tweets you say, ‘Idiots showing support for the tasteless ad have no context of ATX craft beer scene’ (timestamped before my comment reply). Not sure who you are talking about there (I can guess) but if you can remove yourself from the situation for a moment, know that the issue of sexism is universal and that someone doesn’t need to be a resident of ATX to understand it.

   Again, I didn’t miss the story. It is just that the story has been put out there a lot of times already. That shouldn’t make it less of a relevant issue overall but it does lower the interest around the subject, at least from a news perspective. But I queued it up as soon as I saw South Austin respond unapologetically. Whether or not the woman was in the hospital didn’t have impact on whether this story appeared here.

   Thanks for reading,
   Adam

7. Hey Chris,
   You assumed South Austin Brewery dragged her poor health in to the conversation to exploit this. Well, if you read comments on the original blog her husband Dave said she was in the hospital. SABC had nothing to do with it.

8. “As in those dumb bloggers are ganging up on a poor sick model and the brewery is innocent as can be.”

   Yup, that pretty much sums it up. The bloggers got made to look like the fools they are. And as for you….. well. lol.

9. Wow… My name is Dave I’m one of the sound engineers and sponsors of Austin Texas Roller Derby, Texas Rollergirls. I don’t know what to say. I’m thinking maybe the joke is to subtle here. The idea for this ad was to take the piss out off the misogynistic beer advertising you see everywhere. Hence the exclamation marks, cowboy boots, and us trying as hard as possible to make it look like some corporate beer advert in parity. I think we did our job a little too well. When you see the follow up ads you will get the joke I’m thinking. We where going to unveil round #2 at South Austin Brewing Company’s 1st year anniversary party this weekend but my wife, that you see in the ad, is in the hospital with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. With that said I find it imperative that I come to her defense. Funny you should pick this ad out to lead the charge on “half naked females to sell beer”. My wife and I are the next door neighbors to some of the coolest beer makers (SABC) you will ever meet. We drink there beer and are happy to poke fun, shoot the shit, and think up half baked ideas for their advertising. This is probably the first parity “Sex Sells” ad thought up by the woman in the ad. Eva Strangelove has a definite acute sense of humor but as I read your column here it seem you do as well. As for as the “pantyless and mere picas from a snatch flash” I think you got on your high-horse a little too soon. Eva made that dress out of a old XXL t-shirt and if you look closely she is more covered up that you realize. I think you are letting your old scripts on sex sells get away from you. It seems to me we have struck a cord here. To sexy for you? I don’t know if she missed her mark or hit the bulls eye and spit the arrow. Only time will tell. We any luck you will come to South Austin Brewery, taste the beer made with love, see the follow up ad and get a sense of where she was coming from. Prost! Na Zdorovie!

   This is from Beer and Bitches….:}

   Bitch Beer: Hi Dave,

   First off, I’d like to start by saying that we are terribly sorry to hear about your wife’s health problems and we wish her a very speedy recovery. We’d also like to congratulate South Austin Brewing on their first anniversary, truly a great achievement.

   Aside from that, we were very surprised to hear that these ads were supposed to be parodies…I suppose you’re right, maybe we’re just so used to seeing misogynistic imagery done in the same style that the irony here turned out to be a little too subtle to note.

   Since posting this story today, we’ve had a ton of feedback from our friends, members of the Austin beer community and readers new and old. This is definitely the first mention that we’ve heard of the ad being a parody, and frankly, I’m still not really seeing how the addition of an exclamation mark makes it so.

   The vast, vast majority of people we’ve heard from today have been equally put off by the ad, and many have said that they’ve had a problem with the series of images since they first started seeing them pop up around town. (This was our first time seeing one). Clearly, we’re not the only ones who missed the punchline here, so regardless of the original intent of the ad, which it sounds like may very well have been admirable, it just seems like the joke was lost on a lot of people.
   4 hours ago · Like

   And Back to me…

   So… I had to say something… Thank you for your well wishes. I have told Eva about your article and that you wish her the best. She is not reading at this point but will have a chance to chime in soon with any luck. Once again I fell short with my attempt at my dry Midwest wit. The exclamation mark reference was a retort to your “as opposed as we are to the use of exclamation marks, and as confused as we are about why she’s still wearing her cowboy boots”. I don’t like to hit people in the head. As I said before this is a series of ads and as soon as you see the rest you will see the parody I’m sure. This one is the set up. And… Well… I understand your rebuttal but as I’m sure you know if you state any opinion with enough passion and forwithall you will get many people to agree with you. The problem here is that you used a fun loving small town brewery ad to take your aggressions out on sex in the media. This idea is the epitome of misplaced intentions and you should work to disaggregate your call to arms here. We all have a opinions on what you speak of. I’m just saying you may of misplaced your focus in regards to the South Austin Brewery Ad. I my eyes it is art. All of it. No matter how bad. We all love beer. DRINK IT! ;} Smell what I’m stepping in? Sincerely -Dave Wolfe (Beer and Strong Opinionated Woman Lover)

10. PS. We are this this guy… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zkRdOtVuss&feature=player_embedded

11. I wish your wife the best Dave. Haters gonna hater. It’s easier to destroy than create….

12. I don’t see how the fact that the model is currently in the hospital has ANYTHING to do with the advertisement shot several months ago. Not at all relevant to the debate.

13. @Anna J

    It doesn’t. If a big chunk of space comes hurling into Earth in the background of a rock concert, it doesn’t have anything to do with the rock concert but the added element of surprise (The Twist) makes that rock concert more newsworthy. Otherwise, it’s just another rock concert. (Already said that it still became newsworthy when the brewery responded though). There are all kinds of worthy causes to advocate around beer (all kinds of charities, Pints for Prostates, etc) but BeerPulse isn’t really meant to be a platform for them.

14. “Just goes to show that there is more than meets the eye sometimes.”
    Really? Bollocks! Irrelevant to the original article. “Chunk of space…”? What random babble..ok then.
    Anyway, they are valid opinions from all sides. SAB twittering and tagging the blogger with the totally unrelated medical stuff. Sad and poor taste. Jordan’s crew could have stopped at the first two tweets/posts and been much better respected for standing by their choices.

15. On a side note, after reading this story my wife said she found the name Bitch Beer Blog far more offensive than the South Austin Brewing Ad. She’s always found the term offensive & feels it perpetuates the idea that craft beer is still a men’s club. I find myself unable to argue against that. The producers of the ad have made a statement about their intentions, why not give them the chane to show where it’s going? I doubt Bitch Beer Blog set out to offend women with their name & I’m sure my wife isn’t the only lady that would find it offensive. But rather than attack them we accept their stated reasons for choosing the name. Spoiler alert: Trying to take back or transform derogatory term ingrained in popular culture almost never works. That being said, best of luck to the ladies of BBB, in the end elevating beer culture is what it’s all about!

16. Greetings beer enthusiasts, my name is Eva Wolfe aka Eva Strangelove, the model of this ad which, apparently, is rather offensive. Perhaps I should chime in my two cents, if it even matters anymore (likely not).
    This particular image that Bitch Beer find so appalling, was not actually shot FOR South Austin Brewing Company. It was shot for the cover of MY 2012 calendar, of which they were sponsors. The calendar was marketed toward human’s who are not offended by the female form, or in particular, my female form, thigh high splits and all.
    Jordan and company at SABC are very good friends of my husband Dave and I, and they loved the image so much they made it into an ad. I giant, larger than life version of this ad hangs in their brewery, and is the subject of much favorable comment among the many guests that visit SABC.
    This ad was by no means decided upon after extensive market research, nor does it necessarily cater toward anyone other than beer lovers. It is, however, a “piss take” on similar advertising campaigns, and we had a terrific laugh during that photo shoot. But like I said, the ad is actually mine, not theirs.
    Jordan and co run this ad in publications, because it is there and is generally appreciated, and I told them they could.
    As far as I know, SABC rep’s have not participated in this old debate, and do not especially care too. There are new posters for the brewery out now, that show less skin and more characterization that feminists may approve of a little more.
    My husband Dave did not bring up my debilitating illness by real means of “defense”, but at the time was emotional after nearly losing me, so the last thing he needed to see were what he felt were feminazi’s putting down an image of me, which he and I are actually proud of.
    Anyway, I met one of the Bitch Beer gals much later, and she seemed nice, so whatever.

    Eva
    XO

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