Yankee Brew News Archive

Watchdog Group Slams Anheuser-Busch Ad Campaign: Megabrewer Agrees to End Unsupported Claims About Boston Beer Company

Originally Published: 06/97

By: Brett Peruzzi

It's a ruling that no doubt has Boston Beer Company president Jim Koch and his staff hoisting glasses of Samuel Adams in celebration.

After a months-long investigation, an advertising regulatory board has persuaded Anheuser-Busch to discontinue making unsupported advertising claims about the Boston brewer's products. The National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. challenged the truthfulness and accuracy of A-B's print, radio, and bar-card advertising. NAD recognized the fact that Samuel Adams beers are brewed and bottled by contract breweries outside of New England.

It requested, however, that any future statements about that fact, made by A-B, not imply that Boston Beer does not control the brewing of its beers at the contract breweries. It also asked A-B to refrain from implying that Samuel Adams beers are of the same quality as the low-priced beers these contract brewers produce under their own labels.

The investigation was conducted at the Boston Beer Company's request, after the brewer was hit with a one-two media punch last fall. First Dateline NBC ran a widely-criticized story on contract brewing in October, which was immediately followed by a print and radio attack ad campaign by A-B.

Boston Beer has both its detractors and supporters in the craft brewing community. The detractors deride its status as a large, national contract brewer, and dismiss Jim Koch as a litigious, hyperbolic pitchman rather than a real brewer. The brewery's supporters point out that the high quality and breadth of styles Boston Beer produces cannot be denied, as well as its long-standing support of the homebrewing community.

Boston Beer portrays itself as David to A-B's Goliath, pointing out that A-B is nearly 100 times its size. A-B reputedly controls more than 45% of U.S. beer production and an estimated 75% of beer industry profits. Boston Beer also points out that it has not necessarily been singled out. It believes that A-B has, since 1995, been attempting to discredit craft brewers in general, and attacked the most successful and influential ones in particular.

A-B head August Busch IV has made several pointed statements himself in trade publications about craft brewing, at times conceding that Jim Koch is a savvy marketer with highly-regarded products. The most telling statement was made in Beer Marketers Insight, when he responded to questions about A-B's attack ads against Boston Beer. "This isn't the first time we've taken the low road," he admitted, "and it probably won't be the last."