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Schlitz Is Gone, but First It's Getting One Last Hurrah

milwaukeemag.com

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Re: Schlitz Is Gone, but First It's Getting One Last Hurrah

#21

Post by FarmerPotato »

basch wrote: post #4

Buried at the end of the article is the real story. "Schlitz" hasn't existed since the early 70's. They cut costs and ruined the formula and brand. In 2008 it was "revived" and a new beer took the name. Now someone else is brewing a completely different reconstructed formula for "the last batch" and throwing the name on it, again. And im sure itll happen again and again after that.

I remember a cartoon of college kids opening beer cans.

“Beers that say their own name:”

Schlitz!

Pabst!

Busch!

Blatz!

Re: Schlitz Is Gone, but First It's Getting One Last Hurrah

#22

Post by zamadatix »

fallinditch wrote: post #16
valleyer wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not my read of the message of those ads at all.

See Oh, Schlitz: How a Historic Ad Campaign Helped Kill America’s Biggest Beer Brand https://vinepair.com/articles/schlitz-history-ad-campaign

I wonder if that type of article would exist if they had made good brewery decisions before launching the commercials. I mean they aren't great commercials, but I don't know I'd compare them to the unabomber or call it the brand killer. The brand was already killed, the commercials just weren't great.

Re: Schlitz Is Gone, but First It's Getting One Last Hurrah

#23

Post by daverol »

GuestFAUniverse wrote: post #13
khazhoux wrote: post #12

At my house, my dad always drank Schmidt’s Gay. Before the divorce, that is.

He never liked "Schlitz". (Germans might understand why. And yes, that joke risks sounding misogynistic.)

Who can forget the CEO Francis J. Sellinger and his 'Taste My Schlitz' commercials https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NPxny7no4c

Re: Schlitz Is Gone, but First It's Getting One Last Hurrah

#24

Post by FrustratedMonky »

fallinditch wrote: post #14
basch wrote: post #4

Buried at the end of the article is the real story. "Schlitz" hasn't existed since the early 70's. They cut costs and ruined the formula and brand. In 2008 it was "revived" and a new beer took the name. Now someone else is brewing a completely different reconstructed formula for "the last batch" and throwing the name on it, again. And im sure itll happen again and again after that.

After sales slumped in the 70s they created a disastrous advertising campaign which is a case study in customer alienation: effectively 'drink Schlitz or I'll kill you' :- https://youtu.be/hC8mqPLHDVU https://youtu.be/f_baloTGt5M

Those seem pretty ordinary by beer commercial standards.

Advertising didn't kill Schlitz. They made some processing changes to their formula that caused a micro infection. Not sure, could have been Pediococcus. But they did it all at once, and ruined so many batches, that customers left and never came back.

Re: Schlitz Is Gone, but First It's Getting One Last Hurrah

#25

Post by bombcar »

zamadatix wrote: post #22
fallinditch wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See Oh, Schlitz: How a Historic Ad Campaign Helped Kill America’s Biggest Beer Brand https://vinepair.com/articles/schlitz-history-ad-campaign

I wonder if that type of article would exist if they had made good brewery decisions before launching the commercials. I mean they aren't great commercials, but I don't know I'd compare them to the unabomber or call it the brand killer. The brand was already killed, the commercials just weren't great.

If the brand had taken off and recovered the advertisers would claim "daring and powerful commercials that saved the brand" - the one thing they can't admit is that advertising isn't terribly effective.

Re: Schlitz Is Gone, but First It's Getting One Last Hurrah

#26

Post by ahartmetz »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #7
TMWNN wrote: post #2

Is Schlitz the beer company that Laverne and Shirley work for before moving to LA?

They worked at the Shotz brewery, an obvious Schlitz standin. Hasenpfeffer is a yiddish dish, here is a video familiar to some older generations of someone who wants to eat some Hasenpfeffer https://youtube.com/watch?v=OdXm-cb2cjQ Why is it Hasenpfeffer Incorporated in the jump rope rhyme they are singing as they skip down the street? Probably because at least one of the characters is supposed to be Jewish, can't rem…

Hasenpfeffer is also a French and German dish - it might be considered Jewish in the US because it's especially popular in Jewish culture there? It's unlike gefilte fish which is AFAIK considered Jewish everywhere.

Re: Schlitz Is Gone, but First It's Getting One Last Hurrah

#27

Post by bookofjoe »

Growing up in Milwaukee in the 1950s/60s,

"Schlitz — The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous" was so ubiquitous that it created a permanent engram in my brain.

The slogan was in giant animated brightly lighted letters on the tallest building in downtown Milwaukee.

Re: Schlitz Is Gone, but First It's Getting One Last Hurrah

#28

Post by ahartmetz »

daverol wrote: post #23
GuestFAUniverse wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He never liked "Schlitz". (Germans might understand why. And yes, that joke risks sounding misogynistic.)

Who can forget the CEO Francis J. Sellinger and his 'Taste My Schlitz' commercials https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NPxny7no4c

Well, by that time German immigration to the midwest was long enough ago that nobody could still understand it, I guess.

Re: Schlitz Is Gone, but First It's Getting One Last Hurrah

#29

Post by fortran77 »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #7
TMWNN wrote: post #2

Is Schlitz the beer company that Laverne and Shirley work for before moving to LA?

They worked at the Shotz brewery, an obvious Schlitz standin. Hasenpfeffer is a yiddish dish, here is a video familiar to some older generations of someone who wants to eat some Hasenpfeffer https://youtube.com/watch?v=OdXm-cb2cjQ Why is it Hasenpfeffer Incorporated in the jump rope rhyme they are singing as they skip down the street? Probably because at least one of the characters is supposed to be Jewish, can't rem…

As a native Yiddish speaker (it was my first language!) I can assure you that "Hasenpfeffer" is not a Yiddish dish, it is rabbit and most definitely _treif_. Yiddish speakers would not eat it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasenpfeffer

Shleimiel and Shlmazal are yiddish, via Hebrew.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9E%D7%9...

and

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9E%D7%9...

Re: Schlitz Is Gone, but First It's Getting One Last Hurrah

#30

Post by fortran77 »

ahartmetz wrote: post #26
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They worked at the Shotz brewery, an obvious Schlitz standin. Hasenpfeffer is a yiddish dish, here is a video familiar to some older generations of someone who wants to eat some Hasenpfeffer https://youtube.com/watch?v=OdXm-cb2cjQ Why is it Hasenpfeffer Incorporated in the jump rope rhyme they are singing as they skip down the street? Probably because at least one of the characters is supposed to be Jewish, can't rem…

Hasenpfeffer is also a French and German dish - it might be considered Jewish in the US because it's especially popular in Jewish culture there? It's unlike gefilte fish which is AFAIK considered Jewish everywhere.

Jews don't eat hare. Hasenpfeffer is not a "Yiddish" word.
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