In Part One of The Trouble with Lando, we looked at the differences between beer and malt liquor, how each are made and where malt liquor really comes from.In Part Two we will look at malt liquor marketing from the 1940’s to its golden age in the 1970’s.It all started out well enough. Prohibition had been repealed, but the Great Depression came right on its heels. Just when you could finally have a drink, nobody could afford to buy one. Isn’t that always the way?The war came and went, and on its heels came returning soldiers, a defense industry, and a growing middle class who, thanks to the GI Bill, suddenly had new homes, cars and disposable income. All those extras came into the home; television sets, automatic washers and dryers, appliances. Disposable income also meant entertainment dollars; there was money in the budget for fun pursuits like having Dave and Marge over along with the Gundersons for a drink and a rousing evening of Parcheesi. New breweries sprang up to cash in on the trend of home drunkenness. No bars or lounges for these polite and gentrified folks! They got stinky drunk with class—in the privacy of their own homes!And that’s who the malt liquor marketers aimed their product at: white, middle-class members of the Upright Citizen’s Council. They were white, uptight and boy, could they drink! Like fishes, those people!After about twenty years of pulling Joan and Wally out of America’s flower beds, malt liquor decided to come on down and tell the truth. The National Brewing Company in Baltimore, Maryland wanted to appeal to people who drank to get drunk and didn’t care who knew it.They developed a product whose marketing and packaging spoke to the real reason Joan and Wally drank malt liquor. They came up with a label that depicted a horse kicking like the dickens inside a horseshoe. In those days it was illegal to even hint at alcoholic potency of your beverage on the label, but National (and the public) knew a good metaphor when they saw one (wink, wink), and rolled out Colt 45 Malt Liquor in 1963.HEY, LOOK EVERYBODY, BLACK PEOPLE!
During the civil rights 60’s, advertising and marketing companies began to use Black models in their ads and bought ads in Black magazines like Jet and Ebony. Black people were doing everything in these ads; buying cars, coaching little league, selling insurance even. Big business began to woo the Black customer and also track Black purchasing habits. Black advertising and marketing firms were hired to create ads for Black consumers; more and more we started seeing people who looked like us in television commercials, print ads and billboards.The gains made during the Civil Rights Movement brought expanded opportunities to the Black middle class. Suddenly big business discovered all these Black people with disposable income. They decided to study what Blacks bought and where they spent their money. Marketing firms discovered that there were certain products that Black people used more than others, things they bought more times in more quantity than any other group and one of those products was malt liquor.Yes. And one of the many others was, uh-oh, menthol cigarettes! But more on that later.SOUL BROTHER NUMBER ONEThe first Black man to appear in a television commercial for Colt 45 was the little-known Johnny Cannon from the early 60’s; the taste wasn’t working for Johnny, as you can see in this priceless footage.Next was comedian Redd Foxx in 1975. In it he serves as comic relief to a very proper and distinguished-looking White man in a black suit seated at a café table at the bottom of a ski slope. Foxx is the deliveryman who is running late and decides to take a shortcut (driving at a high rate of speed over snow) which turns out to be the top of a ski slope. He drives/flies his car down the slope and stops just short of hitting the man with his car to deliver Colt 45 Malt Liquor. Check it out here.If you notice, the only hint of sexuality belongs to the White male; at 0.07 seconds he is joined in the shot by a Nordic type who skis up to him and gives him a look of, I don’t know, mockery? He ignores her. Anyway, at 0.57-0.59 seconds Foxx is standing off to the side next to a racially ambiguous female dressed in the same color ski jacket he is wearing. The man is seated, and the Nordic type is behind him standing next to another, younger White male. The symbolism is unmistakable.Whether the public knew it or not, this closing shot foretold the marketing strategy National Brewing would undertake in the coming years; the older, distinguished male had taken a seat to new target groups, Blacks and ethnics on one side and young Whites on the other.So, you see, the “Tales of Colt 45” campaign is just a continuance; Colt 45 is not doing anything in 2009 it didn’t tell you it would do back in 1975.1986 was a year of Libyan terrorism and exploding space shuttles; Chernobyl melted down, Halley’s comet damned near hit us, and the US attacked Tripoli. Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka won the Nobel Prize for Literature that year. The Bears beat the Patriots in the Superbowl and Billy Dee Williams helped to inject sex into malt liquor advertising.TURN OUT THE LIGHTSIt was simple, really; hire a member of your target audience, a celluloid ladies’ man and matinee idol who is handsome, articulate and well-spoken to deliver a preposterous product guarantee to middle class Blacks. According to Billy Dee, Colt 45 was all the grease you needed to turn the wheel o’ love in your favor; you could count on it.Now, why would they claim something this ridiculous, you ask?According to the journal Empirical Economics, total US beer consumption in the period between 1979 and 1989 had declined by 14%. The state of US beer had become so sorry that smaller microbreweries and brewpubs sprang up across the country who made and sold their own beer to the public. National breweries marketed their own microbrews in an effort to keep their customers. Fat chance; since the 1980’s imports and microbrews have grabbed a 10% share of the US beer market.Colt 45’s marketing campaign hit its intended target, males age 18-29 with moderate incomes who were young enough to chase women while stinking drunk without looking like sad, stupid losers.ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT?
In one thirty- second spot Billy Dee is talking to the camera in soft-lit close-up. In the first 10 seconds he tells you what you need to do if you want to have a good time. At 0.12-0.18 seconds, he tells you why you should have Colt 45 at home. He opens a can and a woman’s hand and arm appear to take the drink from him. He gives her a look of “Whoa, girl!” Finally, from 0.20-0.29 seconds, she’s grinning and moving closer, ready to give it up.The power of Colt 45 works every time—on her. But then, drunk chicks are notorious for being easy.These schlocky ads caught on with the public like chicken pox. A society that worshipped cars, designer clothes and drugs was being encouraged by a trusted celebrity to actively pursue self-gratification. Like they ever needed Billy Dee Williams to encourage that.No malt liquor ad examination would be complete without mentioning St. Ides Malt Liquor and its now-infamous radio and TV campaigns featuring today’s rap luminaries including Eazy-E, Tupac and Biggie. Where Billy Dee had paved the way for hedonism and sexual exploitation of women, rap artists’ endorsements added a twist of street machismo to the mix, tying it all to power and masculinity. Where Colt 45 promised easy booty, St. Ides promised you that plus street cred and power.St. Ides Malt Liquor managed two firsts in its short, illustrious career; it was the first alcoholic beverage to release a commercially available mixtape featuring rap’s most talented artists rhyming about its virtues and it was the first to feature a female spokesperson in its ads.Witness rapper Yo Yo striking a blow for drunk women’s rights here.THE NEVERENDING STORYTwenty-three years after the fact, Billy Dee Williams is still considered to be a smooth playa. Witness the strange, hilarious “I Am Billy Dee” video parodies on You Tube; they feature young hipsters who identify with Billy Dee’s smoothness in general and Colt 45 in particular. They’re the next generation of drunkards.In recent footage of Williams he’s still playing that cat-daddy role; red suit jackets, open collars, and slicked back hair and is still answering questions about Colt 45 Malt Liquor. And that’s one of the curses of this ad campaign; a now 72-year old man is unable to escape a corporate-created stereotype of himself. The only thing keeping him smooth these days is Swiss Kriss, baby oil and Glucosamine Chondroitin, but don’t tell that to the hipsters. No need to kill their dreams and aspirations of smoothness.The other curse, of course, is the lingering effects of alcoholism and drug use on the health of people living in poor communities. Malt liquor and its best friend, menthol cigarettes, have been around us for so long they’re like family members. The question is why?IT TAKES TWO
In the 1960’s, cigarette advertisers figured out that Black smokers preferred menthol cigarettes to non mentholated brands and heavily promoted them in Black magazines, stores, and on billboards in Black communities. It took 35 years, but in 1995 somebody took the time to figure out why.The BMJ journal Tobacco Control reports the results of a study that found the number one reason Black smokers preferred mentholated cigarettes is taste (83%), followed by smokers who found the menthol soothing to the throat (54%), and after that, ease of inhalation (48%). The problem with all of this is that the easier it is to inhale, the deeper into the lungs the menthol, tar, nicotine and carcinogens go, the higher the risk for disease. The menthol “cools” the smoke so the smoker feels he can inhale more deeply. So he does.And years later he dies from any number of health problems brought on by smoking.Once they figured it out back in the 60’s, they piggybacked their ads with malt liquor advertisers in Black magazines. If you look back into those mags, you will find every other page is a cigarette ad. Menthol cigarettes and malt liquor have been joined at the hip ever since; they are the two slowest forms of ghetto suicide.The reasons why Blacks of a certain social class enjoy malt liquor are simple. According to a study conducted in south Los Angeles and reported in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, price per volume is the number one concern among malt liquor drinkers followed by availability. The third reason was not surprising; advertising and pop culture references to malt liquor aimed at them made them more inclined to buy. Surprise.BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO: THE UBIQUITY OF BILLY DEE WILLIAMSMalt liquor is dying. In fact, drinking among young people is dying, period. According to a 2008 Beer Institute report on underage drinking, since 1982, drinking among high school seniors is down 36%; binge drinking among high school seniors is down 31%; beer drinking among college freshmen is down 43%; and drunk driving is down 36% from 1982 to 2006. The efforts of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and similar groups has made a definite and positive impact on drinking. The beer industry is expecting growth throughout 2011, but certain segments of the industry won’t make it. Malt liquor is one of them.In their 2007 Third Quarter Overview Progressive Grocer reports that malt liquor constitutes only 1% of beer sales, down from 4.3% in 1997.And that, my friends, is why Billy Dee Williams is everywhere all at once; the malt liquor industry is on its last leg and National Brewing Company is trying to squeeze every penny it can out of a product that has been in decline since the 90’s. In order to keep making money they are frantically looking for ways to hook new customers while holding the drunks they already have in a vise-like grip.In light of this revelation, Colt 45’s superfluous and calculated outdoor advertising tactics are pathetic, the feeble thrusts of a product in its final death throes. The fact they resorted to resurrection in their latest ad campaign speaks volumes for the desperation they are feeling. They can’t, won’t turn the ghetto loose until that last dollar is in their pockets.The National Brewing Company, health care insurers, oil companies, banks, they’re all trying to hit that last lick before it all goes “poof”! Capitalism is dying. Don’t believe me? The internet is about to be free in the next few years. Notice all the mergers, Yahoo! and Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and Google, they’re all sorting out their territories and teaming up so they all will have some money when it all turns back into a pumpkin.So, just like their spokesperson, National Brewing continues on past its prime pushing a promise that never was, a rickety chicken hawk working hard to not frighten the young’uns.KEEP THAT SAME OLD FEELINGMalt liquor is on a long, slow march toward death. Now that the industry is lurching to a dead stop, it is up to community leaders to take the facts and use them to break malt liquor’s hold on our neighborhoods. In the past twenty-five years we have seen local corner stores replaced by package liquor retailers who have no interest in our neighbors or neighborhoods. They don’t live with us; back when all this started, yes, the stores belonged to people from our area, but no more.We would only be helping, not harming, ourselves if we worked toward eliminating this blight on our community.There has never been a better time to increase community pressure on outdoor advertising because the odds turn in the community’s favor when an organized effort is made. Churches, community groups, youth organizations and schools have a better chance of successfully removing these ads from our neighborhoods now that the industry itself is teetering on the edge. What say we give it a shove?Malt liquor has plagued the Black community for over forty years, but with organized community effort we can once and for all rid ourselves of this menace. History shows us that community organization, boycotts and organized pressure groups work. Let’s put history to work in our communities now so that malt liquor won’t make it to the fifty year mark.
You're welcome. It's time to send this shit packing, for real. Notice how they are doubling up on the advertising in our community, you can't turn a corner, literally, without seeing this thing.
At East McNichols and Conant are two billboards less than a block away from each other and Billy Dee is on both of them. I'm serious, At the corner is one, and one block down, kitty corner to Klinger Street is the other. When I first saw the doubling up of this ad, I knew there was something more to it. They are dumping this crap in our laps.
They have already scoped out their next market; go to Google Earth and look at Rome, Italy. Billy Dee is leering from a billboard over there!
https://theblacklist.net/
Comments
At East McNichols and Conant are two billboards less than a block away from each other and Billy Dee is on both of them. I'm serious, At the corner is one, and one block down, kitty corner to Klinger Street is the other. When I first saw the doubling up of this ad, I knew there was something more to it. They are dumping this crap in our laps.
They have already scoped out their next market; go to Google Earth and look at Rome, Italy. Billy Dee is leering from a billboard over there!
and somewhat encouraging.
Thank you