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' :-
Wilkins Coffee (which gave employment to a young Jim Henson before Sesame Street or The Muppet Show) was quite successful with its implication that people who don't drink Wilkins get shot and suffer other misfortunes. Maybe having puppets do it was just more charming.
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.
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.
No, it was around but it was probably just Stroh's in the can at that point. I drank a ton of it at a dollar a can in the early 00's (RIP J&J's Pizza, Denton, TX). This would have been after the PBR buy out and it was probably whatever the Stroh's formula was.
I drank a bunch of these PBR owned zombie brands over the last 20 years, Black Label, Schlitz, Old Milwaukee, Lone Star, etc [1] and I've always wondered when I'm drinking one if it's the same flavor as one from previous years or even if the flavor is consistent across regions (assuming PBR was just slapping labels on contracted brewing).
Wow. Never thought I'd see J&J's come up on HN, but as soon as I saw the title, I was intrigued for exactly this reason. I was there too in the early 00's. Small world.
Indeed. I lived there for 4-5 years and left right before they started tearing down Fry Street. At that time I could see Bill Callahan at Rubber Gloves for 5 dollars, then head to the square and get my fill. Leave my car and walk home. Wake up and do it again, but instead see The Black Angels in someones house. Saw many great shows at Dan's Silverleaf and saw a number of terrible art exhibitions from the students. I had moved to the east coast by the time they burned down the Flying Tomato and it seemed like a fitting end given what I saw of the place the last time I had visited in early 2007.
I'm very fond of that place at that time. I used to commute straight into the metroplex and back out to Denton. I'd get home and park my car and have most everything a dude in his early 20s needed in walking distance.
