Prior to announcing the winners of the 2006 World Beer Cup, an important point was made. Beer is like kids, you can’t have a favorite (not brought up, but worth mentioning is that beer can often lead to having kids, But I digress…).
Although it was not a “keynote” in the true sense of the word, there was a key message delivered. “Irresposible beer drinking is not a healthy behavior.” This was not a forced message in the way that you often see big beers pushing responsibility. This was a heart felt plea to be mature and responsible in how beer is promoted. After watching a montage of real beer commercials that seem to suggest that “beer is for knuckleheads,” some interesting stats were shared about the short term benefit this kind of positioning has on the beer industry (and the long term harm). At its core, the key message was that irresponsible drinking does not lead to a life long commitment of real beer enjoyment, and that promoting beer in this fashion is bad for the beer industry in the long run.
