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In most sectors, from seeds to prepared organic meals, very few companies lie behind that cornucopia of apparent choice. In addition to charting trends in patterns of ownership, Howard also explains some of the ways in which the concentration of power hurts both ends of the chain, those who grow ingredients and we who eat and drink.
Notes
- Phil Howard’s website offers access to all his work. It is an eye opener.
- Reading around the topic, it quickly became clear that a Budweiser commercial broadcast during the 2015 Superbowl might, possibly, represent a tipping point of some sort. It’s all rather funny. See for yourself. And read all about it. And then tell me: why can’t AB-InBev just leave people who don’t want to drink their beer alone? ((I know, it’s business. But why?))
- Incidental music by Podington Bear.
eatthispodcast.com/who-owns-whom-…
On average, there are 15,000 different products in a #supermarket. Of those items, virtually all of them are controlled by 10 companies.
This fabulous #podcast discusses further the product concentration going on across sectors.
#food #foodie #shopping
eatthispodcast.com/who-owns-whom-…
Latest episode Do you know who brewed your “craft” beer?
eatthispodcast.com/who-owns-whom-…
If you have ever wondered who owns the beer you drink and the food you eat.. Check this out! #ShockingNotShocking
Who owns whom in the #foodindustry? Get ready to be depressed. Thanks @EatPodcast eatthispodcast.com/who-owns-whom-…
Latest episode Do you know who brewed your “craft” beer?
eatthispodcast.com/who-owns-whom-…
Latest episode Do you know who brewed your “craft” beer?
eatthispodcast.com/who-owns-whom-…
Looking forward to this new @EatPodcast episode–featuring Phil Howard from @michiganstateu
#craft #beer #brewing #independent …and #brewerygrabbing
Phil Howard, of Michigan State University, casually let slip in our conversation about concentration in the food industry that a brewery in Australia had been fined for faux craft beer. I had to investigate. Its quite an interesting story.
Byron Bay Pale Lager comes with “labelling that incorporated the name Byron Bay Pale Lager, a pictorial representation of a lighthouse, text regarding Byron Bay and a map of the Byron Bay region showing the location of the Byron Bay Brewing Company,” according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Fair enough. Byron Bay is the kind of hippy dippy place where a little local brewer might be concocting some fine craft beers. And Byron Bay Brewing Company does in fact make a Pale Lager. As the bottle’s label explains:
So what’s the problem? Unless you were actually in that historic location, the Byron Bay Pale Lager you were downing was actually brewed by Carlton & United Breweries at a site hundreds of kilometres to the south, near Sydney. The ACCC fined Carlton & United a piddling amount — $20,400, AUD presumably — for misleading consumers. CUB promised not to do it again (at least for three years), and to “provide supplementary training for senior managers within CUB’s marketing department”.
And, of course, Byron Bay Brewing Company was more than happy to take CUB’s money at the outset, as are lots of craft brewers in Australia and elsewhere.
Everybody’s doing it
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that this happened in Australia, the place that may have invented faux dough “sourdough” bread. But the business of crafty marketing seems global.
Walmart does it in the US.
Heineken does it in Ireland.
And as heard in the podcast, the practice is rife in America. I’ll bet there are plenty of other examples around.
Perhaps the strangest aspect of the whole David and Goliath nonsense is the Budweiser Superbowl adverts in 2015 and 2016. Someday, I predict, and probably quite soon, nascent marketeers will write wordy theses about the story, none of which will do anything to dispel the sheer delight of the advertisement and its exegesis.