beer coasters – Beck's Beer Blog

beer fact of the day

Beer Fact of the Day: For you “collectors” out there, “Tegestology” is the name for collecting beer mats and a “Labeorphilist” is the name for someone who collects beer bottles. (Perhaps not the most interesting “fact” we’ve ever posted, but a “fact” nonetheless!)

russell rocks!

all is right in my world once more!
i got this lovely reponse from russell brewing:

“Dear Rebecca:

Thank you for bringing your blog to our attention featuring your complaint about one of our beer coasters.

We have taken your feedback to heart and have taken swift action and are destroying all existing inventory of this coaster to ensure that it does not go into the market again. We are also working with our Territory Reps to recall any coasters that are still in the market.

We are sincerely sorry for causing you any distress and offending you.

Thank you for reaching out to us.

Once again we are very sorry.

Sincerely,
Angie Fernandes
Director of Marketing
Russell Brewing Company”

i am smiling
and i am feeling really quite delighted with russell brewing!

tempest in a beer glass

more on the russell coaster issue…

i posted a link to my previous post on my facebook and here are a couple of the responses i got from male friends:

“I get what you are saying, and I think you know my opinion on homophobia. Having said that, as a guy, I was taught this as an etiquette thing, nothing to do with orientation. You don’t look at a guys junk, while he’s doing his business. You don’t try and look down a ladies top when she bends over. You know, that type of thing.
Hey, let’s have a beer.”

“I kind of agree with [guy #1]. While I can see how it could be construed as being homophobic, I look at it more of a privacy issue than anything else. I wouldn’t want anyone looking over the top of my stall either while I was doing my business.

That being said, I love to be a bit of a shit disturber and diliberately look over at other dudes just to make them un-comfortable. But I blame that on the six pack I am currently wizzing out. ;)”

and i agree with guy #1 as well

however…

regardless of whether or not it was intended to be homophobic, there’s no denying that reading it as such is not coming from way out in left (or right) field.

i think russell brewing should have realized this and not printed these coasters.

after reviewing the other russell brewing coasters i have posted photos of on this blog, none of which were as blatantly (potentially) offensive as the one above, they are all quite hetero and male oriented

gee marketing department, did you think only hetero, white, able-bodied males drink your beer?

maybe they’re the biggest population, but its just short-sighted to ignore (and possibly alienate) the rest of your market

the part that i think upsets me the most

and here’s where i show you just how non-activist i actually am

is that i took the previous coasters at face value and found them amusing

now that i’ve seen one that offended me, i went back and looked at the others with my politically correct glasses on and found them quite lacking in social awareness

now i feel i have to take a stand

and anyone who knows me knows what that means

no more drinking russell products

no more going to russell sponsored events

and unfortunately for everyone, making sure you all know why i’m boycotting russell

unless of course russell brewing responds in a half-way satisfactory manner

(and yes, i did send them a link to my previous blog post and my blog in general so they know i’m offended)

so you see, now i’m not just offended by the coaster

i’m resentful of russell brewing ‘making me’ climb back up on my soapbox

geesh!

unimpressed

let this be my open letter to russell brewing
where i complain about one of their coasters

i have posted photos of several of russell brewing’s beer coasters over the past couple of months here in my blog under the title “beer geekery”
because i thought they were cute and funny
what a great idea to put funny things on the backs of beer coasters
amuse the beer drinkers and have them think more positively about your brand
its a sound plan

but there’s nothing cute and funny about homophobia

way to piss off a bunch of loyal beer drinkers (yes, pun intended)
who i can assure you will be thinking twice before drinking another russell product
definite mis-fire on that sound planning

i think a donation to out in schools
and a review of all their “funny” coasters is in order for russell brewing
heck, an apology and a recall of the offending coasters wouldn’t hurt either

as for me, i’m going to have to review all my posts of the russell coasters to ensure that there wasn’t another one among the bunch that might be offensive
which is sad
i like funny
i don’t like having to be the politically correct police
but it strikes me that someone should have been paying more attention over there at russell brewing

i mean, its possible they didn’t mean the drawing to be homophobic
maybe its supposed to be informative to those who need to be reminded to look where they’re aiming so as not to make a mess of the bathroom
but i still don’t see how this particular “joke” could have gotten through marketing department, printing company, bar managers, servers and the rest to end up on my table taking some of the joy out of my drinking experience
did no one along the way notice that maybe this wasn’t going to be funny to a sizeable segment of the population?
even if personally no one at russell cares if they piss people off, you’d think that professionally they wouldn’t want to alienate a chunk of customers and that st. augustine’s who put the coasters out on their tables might have thought twice about condoning homophobia

so russell – what have you got to say?