When viral marketing met liquor advertising, it pissed the community off.
The mural above (via Ubiqlife) was posted on the side of Fishtown bicycle store Jay’s Pedal Power to promote Colt 45 malt liquor.
You see, Billy Dee Williams’ favorite brew is launching a concerted effort to popularize itself among white, indie music-listening, downwardly mobile urbanites. Say it with us: HIPSTERS.
Except both L&I; and neighborhood residents are upset:
Urban community leaders have criticized ads for malt liquor, which are often located in minority neighborhoods. Malt liquor has a higher alcohol content and can be bought for cheap in 40-ounce bottles.
“This is the kind of thing you wouldn’t put in a wealthy neighborhood,” Tracy said.
She said her group’s complaint was focused on the legal issue, not the message. But “when you have alcohol, it kind of stings a little harder than other products,” she said.
She also called it an “outrage” for the brewing company to mimic the city’s murals for its marketing of Pabst Blue Ribbon.
“They think as long as they paid someone to do their advertising, it’s OK - regardless of the laws, regardless of the neighborhood’s sentiment,” she said.
The murals are part of a national advertising campaign that we’ve also seen in the New York neighborhoods of Williamsburg and the Lower East Side, as well as in San Francisco’s Mission District. But those neighborhoods are far more gentrified than Fishtown — a place where alcohol has caused more than its fair share of harm in the past.
But enough moralizing. Can we all just agree that Colt 45 tastes like crap?
