August 21, 2004
BY JULIET WILLIAMS
MILWAUKEE -- Miller Brewing Co. has apologized for failing to include any black artists on its series of commemorative rock 'n' roll cans.
The brewer didn't include any black artists in its series of eight commemorative beer cans, part of a summer promotion with Rolling Stone magazine celebrating of the 50th anniversary of rock 'n' roll. Critics had questioned how Miller could have overlooked black artists' role in the development of rock music.
''African Americans obviously have played a formative role in the development of rock 'n' roll, and despite our efforts, we did not manage this component of the promotion appropriately,'' the company said in a statement late Thursday ''to the African-American community, to music fans and to our valued consumers.''
The cans issued by Milwaukee-based Miller featured Rolling Stone cover shots of Elvis Presley, Blondie, Alice Cooper, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard and Willie Nelson, as well as two showing the guitars of Eric Clapton and Joe Walsh.
In addition, Miller is facing criticism over another aspect of the Rock and Roll venture. Critics note that, with the possible exception of Elvis, the musicians chosen did not possess a great deal of talent. The company quickly apologized to “All of our customers who have any taste in music at all. The inclusion of Def Leppard can only be attributed to excessive in-house consumption of our own product line.”
Asked how such an obvious mistake could have been made in an era of rigorously researched marketing schemes and painfully high levels of political correctness, one former Miller executive who asked not to be named (Fred Gump, VP of Carbonation), said “We were debating the relative merits of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, and somebody joked that neither of them were as cool as Def Leppard. We all laughed so hard beer squirted out our noses, and the next thing you know we were putting together the list of the eight lamest icons we could think of. Bon Jovi, Blondie, I mean, really – Alice Cooper? Then we all passed out, and somehow the lamer list got sent in instead of the real list.”
That version of events is vigorously disputed by other executives. “The so-called real list included the Beatles, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, and Chuck Berry among others” said Bob Stump, VP for pull-tabs. “Do you have any idea how much the rights to their images cost? You want to hear what Paul McCartney said when we asked if we could use his face to sell beer? We didn’t mix the lists up. We sent the first one back and demanded a list of people who would shill for us at the least possible cost. And we got Def Leppard.”
Advertising executives suggest that move made sense on other grounds. “Miller is not a high-concept beer,” said one Madison Avenue panhandler.. “It’s a beer sold in aluminum cans to people who live in aluminum homes. In the trailer-park world, Bon Jovi IS a Rock and Roll artist.”
The scandal follows hard on the heels of the recent controversy of Miller’s “Heroes of Civil Rights” beer can series, which also featured no African-American faces. Although some of those included in the Civil Rights series were arguably justifiable choices, such as Robert Kennedy and Eleanor Roosevelt, the inclusion of Bull Connor and Strom Thurmond raised serious questions about Miller’s corporate sanity.
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