Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Long, Slow, Torturous Death of Zima (No more Zima "beer)
Slate ^ | November 26, 2008 | Brendan I. Koerner

Posted on 11/29/2008 6:07:51 AM PST by PJ-Comix

There are a million ways to slight a rival's manhood, but to suggest that he enjoys Zima is one of the worst. Zima was the original "malternative"—a family of alcoholic beverages that eventually came to include such abominations as Smirnoff Ice and Bacardi Silver—and it has long been considered the very opposite of macho: a drink that fragile coeds swill while giving each other pedicures.

That stereotype has persisted despite the fact that Zima's brief heyday came nearly 15 years ago. The brand was then hailed as a marketing coup, an ingenious way to sell beer—or rather, a clear, beerlike solution—to consumers who eschewed traditional suds. But virtually overnight, Zima was done in by its medicinal taste and girly-man rep: After selling an astounding 1.3 million barrels in 1994, the year it went national, Zima's sales fell to just 403,000 barrels in 1996.

Many drinkers assume that Zima vanished shortly thereafter and has since existed solely as a punch line. But Zima actually survived for more than another decade, until MillerCoors pulled the plug on Oct. 10. Rarely has such a famously maligned product enjoyed such a lengthy run—a testament to its brewers' Madonna-like knack for reinvention. The Zima that died a quiet death last month bore little resemblance to the malternative that swept the nation during President Clinton's first term.

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: alcohol; beer; coeds; zima
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 161-175 next last
To: PJ-Comix

right, back in the day we called it Sch**z. PBR 16 ozs baby!


21 posted on 11/29/2008 6:27:46 AM PST by stan_sipple
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: alice_in_bubbaland

The “Airliner” bar in Iowa City had Bud, Schlitz, PBR and one other on tap when I was in school. Donnelly’s Bar had PBR on tap and if you went in and asked Harold for a “Democrat,” you got the 12 oz glass.


22 posted on 11/29/2008 6:28:24 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: incredulous joe

When I was young, Coors held some sort of mystique, simply because you couldn’t get it East of the Mississippi. We’d actually organize forays from Milwaukee to the closest place we could get it. Pool a bunch of money, and go in my van and score cases. We used Coors, and Ripple Red to soothe throats made sore by cheap Mexican weed.
That was almost 40 years ago! Now I buy Moosehead most often. Not too expensive, and fairly good tasting. And,,, I like a little “skunk” when I pop the top. Use it to soothe my throat made sore by yelling at the neighborhood teenagers!
Took one swig of that Zima cr@p once. Spit it out, and poured the rest down the sink.


23 posted on 11/29/2008 6:28:42 AM PST by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ("Don't touch that thing")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: jerod

Maybe it’s just me but I never figured out the popularity of Bud.


24 posted on 11/29/2008 6:28:49 AM PST by PJ-Comix (The Tide Turned Just a Half Year After Pearl Harbor)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

I had it once at a party where I didn’t particularly want to drink. One bottle lasted the entire night, and half of it was left over.


25 posted on 11/29/2008 6:29:20 AM PST by Ronin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

“Bitch Beer” I hope it died a painful death.


26 posted on 11/29/2008 6:29:58 AM PST by mrmargaritaville
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
then committed suicide by putting some sort of additive into its beer to save money. It also changed the taste much to the distaste of it's customers.

I cringe every time I see "new, improved" on the packaging of a product I usually buy.

More times than not, the "new, improved" results in a crappier product.
27 posted on 11/29/2008 6:30:13 AM PST by TomGuy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

LOL! Great timing! I’ve never had a California Cooler. Most of the wine coolers are too sweet for me.


28 posted on 11/29/2008 6:31:32 AM PST by alice_in_bubbaland (WELCOME TO THE OBAMANATION!!!!! Hold on to your wallets and your guns folks!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

One particularly infamous incident concerning Zima happened on the TV series “Babylon 5”. In the episode entitled “TKO”, series creator J. Michael Straczynski put a Zima neon sign in the bar at the Zocalo, the central shopping area on the station. Was it product placement? Why did they do it? In JMS’ own words...they “got not a dime for sticking in the Zima sign. We just thought... well, it’d be funny.”

Funny didn’t describe the backlash from fans.

They got a TON of emails, letters, and newsgroup posts about it, and overwhelmingly negative. “How can such swill survive 300 years and still be around in 2269???”

If sci-fi fans (who I know from personal experience will drink ANYTHING alcoholic set in front of them) wouldn’t drink it, and didn’t want to even see it mentioned in one of their favorite series, then it HAD to be bad.


29 posted on 11/29/2008 6:32:31 AM PST by hoagy62 (PAGF Charter member)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra

We did it back in high school in the 60s. One guy in our class was 18 and that meant he could buy beer in Kansas. The closest spot was Wathena, across from St. Joe, MO. We took the spare tire and jack out of the trunk to make room for 24 cases of Coors in my Cutlass. We doubled our money on every case.


30 posted on 11/29/2008 6:33:54 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

What human being would drink Zima when Yeungling is available..........


31 posted on 11/29/2008 6:35:18 AM PST by Thumper1960 (A modern so-called "Conservative" is a shadow of a wisp of a vertebrate human being.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

“When you’re out of slits, you’re out of pier.”


32 posted on 11/29/2008 6:35:46 AM PST by Psycho_Bunny (By Obama's own reckoning, isn't Lyndon LaRouche more qualified? He's run since the 70's)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: alice_in_bubbaland
You had to mix it with something, anything, to make it somewhat palatable.

Ergo, lime & Corona.

33 posted on 11/29/2008 6:38:58 AM PST by tbpiper (Now irate and tireless, but mostly irate.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Thumper1960

I really like Yuengling.


34 posted on 11/29/2008 6:39:04 AM PST by PJ-Comix (The Tide Turned Just a Half Year After Pearl Harbor)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix; NonValueAdded; incredulous joe
Well, looky here... I'd always heard this mentioned in the MSM as a class-action lawsuit... Check this out from Wiki:

================================================

In April 1977, the brewery workers union at Coors, representing 1,472 employees, went out on strike. The brewery kept operating with supervisors and 250 to 300 union members, including one member of the union executive board, who ignored the strike.

Soon after, Coors announced that it would hire replacements for the striking workers. About 700 workers quit the picket line to go back to work, and Coors replaced the remaining 500 workers, and kept making beer uninterrupted.

In December 1978, the workers at Coors voted by greater than 2:1 to decertify the union, ending 44 years of union representation at Coors. Because the strike was by then more than a year old, striking workers could not vote in the election.

Labor unions organized a boycott to punish Coors for its labor practices. One tactic was to push for state laws to ban sales of unpasteurized canned and bottled beer. Because Coors was the only major brewer not pasteurizing its canned and bottled beer, such laws would hurt only Coors.

Sales of Coors suffered during the 10-year labor union boycott, although Coors said the declining sales were also due to an industry-wide downturn in beer sales, and to increased competition. To maintain production, Coors expanded its sales area from the 18 western states to which it had marketed for years, to nationwide distribution.

The AFL-CIO ended its boycott of Coors in August 1987, after negotiations with Pete Coors, head of brewery operations. The details were not divulged, but were said to include an early union representation election in Colorado, and use of union workers to build the new Coors brewery in Virginia.

In 1988, the Teamsters Union, which represented brewery workers at the top three U.S. beer makers at that time (Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and Stroh), gained enough signatures to trigger a union representation election. Coors workers again rejected union representation by more than 2:1.

========================================

This is the reason Coors stopped being a quality product back in the Carter administration. One more reason to detest the 70's.

35 posted on 11/29/2008 6:40:04 AM PST by OKSooner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

Zima was the very definition of swill.


36 posted on 11/29/2008 6:40:36 AM PST by Mike Darancette (I have nothing to say - Oliver Hardy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: alice_in_bubbaland

If I want a wine cooler I just drink Sangria.


37 posted on 11/29/2008 6:40:45 AM PST by PJ-Comix (The Tide Turned Just a Half Year After Pearl Harbor)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

The worse crap I’ve ever bought and wont even get you drunk. I got some for me and my girl back in the day and had to run out for real beer a few hours later. Live and Learn... = ¥ + Ü


38 posted on 11/29/2008 6:41:13 AM PST by ßuddaßudd (7 days - 7 ways Guero >>> with a floating, shifting, ever changing persona....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: hoagy62

I remember seeing the Zima sign, both when the series was first on TV and on the DVD. Made me laugh.

I can’t stand the smell of beer, and no matter what they put in it, I can still smell it. I remember when what used to be wine coolers all became beer products, because the manufacturers wanted to lower the alcohol content. I ordered one at a hamburger place we often went to, opened it and smelled beer. I took it back to the cashier and said, “This is beer. I hate beer.” She smelled it and said, “Yuck, you’re right!” After that, I drank Diet Coke.


39 posted on 11/29/2008 6:42:20 AM PST by Tax-chick ("And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day." (Is. 2)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

Yeah, actually. I liked it at first, and then quickly tired of it. (I don’t particularly care how people see it: if I like it, I like it. I did, then I didn’t.)

Current fave: Newcastle Brown Ale.


40 posted on 11/29/2008 6:43:03 AM PST by BibChr ("...behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom is in them?" [Jer. 8:9])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 161-175 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson