Watch what I drink, not what I say

There's a deliciously ironic moment noted in the Washington Post today (Bud's Belgian Buyout):

"It's messed up," St. Louis native James Metz said at the bar in Afterwords Cafe at Kramerbooks in Dupont Circle [Washington, D.C.]. The St. Louis community, he said, depends on Anheuser-Busch for jobs and philanthropy.

"If there was a Budweiser here now, I'd drink it," said Metz, hoisting a Stella. Kramerbooks doesn't sell Bud.

Emphasis mine. Stella is, of course, brewed by the "messed up" InBev.

And, an American irony:

At the Post Pub downtown [Washington, D.C.] yesterday evening, network engineer Monty Ottwell was ending his workday by knocking back a Jack Daniels with a Bud chaser.

"I'm a big fan of Belgian beers. I'm not a fan of Bud selling out," Ottwell said. "It's an American beer. Red, white and blue."

Fiducuiary duty, maximizing profit, capitalism, free enterprise. Wouldn't that be the American way?

And, in the 'that's-why-they-make-the-big-bucks' department:

"InBev needs the Anheuser-Busch brand culture," Credit Suisse analysts Carlos Laboy and Anthony J. Bucalo wrote in a research note yesterday. "InBev is weak in marketing processes, particularly in developing consumer insight for optimal occasion-based marketing."

Never let clarity stand in the way of obfuscation.