WTF?
Anheuser-Busch is counting on civic pride to make its next product a smash seller: beer named after America’s various beer-drinking cities, based on their area codes.
To that end, AB has already applied for a federal trademark for “713” for Houston, reports Craft Business Daily, as well as 314 for St. Louis, 303 for Denver and 214 for Dallas.
And while it’s a proven fact that Houstonians are easy targets for anything that bears our area code — much like Texans are easy prey for advertisers who hawk their product as the “best in Texas” or decorate it with a Lone Star flag — there’s uneasy concern in the craft beer world that the beer giant is simply exploiting this tendency to sell a low-quality product and undermine craft brewing in the process.
Yeah, I’m not too worried about that. No amount of marketing will ever make bad beer taste better. And if it turns out that Bud 713 or whatever they call it doesn’t suck, then it’s a win for raising quality standards. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go trademark the number 3. I don’t know for what purpose, I just figure I’d better get in on the action before all the good numbers are taken.
I have a phone with 832…