unimpressed
let this be my open letter to russell brewing
where i complain about one of their coasters
i have posted photos of several of russell brewing's beer coasters over the past couple of months here in my blog under the title "beer geekery"
because i thought they were cute and funny
what a great idea to put funny things on the backs of beer coasters
amuse the beer drinkers and have them think more positively about your brand
its a sound plan
but there's nothing cute and funny about homophobia
way to piss off a bunch of loyal beer drinkers (yes, pun intended)
who i can assure you will be thinking twice before drinking another russell product
definite mis-fire on that sound planning
i think a donation to out in schools
and a review of all their "funny" coasters is in order for russell brewing
heck, an apology and a recall of the offending coasters wouldn't hurt either
as for me, i'm going to have to review all my posts of the russell coasters to ensure that there wasn't another one among the bunch that might be offensive
which is sad
i like funny
i don't like having to be the politically correct police
but it strikes me that someone should have been paying more attention over there at russell brewing
i mean, its possible they didn't mean the drawing to be homophobic
maybe its supposed to be informative to those who need to be reminded to look where they're aiming so as not to make a mess of the bathroom
but i still don't see how this particular "joke" could have gotten through marketing department, printing company, bar managers, servers and the rest to end up on my table taking some of the joy out of my drinking experience
did no one along the way notice that maybe this wasn't going to be funny to a sizeable segment of the population?
even if personally no one at russell cares if they piss people off, you'd think that professionally they wouldn't want to alienate a chunk of customers and that st. augustine's who put the coasters out on their tables might have thought twice about condoning homophobia
so russell - what have you got to say?
where i complain about one of their coasters
i have posted photos of several of russell brewing's beer coasters over the past couple of months here in my blog under the title "beer geekery"
because i thought they were cute and funny
what a great idea to put funny things on the backs of beer coasters
amuse the beer drinkers and have them think more positively about your brand
its a sound plan
but there's nothing cute and funny about homophobia
way to piss off a bunch of loyal beer drinkers (yes, pun intended)
who i can assure you will be thinking twice before drinking another russell product
definite mis-fire on that sound planning
i think a donation to out in schools
and a review of all their "funny" coasters is in order for russell brewing
heck, an apology and a recall of the offending coasters wouldn't hurt either
as for me, i'm going to have to review all my posts of the russell coasters to ensure that there wasn't another one among the bunch that might be offensive
which is sad
i like funny
i don't like having to be the politically correct police
but it strikes me that someone should have been paying more attention over there at russell brewing
i mean, its possible they didn't mean the drawing to be homophobic
maybe its supposed to be informative to those who need to be reminded to look where they're aiming so as not to make a mess of the bathroom
but i still don't see how this particular "joke" could have gotten through marketing department, printing company, bar managers, servers and the rest to end up on my table taking some of the joy out of my drinking experience
did no one along the way notice that maybe this wasn't going to be funny to a sizeable segment of the population?
even if personally no one at russell cares if they piss people off, you'd think that professionally they wouldn't want to alienate a chunk of customers and that st. augustine's who put the coasters out on their tables might have thought twice about condoning homophobia
so russell - what have you got to say?
Decided to check out your blog after your spot on CBC - the radio spot was excellent, as is your blog generally. This post, however, made me roll my eyes.
ReplyDeleteThe coaster is definitely in bad taste but I seriously doubt Russell is condoning homophobia. Imagine if you were in a stall and noticed a woman looking over the divider at you. Eww, right? Total invasion of privacy. Would it be homophobic to say "WTF are you doing"? No. So the coaster could really be just a meant-to-be-a-joke-but-not-so-funny reminder to give a dude his privacy.
Why do I care? Because hompohobia is a serious issue. When one cries "hompohobia!" over any imagined slight it diminishes the issue's importance and then one's voice will not be heard when it is truly needed.
Looking forward to your next gig on the radio.
thanks for checking out my blog, and for commenting
ReplyDeleteas for the russell coaster, it wasn't just me who wondered if it was homophobic or just in bad taste, it was a whole tableful of queer folk. which made it seem more than an imagined slight and worth getting my knickers into a twist about!
russell were great about it, as i mention in a later post, and pulled the coasters.