Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Brew Ha Ha! An Update


So, just when you thought it was safe to go purchase a six pack or two of your favorite naughtily-named microbrew, it turns out that the indignant complaining of some righteous witches might have had an impact on a small sector of the craft beer industry.

I've recently learned that the Lost Abbey Brewery, the source of some controversy earlier this week over their label for "Witch's Wit" wheat beer (which features a young woman being burned at the stake), has decided to respond to the angry emails directed at them by offering to create a new label for the beer, and, what's more, to host a contest for a new image! (No information on when, where or how this contest will be conducted; stay tuned!)

Considering a great deal of the pagan community's response has been fairly evenly split on this, with roughly half of them expressing negative emotions ranging from mild annoyance to impassioned outrage, and the other half wondering what all the fuss is about (and wondering why so many witches want to make it look like our community has a persecution complex), this response from Lost Abbey was somewhat surprising to me. Then again, it may help generate some publicity for their products; maybe even more than the recent flurry of media attention over the Witch's Wit label. Oddly, it's been two years since the label was first introduced.

Well, congrats, angry witches. You've managed to make a small independently-owned company bow to your ludicrous campaign of whiny nonsense. So what's next? Getting involved in some environmental activism, perhaps? Cleaning up your local park? Volunteering at your local hospital or nursing home or food pantry? What's that, you say? More protesting of offensive witch imagery during the month of October? Maybe you should head on up to Salem, Massachusetts. I hear there's a whole lot of tacky stuff with witches on it for sale there.

10 comments:

  1. PS: I really hate this version of the Blogger comment form. It rejects my Wordpress account. It won't let me post with a simple Name/URL. And it does not seem to work with Firefox (Mac) at all, although it does work with Safari.

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  2. I objected to the label because it depicted a human being being tortured...not because it had anything to do with witchcraft. I don't believe that voicing an objection to the violence portrayed in the advertising of a product is whining.

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  3. I think the last paragraph of your post says it all. What are all these Witches doing about the real humans being persecuted, and even executed, for being "Witches" (or merely labeled as such)? If only we could draw a similar amount of publicity for that!

    I'm glad to see our community can come together for a cause, but I wish the cause were something more substantial than a freakin' beer label.

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  4. I'm sad to see it being changed. Especially after reading the response Lost Abbey put out about the label (explaining its purpose). It's very unfortunate that a business is forced to take a loss and spend money revamping an image because of some touchy twits that couldn't even take the time to learn the context of the image before they started hollering. Unfortunate, and unfair. Grow up, grow a skin and go do something useful in this world.

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  5. Hey Chas, thanks for visiting. I will probably be switching over to a Wordpress format at some point (although I prefer the look and design of Blogger). Sorry you had difficulty.

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  6. Lady Cattra Shadow the Scarlet Cat: Just to clarify, the label art is not a photo, it's a painting. I'd be interested in hearing more about your history and heritage. Are you descended from people who were actually burned during the European witch craze? How did you find this out?

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  7. Oh, and Chas: I am using a Mac. Is there a different version of Blogger that would work? This is the "new" one which I don't like as well as the old version.

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  8. I'm with you, Peg. I have to wonder if any of these folks were up in arms over the introduction of "Polygamy Porter" several years ago, said beer being designed to make fun of Mormons. Mind you, I personally see nothing wrong in making fun of Mormons (especially after their church's illegal backing of California's Prop H8 campaign), but still...

    Michael Lloyd

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