Topical Guide 441
Mark Dorset
Advertising: Types of Appeal: “The Grass Is Greener”; Exoticism
Reservations Recommended, Chapter 2
“Complete this sentence: The grass is — ”
“Always greener on the other side of the fence,” says Belinda in a rush, as if there were a prize at stake.
Jack bangs his spoon against his beer bottle. “I knew you were the smartest one in the bunch,” he says to Belinda. … “Now here’s the thing, the genius part. You can’t buy Anderson’s in the city where it’s brewed. You can only buy it someplace else. So you can buy Denver Beer in Boston, but when the Boston brewery is in operation, you’ll have to go to Denver or someplace to buy Boston Beer. You see? You get it? Because it’s brewed in Denver, people in the East think of it almost as imported. Exotic. The beer from distant Colorado. It’s got that Denver cachet, and that means something.”
“And Boston Beer is going to have that Boston cachet?” asks Richard.
“Sure! Sure! See, that’s the attitude, right there. The grass is greener. You don’t think Boston’s anything special, because you live here, but they’ll be suckin’ down Boston Beer in Denver, because it’s got that Boston cachet. Of course, they’ll also be sucking down a lot of Manhattan Beer and Memphis Beer and so on. Chacun à son cachet.”
Saturday Night Live, “Sam Adams Jack-O Pumpkin Boston Ale Commercial”:
Sam Adams has brewed its signature beers in Boston since 1984, so who better to try out our new Jack-O Pumpkin Boston Ale than real Bostonians?
[to be continued on Thursday, March 2, 2023]
Issue Number 16 of The Babbington Review is now on Substack.
Huey ‘Piano’ Smith, New Orleans Rock ’n’ Roll Cornerstone, Dies at 89
With songs like “Don’t You Just Know It,” “Rocking Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” and “Sea Cruise,” he put a firm backbeat behind joyful nonsense.
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