One of our local Charlotte troublemakers, the Ogre, is fanning the flames of the latest maelstrom to hit blogdom — Miller Brewing spending $30,000 to sponsor a march on Speaker Denny Hastert’s office. As the Chicago Tribune put it:
Now, march advertisements feature not just the organizing committee’s trademark blue globe but Miller’s logo and a Spanish translation of its “Live Responsibly” slogan, a company effort to build goodwill among Latinos.
But this march is no Cinco de Mayo parade. The politically charged event will promote a controversial plan to end deportations and offer legal status for all 11 million to 12 million undocumented immigrants. That creates potential pitfalls for any businesses lending support, experts say.
This is a stupendously bad idea from a corporate PR point of view, and that surely is the point of view Miller Brewing took. You just don’t stick your head into a highly charged issue like immigration unless you are sure of a pretty big payoff. Now Miller will have to deal with the backlash.
Better still, Anheuser-Busch gets to sit back and watch angry Miller drinkers swarm to A-B offerings while A-B maintains its historically good reputation in the Latino community — A-B owns about half of Modelo, the huge Mexican brewer. That’s the very connection and affinity that Miller was trying to cut into with a cheap $30,000 sponsorship of the march.
Now here’s some of Ogre’s kick ’em while they’re down digs at Miller’s misstep:
