Full Disclosure: Anheuser-Busch paid to fly me out to Wyoming and Idaho to view some of their barley farms and a malt processing facility. They covered my travel, lodging, food, drink, and other costs.
Additional, personal disclosure: At the risk of alienating a subsection of readers, I fully admit: it was awesome. I drank some pilot beer that will never see market, met some wonderful folks, and put more knowledge about agrarian logistics into my brain than I had previously planned to this summer. That said, I’m still the same Oliver now that I was when I got on a plane on Sunday.
But realistically, the conversation about disclosure is fruitless.
If someone pays for your trip, you disclose. There are forms. You sign them. Game over. A winner is you.
I’m much more concerned with the handling of disclosure. Without rehashing too much of what Michael Kiser of Good Beer Hunting said about his Twitter interactions with Andy Crouch on Monday, I want to note that it’s really easy to sit on the sidelines and complain about objectivity when you’re not actively in the middle of a junket, doing your best to, you know, actually be objective.
For those reading this who weren’t privy to what went down, here’s the TL;DR – A bunch of media folks were invited on a raw-materials trip, sponsored by Budweiser. When we started posting on social media, several people made baseless comments about not disclosing the nature of our trip.
It all kind of went pear-shaped from there.
I never even got a chance to disclose because within seconds of mentioning I was dangerously near the jaws of AB, people made some gross assumptions.
Two of Kiser’s points sang perfect harmony to what I felt, too:
- Assumption attacks a person’s creative and ethical integrity
- Fueling the AB hate creates a false dichotomy of dialogue with clear-cut goods and bads
The first stings. I’ve spent the past six years spending money I earn from another job to write about beer. I’ve never had advertising nor merchandised anything. I’m clearly not in this for the money or free stuff. I care about beer and brewing, from raw ingredients to pint glass. I’ve written negative and positive essays about all the players, big and small, corporate and independent, so to even insinuate that I’m somehow now ethically compromised based on one 2 day trip is particularly insulting.
Ignoring the fact that a lot of personal attacks are echoes of psychological projection, when you attack someone’s integrity, you’re attacking their baser identity. You’re saying you can’t or don’t trust them. It’s a cruel jab at writers, especially those who’ve worked very hard to to create at their best level of fair.
But here’s the real grind of my grist: I shouldn’t have to defend myself. I shouldn’t have to justify going to a place to see and learn things I would never normally have the chance to see and learn.
I didn’t join in the Twitter conversations (for the most part), because I did not want to feed the false dichotomy that has taken over all macro vs. craft debate like a malignant cancer. I didn’t feel the need (or desire) to explain my actions when my entire ethical pedigree points pretty damn clearly to “skeptical of everything.”
People on both sides have transcended the “us vs. them” argument, dug in deep, transformed beer from a beverage with deep ties to culture, economy, and biology, into some kind of political maelstrom where craft might as well be a blue C and macro might as well be a red M.
It sucks, and we lose so many potential stories to the hellish pit of needing to be correct.
I understand we’re wired to take sides, and in turn, assume our side is right. But a two-path dialogue misses all the nuance, scrutinizes the bad of one side while glossing it over on the other, and most definitely vice versa.
I know people want AB to be this sinister, root evil who are in cahoots with the Illuminati and lizard people that want to take over the planet and grow humans as meat, but it’s just not true. Has ABInBev done some brutal, less-than-desirable, rampantly capitalistic shit? You betcha (check out this piece from Christopher Barnes). Have they also done other, more altruistic things, like not patenting or trademarking barley varieties and sharing their agronomic research to the benefit of the entire global malting community? Yes.
Check your prejudice. If your immediate reaction is to decide you are right, you are probably not. What’s right and what’s wrong is a sliding scale, unique to each human and her specific experience. We need to stop with this binary either/or rhetoric. Modern beer culture could stand for a bit of intellectual humility, critical thinking, and amiable neutrality.
We’re all right. We’re all wrong. That’s the beauty of this crazy life. Try not to force your presuppositions onto others who are trying to look a little past the horizon of current party lines, but if you absolutely have to, be kind about it.
There are trolls everywhere. Ignore them.
Damn, did I feel the trolls?
Yup.
Your outlook on this is brilliant, and could be applied to many situations aside from beer. Basically nothing is black and white, even when dealing with the big “Macro vs. Craft Debate.” Great post!
Thanks for reading!
“We’re all right. We’re all wrong. That’s the beauty of this crazy life.” What a preposterous way to shut down critical discourse. Would you say anti-vaxxers are “all right” because, hey, it’s just their opinion? Suggesting that AB and the craft brewers they compete against stand on equal moral footing in a highly asymmetic marketplace is an absurd evacuation of history and political economy. Given that the current wave of beer criticist are essentially setting their own ethical boundaries, with no large historical intermediaries (e.g. newspapers or magazines) to intervene, it behooves you to accept no small amount of credulity and skepticism from your readers.
It’s beer, not a resurgence of polio.
That aside, I am completely open to skepticism. In fact, I encourage it. But the current environment is toxic to the point of paralysis; I did something out of my passion for what I do, and had people labeling me guilty by association before I’d even gotten off the plane. That’s beyond skepticism. That’s zealotry.
Again, you void all political stakes by saying “it’s just beer.” Are consumers only supposed to care how the beverage in their hand tastes and the story they’re sold to go with it? Or should they care about what goes in to the sausage? If you think you’re doing your part to respond to the second query by attending an all-expense-paid junket, you’re sorely mistaken. There’s a difference between being a cheerleader and being a journalist.
Let me ask you this; if you were writing for the New York Times, do you think they’d let you publish an article after getting a free vacation from AB, or would they insist that you pay for it on your own (or the company’s) dime, to ensure journalistic integrity? To extend the analogy, if you wanted to write about a new product being launched by Walmart, the AB of retail, do you think them flying you out to see a dog-and-pony show wouldn’t have some negative connotations to your readership?
Just because you think you were doing your best to be “objective” doesn’t mean that the situation reeks of a conflict of interest, something you act like couldn’t possibly exists because you “care about beer.”
Just to expand on a joke some wag made on Kiser’s twitter, is it completely irrelevant that all of AB’s top-selling beers are not brewed exclusively with malted barley, but with adjuncts like corn and rice, products that are deployed solely for the purpose of cost minimization? Do you not feel some obligation to remark on that fact, and consider how it’s related to a large unsustainable food ecosystem centered on corn as the staple of a Western diet that is literally destroying the planet? I’m sure you find this melodramatic, but surely you can’t think consumer education is the end-all of beer journalism.
can’t comment on the larger agricultural questions here (far beyond my purview), but mentioning corn and rice in this context is no more relevant than mentioning the adjuncts used by any brewer. If we were taking an analytical look at Budweiser as a beer, sure. But this was specifically about barley, which makes its way into most of their beers, and many other brewer’s beers as well. Guess it mostly depends on the angle of the story that has yet to be written.
I hate the big brewer vs the little guy debate. Because I like beer. All of it. I get excited when a macro launches a new beer because, you know what, it might actually be tasty.
I like beer culture and beer history in general. And it’s not like beer was just invented 40-odd years ago.
Hear, hear! Life’s too short to be angry about beer all the time.
One aspect often overlooked is that regardless of scale, the brewing side of things tends to be very collegial. Chemists, Brewers, and operations people from big and little mingle all the time. It’s when we get to the sales level that things turn in to a dog fight. And we’re starting to realize that it has nothing to do with big vs little in that aspect. Craft brewers, and their distributors, are starting to play the same dirty games they rail against the macros on. In the end, the three tier system’s greatest benefit might be shielding benevolent producers from such sales competition.
File this away under “things I wish I had written.”
Great read! You’ve really written well and gotten your point across and although I’m not part of the writing-about-beer world, I feel as if I’m right there with you amidst the pettiness of your fellow writers. Thanks for sharing.
It’s more than an “A-B is bad and evil” thing.
I’m all in favor of “going to a place to see and learn things I would never normally have the chance to see and learn” but can’t you just acknowledge, even a little bit, that A-B wasn’t doing this entirely out of the goodness of their heart to make the world a more educated place, but figured this was a good way to promote their beer?
I mean, deciding to going on a paid beer junket on A-B’s dime is all fine and good. In my mind there’s nothing wrong with liking or even promoting A-B. But I think your defense would ring more true if you would just make the slightest acknowledgement A-B was in this, at least in part, to sell more beer.
I’ll acknowledge that fact right here. That’s what a junket is: a promotional tool. Of course they want us to write about them in hopes of increasing sales. I am fully aware they want to sell more beer.
That’s the evil of trying to tell something NOW and being limited to 140 characters. It tends to unleash this sort of shitstorm, and that’s why I limit my activity on Twitter almost exclusively to reposting what I put on FB or linking to what I write on my blog.
That being said, I fully agree with you. Two years ago I went on a similar trip, paid by Heineken, and it was great. If they invited me for another one, I’d accept without a second thought. What other people may think of me for taking those junkets, is entirely their problem.
On a side note: The double standards of some people are quite interesting. Posting (glowing) reviews of samples sent by a craft brewery or having a VIP tour of their facilities is fine and dandy, you’re contributing to the movement and the revolution; going on a press trip paid by ABIB? You’ve just sold your soul to the devil.
“On a side note: The double standards of some people are quite interesting. Posting (glowing) reviews of samples sent by a craft brewery or having a VIP tour of their facilities is fine and dandy, you’re contributing to the movement and the revolution; going on a press trip paid by ABIB? You’ve just sold your soul to the devil.”
Correct, disclosure of all solicited samples, tours, etc is necessary. However, when you socially slam a company on twitter and then start to say a few nice things about them without disclosing it points to a conflict of interest and ultimately hurts your own brand with your audience. Nothing wrong with going on the trip, in fact I encourage doing things like this, but consider the context of the trip before talking about it and who your audience is (advice for all). If you take every read, retweet, comment, favourite from the stark anti AB-InBev folks it’s probably a good idea to pre-placate them as well. Just a thought…
This makes sense to me. I’m not a professional brand cultivator (nor do I really want to be), but now I’m thinking I need to be much active in keeping my voice consistent.
I recommend a book called Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook if you are looking for a very cool social marketing/personal branding book. I enjoyed it a lot, not directly related but hits a lot of the same points.
I agree with you there. But there are still people out there who even after your disclosure will slam you for accepting (and writing about) a junket from the likes of ABIB. Those are the double standards I’m speaking about: taking junkets from craft = good, we must spread the gospel of craft beer / taking junkets from macro = can’t you see they do it only for the marketing?
I’ll start by saying thanks for writing this piece, it’s does make one put some critical thought into the issue. I’m happy to provide a somewhat thought out response, not picking on anyone here, at least not intending. I’ll say my piece here as I was a little bit involved in the conversation and a staunch observer. I’ve got three points to mention.
1) First off, it should be a bit expected as a craft beer writer (or simple beer writer) that accepting any perks from In-Bev will generate this sort of reaction, simply it’s the beer dichotomy we still live in. Like it or not, this is still very much an “us vs them” “craft vs macro” world, of which AB-InBev and the BA have perpetuated recently. Regardless of your feelings on the issue, regardless of any “it’s just beer” comments this is the core underlying story of beer and beer writing. I haven’t seen anyone address this with a simple “well this should be interesting, headed to the dark side for a bit to learn, they surly better have cookies with this sponsored trip”, but alas not so much (maybe I simply missed it if someone did). Anyway, my point here is that no one should have been caught off guard by this, this is the place where we choose to play and that very loud anti-AB InBev audience exists, on twitter, ready to pounce. Anyone whose felt the need top throw a titter Jab at them has participated in this audience to by the way, helped perpetuate it and played that game. I’ll quote you here, this is a game you play as well.
“@OliverJGray Some free advice for the Budweiser PR team: “craft” beer fans are smart, snarky, and internet savvy. Try harder or stop trying. #thehardway”.
“@OliverJGray Budweiser is the two-day old store-bought macaroni salad of a BYOB party. #cheers ”
“@OliverJGray Sorry not sorry. – Drinking a Budweiser by @AnheuserBusch – http://untp.beer/s/c205781434 ”
2) More than one person has written about how they felt they were treated unfairly online, perhaps feeling that their integrity was questioned (and indirectly it was, no argument there). I feel like somewhere this struck a nerve with a few people and some of the arguments on both sides are a bit odd. Does putting #sponsored #ad #solicited in a tweet ruin your story or creativity, no. Does if change the story, yes, it’s supposed to. Should you have to do this all the time, no probably not. Is it a good idea to respect your audience and be overly cautious, yeah I think so. Your tweets are a part of your brand, your comments are, everything on social media helps shape your brand. If you want your brand to be about integrity, this should be reflected more often for anyone. Not this isn’t a dig at you Oliver, just general social media advice for any blogger, writer, personally. I thought your stuff was fine, but some people are spreading the AB In-Bev love all over the place and have yet to disclose that they were given a pretty solid perk and reason to do so (despite apparently signing something that says they have to).
3) Craft brewery samples, VIP tours, etc vs AB In-Bev sponsored trip to a barley farm – this is absolutely correct. I’ve seen lots of solicited reviews that are not identified or disclosed. I get way less free beer because I refuse to even rate free samples, however I will write about their flavours and tasting notes. This is an industry problem that isn’t just related to AB In-Bev, it’s everywhere and a huge issue for audiences looking for someone to trust. I’ve also seen some bloggers back out of events as soon as the organizers tried to influence what they wrote about it. Sometimes it’s blatant, sometimes it’s unwritten. It’s the unwritten rules that scare me the most.
Curious to here your thoughts, any “it’s just beer” comments will be ignored because to some of us it clearly isn’t. If it was you wouldn’t write or read about it so much!
1) I’ve definitely made some anti-AB jokes, but wanted to have a different experience and gain some new perspective. It was my own fault (even hubris) that I assumed people knew me well enough to know that the “venture to the dark side” was obvious. My bad, and lesson definitely learned. I assumed as badly as assumptions were made about me, and now that I’m home, I get that. I don’t have any formal training in this kind of stuff, so I’m learning as I go. Mea culpa, bear with me.
2) I agree. There’s definitely a bigger conversation to be had about disclosing stuff live now that we’ve got social media, and the disclaimer line at the end of a final piece is no longer sufficient. #sponsored might be a good way to do it, but I think that’s a very good topic to mull over in the community.
3. I think we need a group to help guide ethics. Like I noted, I have no formal journalistic background, and as we can tell, what we assume as logical and obvious isn’t always. There’s grey area for a lot of writers, and a bit of governance from some established professionals would go a long way. That’s something we should work on on an individual level AND an industry level, methinks.
Thanks for being tactful about the whole thing and having an honest conversation. I admit things may not have been handled perfectly, but that should be an opportunity to teach and guide, not mock and belittle.
Thanks for responding, I respect that a lot and I happy to join in the discussion. Agree on all added points there, I haven’t attended a bloggers conference yet but I think this would make for a very interesting round table discussion. Also worth noting, bloggers need not be held to the same ethics as journalists, mostly because we write opinion pieces and don’t often get paid to write (when we do write articles for papers, that those apply more). That being said, there’s practices we should follow and yes people online can be a little nicer/more helpful too. Cheers!
This is why I’ll never be in the upper echelon of beer bloggers – I really don’t understand the issue here.
Are people really saying that you should have tweeted something like, “Everything I tweet from this moment on is being done during a trip that A/B has paid me to take”, and have a bug up their ass because you didn’t? Have we really gotten to the point where I must know who footed the bill for me to see you laying in a field of barley?
Or is it just because it was A/B who paid for the trip? Would there be this huge a stink if Stone had paid for you to go visit their farm in Escondido?
The point of should you disclose is a non-argument. One should. But insisting people do it on twitter feeds is a level of disclosure I just don’t think we need.
(Full Disclosure: DuPont is paying me right now as I write this. They also funded the computer and internet connection. As well as the chair. But I did pay for my own lunch.)
Disclosure has always been a tricky thing for me. I work in the business, therefore I’m often talking about beers that I personally handle on a professional level. That’s partially why I didn’t talk about it much when I started the blog. I wanted to establish my individual credibility as a writer before linking it into my professional credibility.
It’s become even harder with my new position as I directly handle the vast majority of imported beer variety coming into Oregon. The funny thing is, I get more and better access in Belgium from being a beer writer than I do from handling their product for an entire state. It’s a tricky line to walk. I don’t take advertisements nor do I do “paid” posts, but if you want to show me around your brewery and let me taste your beers; I’m in.
If you added up all the time people spend pointlessly trying to be right all the time, it would probably amount to millennia of wasted human life.
Also, thanks for the link!
Reblogged this on The Mad Hopper's Blog and commented:
Well written and to the point. As most are quick to notice I can be a crusader against the Macros for a few reasons (mostly the potential monopoly powers they poses, and the elimination of diversity ) However, the company is different than the people that work for it or especially the people who write about it.
Macro companies are obviously brilliant (generally … ) at marketing and selling but just because they try to influence and turn a few the neutral/opposition doesn’t mean they succeeded
And taking up Budwiser on a free adventure isn’t really selling out, its just keeping an open mind. And in a way sticking it to them, so bravo.
As you may have remembered Julia Herz saying in her opening speech, “Give credit where credit is due”.
~Begins slow clap~