Milwaukee Misses Mark in Banning Bernie Brewer's Beer Mug

If you ask people outside of Wisconsin (and perhaps many Wisconsinites) for an association for Milwaukee, perhaps the most common answer would be beer. After all, Milwaukee is home to many breweries, most famously Miller. That is unless you are a fan of Schlitz, which proclaimed itself, "The beer that made Milwaukee famous." Some might remember a particularly skunky beer called Old Milwaukee. Perhaps you younger folks might think of Milwaukee's Best beer. The older folks might think of Laverne and Shirley, who lived in Milwaukee and worked in a brewery.

When Bud Selig brought a Major League team back to Milwaukee, the club was named the Brewers in honor of the city and region's ties to the industry.

Appropriately enough, the team created a mascot, Bernie Brewer, who celebrated homers by the local team by descending down a giant slide in the outfield into a giant mug of beer.

It was a perfect mix of the mascot representing the team, which represented the city in which it played. It sure beat what the Mets did around the same time. When mascots like the San Diego Chicken and the Phillie Phanatic became popular, the Mets decided to get a mascot, too. But the Mets didn't get a creative person in a costume they got a real animal to be their mascot. And not just any animal - but a mule. I wish I was, but I am not making this one up.

But I digress.

When the Brewers moved from County Stadium to Miller Park, Bernie Brewer's famous slide and mug of beer did not make the trip. Instead, they sold it to a local brewer, who now rents it out for weddings and other social gatherings.

Now, the Brewers still employ Bernie Brewer and he still celebrates home runs by going down a slide. But instead of landing into a mug of beer, Bernie Brewer now lands onto a non-descript yellow platform.

It is a sign of our politically correct times that in a city known for beer, playing for a team named the Brewers, in a stadium named after a major beer maker that team officials decided that a fellow sliding into a mug of beer was unacceptable behavior.

Maude Flanders can finally rest in peace. Somebody thought of the children.

Now, if you have ever been to a game where a mascot is present, you know that kids flock to these symbols of a team. The mascot often represents the team in the community. Among children, the mascot is more recognizable than any of the players on the team. On the Brewers' official Web site, they have a page devoted to Bernie Brewer which declares he is available for public functions. Additionally, they have Bernie's Clubhouse, which includes a special interactive playground for kids, a Kids Zone store and concessions stand.

From a corporate, protect our brand, CYA point of view, the Brewers have made a responsible decision not to promote the use of beer in marketing to kids by taking away Bernie Brewer's beer mug.

After all we all remember the "Joe Camel" ads. From 1987 to 1997, R.J. Reynolds ran a series of ads with a cartoon camel with a phallic face known as Joe Camel to promote its Camel brand of cigarettes. How effective were these ads? In a court case it was declared that teenage smokers accounted for $6 million of Camel sales in 1988. By 1992 it was $476 million.

The outcome of the "Joe Camel" litigation was an out-of-court settlement in which R.J. Reynolds agreed to stop making the ads and also paid $10 million to California cities and counties involved in the case.

Even though I know this is a smart decision on the part of the Brewers' marketing department, it still leaves me sad. I was eight-years old when Bernie Brewer debuted and I remember thinking it was great. Not because it was beer, but because it was liquid. It could have been root beer or even water as far as I was concerned. What made it so appealing was that it was something that no other team had and it was something you did not see every day.

You can go to any playground in America and see someone going down a slide. But how often do you see someone land in a mug of liquid?

It seems to me that the Brewers made the right decision in eliminating beer from Bernie Brewer's performance but went overboard in eliminating the elements that made his act noteworthy. And in doing so, they probably missed out on a terrific sponsorship opportunity.

How much would a root beer company pay to have its logo on the mug that Bernie Brewer landed in to celebrate Milwaukee Brewer home runs? The lost revenue could be substantial, especially now that young stars fill the team and Milwaukee figures to be a contender for the next decade.

It could have been a win-win situation. The Brewers could have made a stand (even if it was just a token one) against marketing beer to kids while opening up new sponsorship opportunities. And baseball fans of all ages could still enjoy a unique tradition found in no other major sporting event in the country.

But at least now parents won't have to explain to their kids why Bernie Brewer lands in a mug of beer as they walk past all of the people tailgating to watch the Brewers play in Miller Stadium while the people in the seats next to them drink until they drop.

Sources:
New York Times: Fans in a Froth for the Mug in Which Bernie Brewer Bathed
Brewers.com: Bernie Brewer
Wikipedia: Joe Camel