8/24/2004
Miller Time?
I'm not gonna get all deep on this situation with the Miller Brewing Company's lack of foresight in recognizing Black musicians in their 50th Anniversary of Rock & Roll campaign. For a minute, I was thinking I was gonna go to town on this whole thing, but I'ma pull back for a couple reasons.
1. I'm not mad that they're not putting a Black man's face on a beer can. The fact that there would be no rock 'n roll without Black folks notwithstanding, I'm cool with not seeing a brother's face on a container of alcohol. If we could cut down on the number of brothers lookin' at the can in the first place...
2. It seems ludicrous on its face, but there has to be some science behind this move. It's hard for me to believe that this marketing campaign went through the entire chain and nobody realized that there weren't any Black artists being honored. At best, I'm thinking that they meant rock specifically as a genre and therefore didn't think of Black folks, although that in itself is a major misconception...
I just hope they don't try to rectify the situation by putting pictures of rappers on 40 oz bottles.