Schlitz Is Gone, but First It's Getting One Last Hurrah

Buried at the end of the article is the real story. "Schlitz" hasn't existed since the early 70's. They cut costs and ruined the formula and brand. In 2008 it was "revived" and a new beer took the name. Now someone else is brewing a completely different reconstructed formula for "the last batch" and throwing the name on it, again. And im sure itll happen again and again after that.

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fallinditch an hour ago | parent | next [-]

After sales slumped in the 70s they created a disastrous advertising campaign which is a case study in customer alienation: effectively 'drink Schlitz or I'll kill you' :-

https://youtu.be/hC8mqPLHDVU

https://youtu.be/f_baloTGt5M

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valleyer 13 minutes ago | parent [-]

That's not my read of the message of those ads at all.

	▲	fallinditch 5 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		See Oh, Schlitz: How a Historic Ad Campaign Helped Kill America’s Biggest Beer Brand https://vinepair.com/articles/schlitz-history-ad-campaign

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schumpeter 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Did I hallucinate drinking it in high school around 92-94?

	▲	throwaway041207 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		No, it was around but it was probably just Stroh's in the can at that point. I drank a ton of it at a dollar a can in the early 00's (RIP J&J's Pizza, Denton, TX). This would have been after the PBR buy out and it was probably whatever the Stroh's formula was. I drank a bunch of these PBR owned zombie brands over the last 20 years, Black Label, Schlitz, Old Milwaukee, Lone Star, etc [1] and I've always wondered when I'm drinking one if it's the same flavor as one from previous years or even if the flavor is consistent across regions (assuming PBR was just slapping labels on contracted brewing). [1] https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/447/

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TMWNN 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Is Schlitz the beer company that Laverne and Shirley work for before moving to LA?

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bryanrasmussen 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

They worked at the Shotz brewery, an obvious Schlitz standin.

Hasenpfeffer is a yiddish dish, here is a video familiar to some older generations of someone who wants to eat some Hasenpfeffer

https://youtube.com/watch?v=OdXm-cb2cjQ

Why is it Hasenpfeffer Incorporated in the jump rope rhyme they are singing as they skip down the street?

Probably because at least one of the characters is supposed to be Jewish, can't remember which one, they also sing Schlemiel, Schlamazel - unsure of spelling, which are both Yiddish words, although only Schlemiel is somewhat familiar to the public.

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EA-3167 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That was Hasenpfeffer Incorporated, as per the intro song.

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bryanrasmussen 4 hours ago | parent [-]

nope, sorry had to correct that - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48254643

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EA-3167 4 hours ago | parent [-]

I thought it was an obvious joke given the reference to the song! “Shlemeil, schlimazel, Hasenpfeffer incorporated”

	▲	bryanrasmussen 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		ah ok, I thought you were being serious.

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khazhoux 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

At my house, my dad always drank Schmidt’s Gay. Before the divorce, that is.

	▲	GuestFAUniverse 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		He never liked "Schlitz". (Germans might understand why. And yes, that joke risks sounding misogynistic.)