InBev, a Belgian beer brewer, is vying to buy Anheuser-Busch, controller of 48% of America’s beer market. The reported price will be $52 billion, or $70 per share.
And this is why I hate self-interested greed which is inherent in capitalism. Busch is an American institution, sort of like how the Indiana Toll Road was distinctly Hoosier.
I can't stop wondering what American stockholders and Indiana stakeholders WON’T sacrifice to generate a quick buck.
Random thought....voters claim they're upset when candidates "go negative" on each other, but candidates are simply applying what they pick up from Madison Avenue. I know it's different when we're talking about people because it seems too personal, but a LOT of products attack their competitors because differentiation and attacks capture market share.
Remember "the Pepsi Challenge?" That was just a way for Pepsi to remind everybody that Coke tastes like malted battery acid. When Subway says "eat fresh," it's putting its finger in the eye of every fast food restaurant in the country, and Quizno's boasts about its toasted subs, to put it in the eye of Subway, who doesn't do toasted all that well.
And yet, I still don't get why some American products are so prized they can generate "beef" between the owners, like they're rival East Coast/West Coast rap groups? I'm driving behind this Dodge pick-up truck yesterday, and the window has a decal stating: "Eating Chevys, and sh*tting out Fords." And who hasn't seen the decal of Calvin (from Bill Watterson's masterful cartoon, Calvin and Hobbs) either urinated on the Ford of Chevy logo?
How come only pick-up trucks inspire this level of malevolence in Americans toward rival products? How come you never see a decal with the Taco Bell chihauhau pissing on Ronald McDonald? Or a bumper sticker for 7-Up fans: "I'd have to be high to drink Coke"?
2 comments:
I can see the new JLT campaign ad now: A Calvin-esque caricature of JLT pissing on a caricature of Not My Man Mitch.
That'd probably help nail down the rural pickup truck drivers for her in the Fall....
News Tip:
Sometime in August Mayor Greg Ballard will be meet with a few local pastors to discuss funding programs dealing with crime fighting (prevention and intervention). Some of the discussion have already occurred with a list of FOB (Friends of Ballard) being created by Deputy Mayor Williams and the Front Porch Alliance Director. The list only includes pastors who agree to the following:
1) Play nice during Black Expo (No criticism of the Mayor or his staff during Black Expo)
2) Distance themselves from Amos Brown and Radio One and if they do appear to speak non-negatively about the Ballard Administration.
3) Allow the Mayor and his staff access to their churches periodically during the remianing years to talk positively about the grant dollars given to them by Ballard, in support of their program.
4) Embrace the "Peace in the Streets" program and coordinate all crime fighting efforts supported by the grants with the Christamore House to assure a consistant message.
No a bad plan really.
So if you want to get on the list talk to Deputy Mayor Olgen Williams, but you need to be coy because officially the list doesn't exist.
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