Alcohol Marketing, before and after prohibition

When the Volstead Act was repealed in 1933, prohibition ended, and the alcohol industry was poised for a huge comeback but it didn’t come roaring back as quickly as many of us might assume. In the Alcohol chapter of the FADS Book, we note advertising was almost non-existent in this industry, and even if advertising had swooped in quickly, the supply chain, manufacturers and distributors would take time to ramp up. American producers had been decimated, and Scottish, Irish and Canadian distillers were ready to step up to the task, gaining market share while the US industry undertook years of slow, resentful rebuilding.

Eventually though, the industry did rebuild, and industry leader came up with all kinds of tricks to stay top-of-mind:

“Schenley president Lewis Rosenstiel, jumped on the idea of training parrots to say “Drink Old Quaker”. They purchased 6 parrots and sequestered them in one of their New York offices with a tutor, who would repeat “Drink Old Quaker” to the parrots at different times of the day. Rosenstiel envisioned purchasing 5,000 parrots to send to bars in the United States. These parrots would, at the least, make people think about Schenley and Old Quaker. However, the trainer had no success at getting the birds to speak the phrase. It became an embarrassment to the people at Schenley.”

Posting on Twitter isn’t the exact same thing as having trained birds reminding bar patrons to drink Old Quaker, but this early attempt at “just in time advertising” is fascinating none-the-less isn’t it? Before they ever had the true capability to do it, marketers were looking for ways to generate word of mouth, to go viral, to be there right when we make a purchasing decision.

Because it works. And there’s nothing we can do about it.