I need cheering up today so I thought I would have a look around for some funny beer commercials.  Some home grown well know stuff, but also some fun from around the world. First off with the Bud Lite fridge theft classic..

Are these the best two beer commercials of all time? Comment, vote or supply your own.

Guinness Horse surfing, Whadzup,

Well you don't have to be an afficianado to taste the difference and we all know how annoying it is when someone asks for Budweiser in a bar and gets Bud. 

Well after over a hundred years of legal battles over the trademakr, can you imagine what would happen if the Czechs sold Budvar to Anheuser.   Well this article courtesy of Czech business week is a bit scary.  Also this was my first introdution to the term Euro Fizz..

For the full article go to http://www.cbw.cz/phprs/2007091719.html

The government is trying to present state-owned brewery Budvar as an attractive bride so suitors outdo each other with dowry offers. But it is still possible that the family will decide to keep her home as the old maid of national enterprises.

The Ministry of Agriculture (MZ), which currently is responsible for South-Bohemia-based Budějovický Budvar, is going to take the first step toward the brewer’s privatization and prospective sale. The MZ is running a tender that should finish in about a month to select a consulting firm to help with the smooth transition from a national enterprise into a joint-stock company. The subsequent transformation should then take about a year.
In connection with forthcoming privatization the government is also going to extend the number of supervisory board members from nine to 14, according to the moderator during an appearance Aug. 26 on public service broadcaster Česká televise with Minister for Regional Development Jiří Čunek (Christian Democrat, KDU-ČSL). In response, Čunek said that he, too, had heard this statement but did not deny or confirm it.

Čunek and Social Democrat (ČSSD) chairman Jiří Paroubek disapprove of the potential sale. The brewery brings billions of crowns to the state, and a long-term inflow of money should be preferred to a one-time payment for the privatization, Čunek said. Minister of Finance Miroslav Kalousek, however, favors the sale. He told daily Právo that he believes that in a long-term aspect, people do not establish the state to operate breweries and other similar entities.

The price that the state could obtain from the sale is so difficult to estimate that few people are willing to venture a guess. “The price depends on whether the state will only be selling a minority or decides to sell a major share, for which it could get a bonus,” said Petr Sklenář, an analyst at Atlantik finanční trhy. “The most valuable Budvar asset is its trademark,” he added.

The Budvar brand is worth between Kč 20 billion– 30 billion, Minister of Industry and Trade Martin Říman told the daily Hospodářské noviny (HN). “However, the value of the trademark is different for each individual buyer. Logically, it is higher for [U.S.-based brewer] Anheuser-Busch Companies [A-B], as they would gain a number of synergies with it,” Sklenář added.

The Bud battle

Budvar and A-B have been wrestling over the Budweiser trademark since 1906. Between 2000–06 there were 86 such disputes, with Budvar winning 69 and losing 12 of them. Five cases had neither a winner nor a loser. A-B started to brew its Budweiser beer in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S., in 1876, while Budvar was established in 1895. But Budvar claims King Přemysl Otakar II granted a brewing right to the town of České Budějovice (Budweis in German) in 1265, which means the Czech Budweiser tradition is about 800 years older.

According to many analysts, A-B is considered to be the most likely potential buyer, but an A-B takeover of Budvar raises concern in many quarters. Jan Zahradník, the governor of the South Bohemia region, said that the transformation itself could theoretically endanger Budvar’s position in its trademark disputes with A-B.

This threat is a key reason behind the government’s slow pace in the privatization. It is now putting all its efforts into ensuring the trademark protection. “The Ministry of Agriculture is at present considering the pros and possible cons of the transformation. It will probably use analyses made by a prestigious consultant to ensure certainty and full continuity of the activity and rights (including those connected with intellectual property) during the intended change of Budvar,” Ivan Fuksa, deputy minister of finance told CBW in an e-mail. He also added that it would be unnecessary and even impossible to consider discriminating against any of the significant contenders, including A-B.

The MZ, however, does not discount the possibility that the consulting firm chosen in the tender will recommend against transforming Budvar into a joint-stock company for safety reasons, and the privatization plan will have to be abandoned. Disruption of Budvar’s legal continuity could jeopardize Budvar’s interests in trademark disputes with A-B, according to Minister of Agriculture Petr Gandalovič.

Already cooperating

Recently, the relationship of the A-B and Budvar has become more complex than mere rivalry. At the beginning of this year they signed an agreement for Budvar’s beer to be distributed in the U.S.

under the name Czechvar by A-B. The alliance gives Czechvar, which is being sold in 30 states in the U.S., access to A-B’s network of nearly 600 independent wholesalers (see “Budvar forms alliance with A-B,” CBW, Jan. 15, 2007).

The government got so nervous about this agreement that Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek together with Gandalovič went to České Budějovice, South Bohemia, this spring to check whether the state-run company concluded a disadvantageous business contract with A-B, according to HN.

Budvar did its best to reassure everyone. In a July press release they boasted that exports of Czechvar to the U.S. soared 58 percent between January and June this year. “The speculations of some media that question the advantageousness of the agreement with A-B have not been proven true. … This agreement has no effect on legal disputes, does not jeopardize the trademarks and gives no ground for a pre-emptive right of A-B in the prospective privatization. The value of the brewery was not downgraded,” Budvar said in a statement.

A-B taking over Budvar does not necessarily have to be the only outcome of the long-term dispute. “Further treatment with the trademark can be limited in advance by regulations. The government can also keep the majority in the new company or ensure a key role otherwise, perhaps by an agreement with another large owner,” Atlantik’s Sklenář said.

Fears of eurofizz

Another group concerned about the future of Budvar comprises local people and consumers. South Bohemian pubs are buzzing with phrases like “loss of the quality” and “cheap uniform eurobeer.” Yet, some industry experts dismiss these concerns.

“The entire Czech brewing industry, with the exception of Budvar and Pivovar Vyškov, has been privatized. Whether [or not] it was Czech or foreign capital, the quality of the beer definitely did not get worse. On the contrary, since 1990, in consequence of big investments, the quality of the Czech beer has raised many times,” said Jan Veselý, director of the Czech Beer and Malt Association (ČSPAS).

He also dismissed the notion that if Budvar was acquired by A-B, the U.S. brewing giant might stop Budvar production completely, as its interests in this company would mainly be in acquiring the name and not in maintaining the long tradition of brewing in České Budějovice. A-B bought a majority stake in Mexico’s Grupo Modelo, which continues to make Corona beer under the same brand as before. It also imports Corona to the U.S., Veselý said.

“Generally, it never happens that a company buys a brewery and stops production of the local beer and starts to produce something else. A-B didn’t do it in Mexico. Heineken [International] didn’t do it with Starobrno. InBev didn’t do it with Staropramen, or in Ostrava [North Moravia] with Ostravar [both brands of Pivovary Staropramen]. Even SABMiller didn’t stop production of Pilsner Urquell and Gambrinus by Plzeňský Prazdroj to instead produce their own brands,” he said. InBev did, however, close the historical Braník brewery in Prague and shift production of the Braník brand to another facility.

“Whoever wants to give people another beer [brand] risks the loss of market share,” Veselý said. “I’ll give you an example. Look at the now-defunct brewing U.K. group Bass Brewers, they bought the Vratislavice brewery in the Liberec region and closed it afterwards. Then it started to brew the beer in Prague and carry it to Liberec. And people just didn’t drink this beer that was brought from elsewhere. They missed the local beer, so they converted to [Pivovar] Svijany, the closest local beer. People don’t let anyone change their tastes.”

The Vikings are coming!!!!

The Danish brewer Carlsberg plans a pan-India launch of it dark beer Okocim Palone. The brand, which is popular in east Europe, will be brewed at its Himachal Pradesh facility.

The brewer is also expected to launch its flagship brand Carlsberg (as part of its world domination plans to make us all drink piss) in the country next year.

The company has undertaken a soft launch of the dark beer variant with its local joint venture partner, South Asia Breweries. Carlsberg and its Sri Lankan partner Lion Group are the two major stakeholders in South Asia Breweries. Palone is a dark, full beer from Poland and has a 5.5 per cent alcohol content.

Carlsberg recently acquired Himneel Breweries in Himachal Pradesh from the Industrial Finance Corporation of India and Dena Bank for around Rs 36 crore. It is also setting up two breweries at Alwar in Rajasthan and Aurangabad in Maharashtra at an investment of Rs 85 core.

Himneel Breweries has a capacity of 150,000 hectolitres that can be scaled up at a later stage. The brewery in Rajasthan will have an initial capacity of 450,000 hectolitres and is expected to start operations early next year.

India’s beer consumption crossed the threshold per capita consumption of one litre per person per year in 2006-07. Annual sales crossed 136 million cases.

A number of international beer brands such as Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser, SABMiller’s Fosters, Asia-Pacific Breweries’ Tiger, Molson Coors’s Coors and InBev’s Stella Artois have entered the Indian market in the recent past.

However, United Breweries’ Kingfisher tops the list, accounting for 47 per cent share of the market followed by SABMiller at 36 per cent.

Phew!