Antarctica Brewery is Brazil’s fourth-largest beer brand, and is owned by InBev, picked up from AmBev when they merged with InterBrew. They brew half a dozen beers, of which the Pilsen is the most popular. The brewery was founded in 1885, and is located in São Paulo.

Before I get grief from my wife — and Maureen Ogle — for using sexist imagery, let me explain that it’s not gratuitous, but central to this post. The woman below, Brazilian actress Juliana Paes, has been the face of the Brazilian beer company Antarctica for quite a while. I’ve read that most beer commercials in Brazil are filled with sexual innuendo, and Antarctica is no exception. According to one account, “Juliana is actually a fine actress but her good looks have landed her in Brazilian Playboy, been caught panty-less by the paparazzi (ala Britney) and she’s considered one of the country’s top sex symbols.” According to her Wikipedia page, she’s been in a couple of films and a lot television shows.

1. Seu Nome: Put your name here, just your first or both.
2. Nome do Amigo Zoado: A friend’s name, preferably someone you want to taunt, perhaps a spouse? Whoever you choose, it’s best if they get to watch it with you or if you send it to them via e-mail.
3. Seu Email: Your e-mail (this is optional)
4. Email do Amigo Zoado: Your friend’s e-mail (this is also optional)
5. Then click on “Vizualizer“
6. Laugh

There was an interesting, albeit, short piece on Brandweek yesterday entitled Which Brand Would You Wear on a T-Shirt? concerning a study done by the southern California ad agency David & Goliath. They interviewed people in local bars and asked them which of 25 popular beer and liquor brands would you be willing to wear on a T-shirt, and why? As Brandweek characterizes the goal, it “was to get a grassroots gauge on the badge value of beer and spirits brands today.” Jack Daniel’s was the number one spirits brand, but it was the beer results I was interested in. Here are the top five.

1. Corona
2. Blue Moon
3. Stella Artois
4. Bud Light
5. Pabst Blue Ribbon

According to their observations those vacation commercials Corona has been running actually made people think the beer was good, though in ad-speak they used the jargon “resonate,” as in resonated with consumers. And Stella Artois has the distinction of being called “the new Heineken,” as dubious a distinction as I can imagine given how skunked Heineken usually tastes. The report also apparently said people felt Stella was “considered premium and culturally unique.” Unless “culturally unique” means “tastes like every other Euro lager,” then I’m baffled. But then advertising is all about creating a perception that often isn’t in touch with reality.

Based on the results, I presume the only brands offered in the survey were big ones — read with large marketing and advertising budgets — and the bars they visited were of a particular type, most likely hip, trendy and/or with a younger skewing demographic. David & Goliath chairman David Angelo said of their method. “This simplified approach gets to the heart of what people really think and feel about beer and spirit brands.”

Does it really? I’m not sure I’d agree with that statement. I think it’s more likely a testament to the power of marketing. For these brands that are largely indistinguishable — Blue Moon excepted — to have any individual association, it requires that they spend huge sums of money on hammering the brand perception into the minds of potential consumers. That it works says more about people than the brands. But what do people “really think and feel about beer and spirit brands” that hasn’t been spoon fed to them via advertising? It’s a relatively safe bet that if they’re still drinking these brands, then they have had very little beer education or have been exposed to the variety of beer otherwise available to them.

But Angelo wonders aloud. “Beyond product traits, is there a deeper mindset or association that your brand could use to connect with people?” But none of these brands — again except Blue Moon — have any real product traits. Line them up and the average person could not identify them blindfolded. Without the marketing barrage, they become a commodity. Only their marketing distinguishes them from one another.

It’s a shame there’s so little detail about this study, the method they used to elicit the responses, the full list of brands, and all of that. But the agency’s website has nothing further and as far as I can tell, only Brandweek is reporting on it. I’d certainly be interested to know if any true craft brands were included.

But let’s get back to the T-shirts for a moment. Now that AB 1245, the Trash & Trinkets bill has passed, by 2011 these companies can spend $5 per person on direct marketing (assuming the Governor signs it, of course). With their buying power they could easily purchase logo T-shirts for less than $5, meaning they will be able to not only ask what T-shirts people would be willing to wear, but actually hand them the shirt on the spot. Now that’s “connect[ing] with people.” And it’s also not too hard to see how that would give an enormous advantage to the brands who can afford it.

Last week at the Great British Beer Festival, The Angel’s Share, brewed by the Lost Abbey in San Marcos, California, was chosen as the “Best American Cask-Conditioned Beer.”

From the press release:

The winner was selected by CAMRA beer experts, brewers and international beer judges from forty six beers, specially imported for the Great British Beer Festival. The Festival provides a unique opportunity to try beers from around the World alongside 450 British real ales. The international ‘Bieres Sans Frontieres’ Bar includes rare lambics, wheat beers, Trappist ales, honey, fruit and spice beers as well as a giant wooden barrel of Imperial Porter from the De Molen brewery in the Netherlands.

The beer is brewed with copious amounts of caramel malt to emphasize the vanilla and oak flavors found in the freshly emptied bourbon casks, where it spends six months maturing.

Andy Benson, Manager of the Bieres Sans Frontieres bar said, “It’s a great result for Lost Abbey and I’m sure the beer will be a fast-seller at the Festival, just don’t drink too much of it, as it is 12.5% ABV. American beers are often a surprise to the British palate, they are so intensely flavored that most people either love them or hate them, nothing like the insipid lagers we usually associate with America. The craft beer market in the States is booming and most of these beers are extremely difficult to find this side of the water. Some of the beers are not even available in their own areas in a cask conditioned form.”

Second place went to Mayflower Brewings’ Porter from Massachusetts and third to Cambridge Houses’ IPA from Connecticut.

Congratulations to Tomme Arthur.