Dear Media, You Just Got Played

"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations."           - George Orwell

Last week, Maker's Mark Whiskey announced that, because of such incredible demand for their product, they would be forced to add a "touch more water" to their 90 proof whiskey, lowering it's alcohol content from 45% (90 proof) to 42% (84 proof).

A week later, they claimed to abort this strategy because of overwhelming customer feedback. To quote the grandson of the company's founder: "We've been tremendously humbled over the last week or so. You spoke. We listened."

Both stories were covered by everyone was from Fox News to USA Today to NPR.

I call bullshit.

You may notice the similarity of the coverage from each "news" outlet, as if they each just cut and paste from the same press release.

This is the message that Maker's Mark got out to hundreds of millions of consumers in the last 7 days, for free:

1. Our product is of such high quality that our sales have far exceeded expectations.
2. This surprising popularity means we will have trouble distilling our whiskey to the exacting standings we have used for 3 generations.
3. Our customers care about quality. So much so that they demanded that we continue to produce the highest quality whiskey we can, no matter what it costs!
4. We care. We listened to our customers. We will continue to meet your demands for great whiskey, even if it cuts into our bottom line. Because ... we ... care.

One question for Maker's Mark. If your product quality is so high that it sells itself, and demand grows much faster than your ability to keep pace with production, why do you continue to spend $25 million per year on advertising that artificially pumps up demand?

I'm sorry for bringing additional attention to this scam. But hopefully it will shed light on this story for what it really is -- yet another company playing the media like a fiddle.

I'm not a whiskey drinker. If I need to get drunk, Bud Light does the job. If I'm thirsty and need a glass of water, Bud Light does the job.

But if you are a whiskey consumer, please take a minute to go to your locally owned spirits shoppe and purchase something from a manufacturer that puts their money into their product, instead of pumping it into advertising and deceitful PR campaigns.