Hey, there! Log in / Register
Product placement in Boston magazine
By adamg on Wed, 03/04/2009 - 3:53pm
Menu Pages Boston notices that every single cocktail in Boston Maggie's list of Boston's best cocktails requires a particular brand of vodka.
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Vodka
Since Vodka is required by US Law to be neutral in taste and aroma there's no reason that anyone should buy an expensive name brand vodka that is the same exact thing as the cheapest vodka. U
Charcoal Filtering
There are differences in what neutral tastes like, and some of the cheapest kinds taste pretty nasty. The solution is quite simple, however: for a few bucks you can get a filter pitcher and some charcoal filters at Ikea and make any vodka taste wonderfully smooth!
I remember reading an
I remember reading an article in a magazine (maybe it was popular mechanics??) and they pretty much showed that to get a good quality vodka out of a low quality vodka you would have to spend more money on filters per ounce then it is worth.
If you'd otherwise be throwing them out ...
you can make any vodka taste noticeably smoother and it doesn't cost anything (except some time and maybe a hang over).
We used the filters we had left when our pitcher was already breaking from years of use and we had just installed a side-by-side with filtered water and ice through the door.
Head to head, before and after, there was a big difference in the taste of the filtered vodka compared to the unfiltered for two different cheap vodka types.
We didn't have any expensive vodka to compare with, so I can't really say if "nasty" is just a property of untreated vodka and price independent. Not that I ever buy the expensive stuff because I always mix it anyway.
This is the kind of thing that grownup geeks get up to when grandma has the kids for a couple of nights.
ABC news covered this- there's no difference.
There are differences in what neutral tastes like, and some of the cheapest kinds taste pretty nasty.
Actually, ABC did a taste test amongst all the snobs in NYC who claimed to be strictly one-brand drinkers.
Result? None of them could identify "their" brand, and they all hated the one that most of them preferred, Grey Goose.
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3201973&page=1
Whups. So, like gas for your car, table salt, and a whole slew of other things- it's a commodity, and that's why marketing is the slimiest profession around- in the same breed as realtors and lawyers.
Cheap Vodka
I swilled many gallons of vodka during my cocaine days some 20 years ago. The cheap stuff has a number of impurities in it that will contribute to stomach upset, worsened hangovers, etc., so in the long run, it pays to buy quality, at least if you're having a bit more than one or two drinks.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
You sure it wasnt the
You sure it wasnt the Cocaine that was the majority factor in any of those stomach pains?
Positive
I did pounds of coke and gallons of vodka, but not always at the same time. The coke was very pure. The vodka often wasn't, until I learned the lesson I just gave above. In any case, yeah, I knew what was causing me the discomfort when I had any.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Careful what message you send :)
The two old friends who admitted to me doing hard drugs in their youth both developed neural/brain problems starting around age 30.
Oh, and a girl I dated briefly as a grad student (til I was scared away by her new drug use, and she didn't want to stop) later told me a doctor looked at her brain MRI and guessed correctly what drug she'd done a lot of. She said there's telltale physical damage that is visible on an MRI.
While it's good to tell people involved with drugs that they can go drug-free and have a life afterwards, it's good to also tell youth that drugs can have delayed health consequences when they should be in the prime of post-college life.
Not that youth will listen, but at least you can say "I told ya so, dumb-butt" when they develop problems later.
W
'nuff said!
Kids who do drugs...
...become adults who destroy America.
So don't do drugs.
Abstinence Message?
To be clear, I'm not in any way endorsing the consumption of huge amounts of cocaine and/or vodka. The deleterious aftereffects of either will far outweigh the fun.
Having said that, I also would never bullshit a kid by saying that all drugs are evil and will definitely destroy you. It was messages such as that, broadcast many times a day on TV and radio, that eventually lead many of my generation to distrust EVERYTHING the government was telling us concerning drug usage, and thus leading us to use many drugs that we otherwise might have had sense enough NOT to use, if left to our own devices or given a rational message.
We knew that marijuana was a relatively benign drug overall. So, when we began hearing people tell us that smoking it would make us grow a third ear or whatever, we knew it was the crap. We made the logical jump to believing that the rest of the messages, which might have had real value, were also the crap.
You have to be willing to tell the truth, even if it's not an easy cut-and-dried statement, if you want to reach kids with a message that sticks. Just my opinion, of course, and I did boatloads of cocaine and vodka, so I'm probably brain-damaged, anyway :-)
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
I think he was joking
I took neil's comment as making fun of Nancy Reagan's Just Say No using W as an example of somebody who may very well be suffering those long-term consequences of drug abuse.
Boatloads of cocaine and vodka
That's it. I'm never voting for Suldog.
Whens the last time we had a
Whens the last time we had a president who didnt do cocaine at one point in their life?
Obama admitted to it
Bush has been rumoured to have done it
Don't tell me party animal Clinton never did it
Bush Sr., well Im sure he hasnt but its rumoured his son was
That brings us back to Reagan...
Im not saying cocaine is good for you, but it does seem to be a common trend in recent presidential politics.
A matter of quantity
Unlike your standard ineffective DARE program would lead you to believe, there is a difference between experimentation and marination, between use and abuse of mind-altering substances.
I'm sure just about every curious young person with a sense of enjoying and exploring life has tried something - but W and probably Slick Willie too partook in larger quantities than most their age.
Joking?
Aw, God. I've lost the ability to distinguish between satire and true ranting. I never should have smoked those banana skins.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Not surprising, neilvandyke.
You're absolutely right that the affects of substance abuse don't necessarily and always show up right away. The same is true with excessive amounts of alcohol, too, I would think. I know several people my own age (late 50's), who did lots of drugs, such as LSD, etc, when they were adolescents and/or young adults. One ended up in the hospital because he got so freaked out bybad LSD flashbacks, and the other is just a permanent mess. The one who ended up being hospitalized for LSD flashbacks also ended up being permanently messed up psychologically and emotionallyi. It's a shame, because he was a bright kid who'd been in all kinds of honors classes in high school, and is now a total mess. Two other guys were busted while driving stoned, with marijuana in their cars, at seventeen. Still another guy got really messed up on heroin and ended u p in jail for stealing in order to get a supply.
Another old classmate became an alcoholic somewhat later in life, to the point where he had set his own house on fire and couldn't even remember whether the fire had been caused by a cigarette or a space heater. Sad indeed, all around, for all of these people.
Don't know what these people area all up to now, but I'm glad I didn't get involved in all that.
And you know what happened to...
Jimi Hendrix? You know what happened to him? DIED!
Yup.
In the fall of 1968, as a high school Senior, I attended a Jimi Hendrix concert at (the old) Boston Garden with a group of other people shortly before his death, which I read and heard about on the news. It's sad how he died.
I'm Doug, man
"I don't do drugs, Dad. Look at Bob Dylan! He did drugs, and he died!"
"Doug, Bob Dylan is alive and well. I produced his last three albums."
"Oh, you mean Uncle Robert?"
Nice going ...
Walt!
I have to admit that I liked that article/commercial.
It was heard on many, if not most of the stations, including my favorite golden-oldie rock-n-roll stations, as well.
...and it is curious this
...and it is curious this slew of bars are not known for the excellence of their cocktail program. no part of this list of "best" places overlaps with, say, drinkboston's "best boston bars" list, or Esquire's. (which is not to say such lists are the final arbiters of good taste -- I've had lovely drinks at places outside outside of either.)
considering the magazine lists 6 cocktails and 20 bars, I'm guessing these are drink recipes devised by the manufacturer for the purpose of get grey goose "featured around town this winter."
okay, now I see there's more
okay, now I see there's more than just the six, and judging from the recipe page on greygoose.com, my theory was incorrect, but still, it seems like somebody regurgitated a press release.
all this talk......
makes a screwdriver sound very good right about now.
so much talk.
I would like one of these, thanks.
Nice job, Boston Magazine
Some explanation for the suspicious coincidence was in order.
Will local business owners now be embarrassed to display their annual "Best of Boston" award certificates, given that Boston Magazine has discarded any pretense of legitimacy?
Will future job-hunters wish they didn't have Boston Magazine on their resume?
Hasnt Boston Magazine always
Hasnt Boston Magazine always been suspicious with their advertisers and positive coverage, nothing new.
Asgard?
A Number One: Vodka is no longer it when it comes to cocktails.
B: Asgard is nobody's idea of the best of anything in Boston or Cambridge.
I know that rags like BoMag don't have to maintain much credibility but at least have a PRETENSE of separating advertising from editorial, OK?
Don't let this ruin your faith in the journalistic integrity of
City Mags. Only thing more obnoxious is Bomag and VF railing against the establishment, all the while advertising $5,000 suits and $50,000 wristwatches. Anyone who actually pays for these magazines is the journalistic equivalent of beanie-baby collectors.
Smirnoff
Doesn't Smirnoff usually win the blind taste tests? It makes sense to me, they produce vodka in huge quantities, with big economies of scale, and they probably have excellent quality control to maintain the brand value. In the same way that all brewers are in awe of Budweiser's consistency and quality control (even if they don't like the recipe for Budweiser itself).
But beers do differ radically in taste. With vodka, it's just the object of getting the most neutral spirit. All the rest of the branding is just snob appeal.
Marketing
I learned in one of my college marekting classes that Smirnoff and Popov vodka are both made by the same company and the bottles are filled with the exact same vodka. However, Smirnoff is sold in glass fifths and generally considered a mid-tier acceptable vodka while Popov is sold by the plastic handle and consumed by college kids who don't mind sacrificing image if they can buy copious amounts of liquor for under $10. Apparently Smirnoff did a study and realized that people equate the quality of vodka by the amount that it costs. I'm personally a scotch girl so I don't know the difference when it comes to vodka but from reading these messages that theory seems to hold true.
Product placement
Hi, this is Paul Flannery, the online editor of Boston magazine. The item in question, Boston’s Best Cocktails, is not editorial at all; it’s an unfortunately labeled marketing piece that’s not in any way related to our Best of Boston. I wasn’t even aware of it until I saw it on Adam’s site, but now that I am, we have taken steps to note that it is, in fact, an advertisement and to tweak the language to make that clearer. Our apologies for any confusion caused. We take great pride in our Best of Boston awards, and I need to stress that (unlike many city magazines) there is not even the slightest bit of influence from the advertising department in choosing the winners awards---or any of the other editorial content in our magazine.
Paul
Needs about 100x more
At 6pm Thursday, I had to look hard to find the disclaimer.
It was, however, easy to spot numerous suggestions that this was the official Boston Magazine "Best Cocktails In Boston" feature. Including the redundant headings, the hierarchy path "Home / Guides / Boston Restaurant Drink Guide", the HTML "title" of "Where To Go For Cocktails In Boston", and the URL "http://www.bostonmagazine.com/restaurant_drink_guide/". All intermixed with the usual Boston Magazine and "Best Of" branding.
Screenshots from 6pm:
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?a8f065b6...
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?0a992a71...
There's little question that the advertiser was exploiting Boston Magazine's reputation like there's no tomorrow, and somehow was given full reign to do so.
And perhaps now Boston Magazine is trapped?
If the editorial side was not aware of this entirely new official-looking advertorial feature on their Web site, I would expect them to march down the hall to the business side, torches in hand, to kick down cubicle partitions and shout expletives.
I suggest borrowing Charlton Heston's timeless lines from the final scene of Planet of the Apes, starting from "You maniacs!"
Not good enough, Paul
"ADVERTISEMENT" is in white type against gray background and almost impossible to see. Really, the only honorable course of action at this point is to take down the entire page.
clarification posted
http://blogs.menupages.com/boston/2009/03/boston_m...
they've added a faint grey border with a the word 'advertisement' in barely-visible white type.