Only a ginger can call another ginger "ginger"

[venta]

And while we're talking about packaging changes...

Here is another (even more poorly-focussed) side-by-side comparison of old and new packing:



Now, I'm not inherently against changes of packaging. The Badger brewery has altered all their labels to give them a more consistent feel, and actually the new labels are rather splendid in a vaguely '20s way.

However! I am very fond of the gingery Blandford Fly, and am quite disproportionately put out that they've changed the name. To Blandfor Flyer.

On the back of the old bottle, it said:

Brewed to celebrate the infamous biting insect of Dorset's River Stour, folklore claims the inspired inclusion of ginger was a remedy to the Fly's bite. The warming ginger overtones and rounded sweetness make this ale a perfect ingredient and complement to spicy Chinese and Indian dishes. Beware the Blandford Fly!

OK, leaving aside the vague grammatical horror of the opening sentence, the take-home message is that this beer is named after the Blandford Fly, a biting insect. The Blandford Fly is a real thing-comma-existent, and its bite is indeed particularly unpleasant (I've never met one, but one made a proper mess of my friend Nigel's leg).

So far, so good. The back of the new bottle runs as follows:

With the hot summer sun breathing down, the patient fly-fishermen of the Dorset Stour await their catch. These 'Flyers' are celebrated in this warming ale with ginger overtones, rumoured to be originally included to remedy the bites of the infamous Blandford Fly. The rounded sweetness of this medium-bodied brew makes it an ideal and refreshing accompaniment to a hot lamb biryani or spicy crispy chilli beef.

I am a credulous soul, and if a beer-bottle tells me its contents is celebrating fishermen, I believe it. If you tell me your logo is based on your dog that won Crufts twice, you'd better damn well have a dog and some rosettes. The idea that vignettes on the back of beer bottles are merely blurbs dreamed up by advertising writers to lure me in distresses me.

So if you're going to put backplot on your bottle: keep your damn story straight! Don't go changing it just because you've decided a particuarly unpleasant biting insect perhaps isn't the best marketing tool.

In other news, I am now back from WGW and will shortly cease wittering about label-changes and review some bands instead.

Comments

[lnr]

They do have the fisherman *pictured* on the first bottle too... Perhaps it always was brewed to celebrate the fishermen - and said fishermen were getting upset that no-one noticed? *grin*

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I've not heard fly fishermen referred to as flyers before. But also the new name just doesn't seem very real ale.

[venta.livejournal.com]

It would be a fine name for a beer if the Blandford Flyer were a train - what goes better with a real ale than a nice steam loco :)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Blandford Forum railway station best known for its 'Slow Train'…

[venta.livejournal.com]

So is Chester-le-Street, which actually didn't get axed so one can meet again there.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I've not heard fly fishermen referred to as flyers before

Neither have I, but perhaps they are in Dorset. Weird things happen in Dorset.

With luck ar_boblad or metame will be along shortly to enlighten us.

[sea-of-flame.livejournal.com]

Ah, one of the many other rivers named Stour, that confused me for a minute as an adopted Canterbury-type critter :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yeah, river-naming would have been better handled with a central register... then there would be so many Ouses, either.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I've been wary of Badger's brandmeisters since they changed their own name from the good-enough-for-200-years Hall & Woodhouse. That was done on the basis that badgers sounded fluffier and more appealing than people called Hall or Woodhouse, so I expect this new change is on the same basis – calling the beer after the fly itself might seem offputting.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Since the name was changed in 1900 (according to Wikipedia), I don't remember it happening :)

I'm just disappointed that Hall & Woodhouse sold Panda Pops. I like the idea they had a portfolio of black-and-white animal-named beverages.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I guess the name of the physical brewery building must have changed then (although I can't quite remember…). But the pumpclips, bottle labels etc still said 'Hall & Woodhouse' where they now say 'Badger' well up into the 90s. 'Badger' was then just the name of the ordinary bitter.

(This is not me revealing secret Dorset roots, but they had a pub in Southampton near the station that I used to go to a lot.)

Pity that their Skunk Squash never took off.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Similarly I've developed a sort of eye-rolling distaste for the way modern wines and vineyards have to be named things like Oaksunset Beach and Mossy Castlevilla (I might have made those up). Previously the actual place names were always fine, but then... marketing happened. :-/

[smiorgan.livejournal.com]

Only a ninja can sneak up on another ninja.