Wine thirsts for common appeal
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - No one expects burly blue-collar guys to shout "It's merlot time!" after their shifts, but the wine industry hopes to make every day a special occasion with an ad campaign opening this week that uses humor to deflate wine's stuffy image.
A series of radio and television spots being tested in Albany, N.Y., and Austin, Texas, will playfully claim that wine is fine any time, even while watching a ballgame or munching fries.
The ads' tag line: "Wine. What are you saving it for?"
"The perception of wine as a formal, special-occasion beverage keeps a lot of people from enjoying it in casual and relaxed settings," says John Gillespie, president of the Wine Market Council. The California-based group is bankrolling the $1.3 million test campaign.
U.S. wine consumption has grown in recent years, but slowly. The council notes that recent gains have come mostly from "core wine drinkers" - a group, primarily people over age 40, consuming about 88% of the wine sold in the USA.
The campaign aims humor at younger, infrequent wine drinkers. One commercial announces: "You're actually home watching TV? This is a special occasion."
Albany and Austin were chosen for the pilot campaign because they are typical midsize media markets with a good number of infrequent wine drinkers ages 25 to 49, says Angie Fegeras of campaign creator Bozell Worldwide. Bozell is the agency behind the "Got Milk" and "Pork: The Other White Meat" campaigns.
Greg Prince, executive editor of Beverage World Magazine, says wine sales are not keeping up with the burgeoning soft drink and bottled water markets. Anything the industry can do to generate everyday wine consumption will help, he said, "as long as it doesn't diminish its specialness."
usatoday.com
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