Mods, I apologize in advance if it turns out that Heineken simply comes up with stupid promotions…
…but, what’s supposed to be so good about the new Heineken keg can? Which is to say, does it have any logistical advantages over a regular can, either in terms of keeping beer cold, tasty, bubbly, etc.?
Or is it just some odd marketing ploy?
Well, I tried to find some info at the Heineken web site for you, but that site is too wacked out for me to spend an hour looking through.
My WAG is marketing ploy.
Does the Heineken taste any different, besides the fact it’s in a can?
Is it more ergonomic?
Does it look cooler than other cans?
Does the can have any collector’s value?
Will the can do anything for you that a regular can won’t?
If you answered “No way Jose!” to all of these questions, then yes, it’s probably a marketing ploy.]
Does it cost any less?
In truth, cans are much cheaper to mass produce than a bottle. There is a stigma that canned beer is cheaper than bottled beer. If Heineken can convince people to drink out of their cans then they get more money, the “keg can” is merely a way to break down that stigma.
They took a regular beer can. They made it look like a keg. They expect us to fall for that as a selling point.
And I thought MGD in a plastic bottle was bad enough…
There was a beer in keg cans 30+ years ago. The name’s on the tip of my tongue…began with an H, I think (I want to say Herrs, but that’s not it). The can was silver and blue, went through a number of revisions over the years.
If a keg can was anything more than a marketing promotion, why hasn’t it hung around for the last 30 years?
Hamm’s–I knew I knew it.
Hamm’s only had one commercial that I can remember but it was always the best. Six year olds will sing along with anything.
“Hamm’s, the beer refreshing” and “from the land of sky blue waters” featuring an animated bear a lot like the old “Barney Bear” character from the 40’s cartoons.
You forgot to say how much it kicked ass.
I take it you mean the ad’s, not the beer. It was pretty awful beer. Still is, I presume. I haven’t had it in years (it was pretty common when I was a student in MT, though the most popular “beer ordinaire” there was probably Olympia).
BTW, glass is superior in one regard, even if it does cost more to produce - the beer doesn’t wind up taking on that metallic tang from the damn can on a hot summer day. Shaping the can like a keg doesn’t help in the least.
I have a friend who worked on a similar type of can for another beer company, which one it was I can’t remember off the top of my head. They were working on a coating on the inside of the can so that it didn’t get that can beer taste. Their prototypes were shaped like kegs, and when I saw the heineken keg cans, I assumed they were doing something similar with the insides of their cans. That said, I don’t think that the shape has any effect other than to the consumer that this isn’t a normal can of beer. But if they are lined, that could be the big difference.
Keystone was making a big deal about lined cans a few years ago, but I don’t believe they were keg shaped. I think it’s still around, but I’ve never had it.
Although Keystone boasted about its “glass lined” cans (what was it, a sputtered glass film on the interior?), almost all canned foods rely upon a plasticized liner to prevent the transfer of any metallic components into the food’s flavor.
Please keep in mind that recent investigations into the global decline of male fertility in many species are carefully examining the psuedo-estrogens released by nearly every flexible form of plastic polymer. Britain is currently regulating the sort of cling wrap that is permitted for use in the display and marketing of food stuffs for this same reason.
Glass has many subtle aspects to its character that make it more desirable than metal for food containers. It was the advent of the plastic liner that made possible the marketing of Coca Cola in cans. The unlined can had an extremely short shelf life, due to internal corrosion.
Zenster is spot on. One of my pals who dabbled in being a brewmeister attended a lecture from a Coors marketing rep. He flat-out said that Keystone was a marketing ploy to try and shoehorn their way into the Sub-weiser market, while Coors and Coors Light fought it out on the “main” front. All Coors products used the same process.
A subjective observation. The Heineken keglets seem to stay cold longer. While I’ve noticed this on more than one occasion, I was usually drunk. However, I’ve never seen this silly ad campaign, so at least it’s an independent drunken observation.