Bring Back the Stubbie

Tuesday, April 30, 2002:

This blog is quite debunked.

I think there needs to be a new topical blog made.
Scott // 5:36 PM

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Wednesday, April 10, 2002:

Well this blog has been abandoned for a while. But as they say: revolutions take time. I was just approached by a reporter who wants to talk about the stubby as he is trying to get a brewery to bring it back. It may just be that this site will help with the reintroduction of the stubby beer bottle. Let's hope it does.



I'll keep you posted on any future developments.
Scott // 6:08 PM

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Friday, March 01, 2002:

Wondering who's insane enough to write about stubbies? Want to know more? Then consult http://scottengland.blogspot.com. Now with 10% less fat and 1/3 the calories. How can you go wrong?
Scott // 11:03 PM

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Friday, February 01, 2002:

more pics, thanks jay.



Scott // 12:20 AM

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This is from the "ask the beaver" website, we have allies! Bow down before us.

Hey Beaver,
I heard that there is a move afoot to bring back the short stubby beer bottles. Do you know anything about this?

Longneck

dear longneck,

you have come across my secret agenda to bring back the stubbies! given my stature, the short stubby bottles are the only beer bottles which make me look good by accentuating my curves. there must be more of you out there who feel the same way. we must band together and BRING BACK THE STUBBIES! contact your local member of parliament.

Scott // 12:10 AM

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Well, I found a picture, if you see any send me the link.

This is what we're fighting for:


Scott // 12:01 AM

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Monday, January 28, 2002:

Taken from Alberta.com without permission. Revolutions require breaking the rules.
Food and Dining

Beerfly: The long and short of stubbies
by Glen Edwards


Stubby beer bottles are as Canadian as maple syrup and third-down-and-punt, but it’s unlikely you'll ever see them again on store shelves — even in a limited edition run.

The much-loved squat glassware flourished in an era when Tommy Hunter was prime-time TV and the Canadian dollar carried its weight abroad. Back in the days when the words "shag" and "carpeting" were considered a good match, the stubby was not only an industry standard, but a frosty cultural icon unique to all beer lovers north of the 49th parallel.

"It was a piece of Canadiana," recalls beer industry veteran and Labatt spokesperson Paul Smith. "The stubby was an absolute measure of being Canadian. Americans didn’t have it."

What the Americans did have however were sexy and slim, long-necked bottles. Seduced by the slender shape, what was once patriotic in the Prairies soon became passé in the early 80s.

"We were getting big messaging back from consumers as an industry that the stubby was tired and didn’t belong," explains Smith. "There was lots of exposure to U.S. bottles — the long-neck was huge. Consumers were telling us 'What's wrong with Canadian beers? Why are we stuck with this look?' So, the industry made the change (to our current standardized bottles)."

After 15 years of calling it quits with the stubby though, a contingent of Canadians are now fondly looking back. For those who remember Don Cherry behind the bench instead of a microphone, the feeling is borne from nostalgia; for those who grew up with PCs and CDs, it's a retro, alternative attraction.

Nobody's talking of a packaging putsch, of course — just a modest run of stubby bottles, adorned with a vintage label from a long-standing Canadian brand and packed into a carton from days gone by. The special-edition bottles could remain intact as collectors; opened and clinked over TV trays in a toast to times past; or drank with a taste toward kitschy cool among the über urbane. Stubbies — born before Joe "I-am-Canadian" was even a gleam in some Madison Avenue suit’s eye — could unite Canadian beer consumers both young and old, and from coast to coast, like never before.

Award-winning advertising guru Chris Staples thinks a special stubby promotion would be an easy sell.

"I think it's a great idea. People remember those bottles really fondly and it’s not just the bottle — using the original graphics and having the original boxes would be amazing. It would go over really well," says the former Palmer Jarvis creative director who has gone on to form the successful Rethink Advertising.

Smith himself has a huge soft-spot for the tubby stubby, too.

"I'm looking at a collection of stubby bottles in my office right now. Beer is a great heritage product — it's a traditional beverage and people love that. I think that's why suddenly the stubby has become a fascination. I have had conversations with lots of people asking 'Why don’t you bring back the stubby?'" recounts Smith, who admits his university-aged daughter and her friends have even asked when the bottle will make a return.

Don't, however, hold your collective breath: it's not going to happen anytime soon.

Bigwigs Labatt and Molson, along with other budget-conscious brewers, have long agreed to an industry-standard bottle because it's better for their bottom-lines. For a business dependent on returnable bottles, standardization eliminates the need to collect, sort and distribute a wide variety of glass containers. Under their agreement, breweries share a huge common float of glassware, duplication of efforts is deleted and little is left to waste. The advantage is a boon to beer-buyers' pocketbooks and Mother Nature's disposition.

Although companies like Labatt and Molson are eager to meet consumer demand, introducing a new bottle would disturb the peace in an already hostile environment where breweries battle over the slimmest slices of market share.

"Part of the agreement is we all made a commitment not to launch additional bottles," says Smith.

Still, some mavericks like Staples thinks the big breweries are stuck in a creative rut. In partnership with Tree, Rethink launched a self-named "herbal-charged" lager two years ago. The beer features a multipurpose and patented carton creation that can be easily recycled or re-used as a CD or candle holder. That type of ingenuity, says Staples, is in short supply among brewers.

"They have a hard time thinking outside the box, pardon the pun," says Staples. "I don’t think there’s been any real innovation in the beer category for many years, certainly in packaging ... If a little company like us can come up with something unique and get a patent on it in North America, what are they doing sitting around doing the same old thing?"

Smith says it's unrealistic to think breweries, pleased with the status quo, will never modify the current bottle.

"No one wants to say 'never.' I'm sure there was some (industry person) sitting around in 1965 who asked 'Aren’t we ever going to change?" And they replied, "Are you nuts! We got a great bottle — the stubby is terrific.' No one ever wants to say 'never,'" insists Smith.

Things will change. Eventually. Canada's standard beer bottle will shift shape, just as it did 10 years ago, likely as part of an image make-over to boost business.

Of course, when that time does come, the stubby may have graduated from nostalgic notion to Canadian heritage status. At that point, the choice for a new, truly Canadian beer bottle would be obvious — no doot aboot it.

Scott // 4:40 PM

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