An open letter to Budweiser.

Being a regular rider of Boston's MBTA Blue Line, I am regularly assaulted with advertising that I find mildly offensive. Lately the new trend is to plaster an entire car of a train with advertisements from a single advertiser. Today I happened upon one such train extolling the virtues of Budweiser's new B^E or B-to-the-E as you call it on your web site. This is the beer with added caffeine, ginseng and other magical herbs. One ad in particular stood out to me. The tag line of said ad stated "You can sleep when you are 30." As a 30 year old woman, I found that a tad perplexing. Perhaps at my advanced age, I am a little bit confused. They do say that the mind is the first thing to go. Or perhaps, I have missed one of my required naps and I am now cranky. People my age usually need to catch a nap if we are going to make it for the early-bird special. I think the more likely answer is that you realize that people over the age of 29 know that the concept of a caffeine infused beer is the most ridiculous concept since "New" Coke. I'm no chemist, but I know that caffeine is a stimulant and alcohol is depressant. Wouldn't the net effect be to cancel each other out? Maybe if you made a beer that didn't tast like pee then you wouldn't have to add caffeine to get people to drink it. I would say that I will never buy your product again, but I already don't. I'm sure that the marketing geniuses that work for you thought, "Hey, Boston is a college town, so this ad will go over big." However, what they failed to ascertain was that neither East Boston nor Revere--the service area of the Blue Line--are college towns. Therefore, the average age of a Blue Line rider is somewhat older than say, the Green Line. Probably somewhere above 30. Let me give you some free marketing advice. Reasearch. Try it.

Love and Kisses,
Marilora