Talk:Champale

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[edit] Marketed to Blacks?

http://www.gono.com/beermagazineads/champale/champale.htm

These ads from the Sixties seem aimed at whites. Maybe they changed strategies when they found a market they weren't expecting? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.91.235.10 (talk) 02:13, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Almost all brands in the 40s, 50s, and 60s were aimed toward whites. While a lot of the brands used limited ad campaigns to target minority communities, it wasn't until the 70s that select brands went the minority-only route (think Shiltz Malt Liquor or Colt 45). If you're looking for how/why certain brands or types of beverages gravitated to the minority segment, check out some of the information and references on Wiki's article on Malt liquor. --Brownings (talk) 04:08, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

You raise a good question, which reveals an interesting cultural point about the Northern Jim Crow days. There were black neighborhoods and white neighborhoods, though the law didn't codify that. (See Native Son about that; and A Raisin in the Sun for what happened when someone tried to cross the color line.) The color line stuff used to be done off the record, particularly in the North, the way Native Son describes in the final trial scene. I remember wondering why, in Spring 1963, we had to drive over to Freeport, LI, a black neighborhood, to buy Champale. We never saw it on sale anywhere else. Finally somebody told us it was "for Negroes." But high school and college students embraced it (drinking age was 18 in NY, high school seniors drank legally) because it was cheap; because dates liked it; and because it completely disguised the taste of vodka. And, at the risk of revealing I'm a lowbrow, because it tasted good! (And so did Gallo Musky, for that matter. So there.) Anyway, yes, it was marketed to blacks, but no, nobody could prove it, short of finding some kind of truck records showing where the product was taken. The North was more subtle, and hypocritical, about such things than the South was. Peace Profhum (talk) 00:00, 4 April 2008 (UTC)