About 20 seconds into that commercial I turned to my wife and said "I can hear the conservative outrage already." I wish calling a safety on the first play of the game was as easy as calling the right wing reaction to a commercial for a sugary soft drink.
Hey, maybe I was just drunk and everything was blurry and I thought I was seeing triple! Ever think of that? Didn't watch it. Not a fan of Bruno, although I do think he's a decent performer. And he takes excellent mug shots. He's just so happy being arrested! What's not to love? Spoiler
Roads are shit. I hate to complain about the weather, but the roads really are shit. This made me laugh and brought back memories:
Californication, released in 1999, sold 15 million albums, and received heavy critical acclaim. Their next album, By the Way, sold around 6 million and also had critical acclaim. Stadium Arcadiam won a Grammy and sold around 6 million. Don't like anything since 1992? Hey that's fine. But objectively your comment is wrong. Sorry, big Chili Peppers fan. Tell Me Baby/Hump de Bump was the first dance song at my wedding.
I did the same thing 10 years ago when Janet Jackson's tit popped out. I said to my friend, "man you are never going to hear the end of that." I still think it's hilarious they claimed it was a wardrobe malfunction when it looked obviously clear that the outfit was specifically made to be torn off to reveal boob. That and she had a nipple ornament underneath a pretty complicated outfit, who is just wearing those around NOT wanting to show off some tit?. Don't give me this shit, it was an accident, please. Why couldn't they just say, "yup, bad decision, lets move on showing my tit ISN'T A BIG FUCKING DEAL...." ?
I worry a lot about getting fired from my job as a teacher for all of the various shit I say. But I just remembered that my English teacher showed us a close up of Janet Jackson's nipple in class, so maybe I'm okay.
If you look closely, you may see a pattern in the following photos: Spoiler Spoiler [/spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler ....so my question is to anybody on here: what is it about holding a bottle of Grey Goose that makes you feel just so fucking cool? I'm not mocking the alcohol itself or its admirable origins: its made from Cognac wheat, pure spring water and filtered though champagne limestone. But of course, absolutely ZERO of the toolsheds in the above photos know those facts, because like 95% of the population they would not be able to distinguish any vodka apart based purely on the taste. Especially if you're splashing it, because no liquor has a more similar taste than vodka. They're virtually all the same. So it must mean you're cool because you paid more money for it than say a bottle of Svedka or Skyy, which means you're a fucking joke. Any reason other than the fact its douchebag pseudo "Alpha Male" (worst term ever) who love posing with it yet it was popularized by Sex In The City. I love telling them that.
Anyone who holds up any bottle for a photo is a tool. I don't care if its Cristal, Dom Perignon, Woodford or McCormicks, it always looks stupid. Grey Goose is overpriced anyway. They market it well, and people think because of the price point its better than Svedka, but clearly its not.
Its cause Sidney Frank was a fucking genius and manufactured an ultra luxury brand out of nowhere and basically created the ultra premium vodka market. His whole idea was that if you told people a liquor was the best and marketed it as an elite product, people would instinctively believe it and purchase it as such. I'm also pretty sure they scaled back the quality, on purpose as part of strategy, in order to increase profit margins once the brand took hold. Like it or not, it became THE premier vodka brand in the eyes of consumers, especially non-vodka experts. Marketing genius.
I think with anything you have to be aware that increased price doesn't equal increased quality, however it seems that with alcohol people are particularly susceptible to it, or maybe that goes for all food and alcohol items. If you're an not an expert, how can you say you won't pay x dollar for one steak and more/less for another. Advertisers love those commercials where someone is consuming something in an upscale environment only to find out they're eating a Wal Mart steak. Any pscyh major, or anyone really, should be able to see how stupid those commercials are. Perception is everything. Give someone a Budweiser and tell them its the finest beer in Germany and most people will enjoy it. If however you tell them its a Budweiser many will dislike it.
I definitely agree that perception of a product changes based on a person's prior knowledge of what they are consuming. When it comes to Gin though, the taste difference is obvious. Cheap gin tastes like hooker piss and Christmas trees. A nice glass of Hendricks tastes like the nectar of the gods.
And yet you'll never see some schmuck in a striped shirt phallically holding one for a bar photo. It's the whole self-created "Lord Of The Club" bullshit where guys try to make it look like they're in the midst of an exotic lifestyle, meanwhile their day job usually consist of refolding the same shelf of sweaters for six hours.
Behold, luxury product marketing. I learned in college that Brita filters can take some of the crappiness out of cheap vodka. It won't turn your Karkov or Silver Wolf into Tito's (which I like), but it will help smooth it out. While we're hating on booze snobs, I thought this was an interesting read on why wine tasting is bullshit.
See, you're confusing your hatred of that genre of individual for the brand itself. Its like ascribing some sort of correlation between douchebags driving nice cars in flashy fashion with Mercedes. Mercedes, BMZ, Audi, etc... are all the same space, but you have Mercedes creating this perceived separation from them in quality for all these years, Janis Joplin singing about it, and suddenly Mercedes is the status symbol car. Grey Goose never marketed itself as the vodka of club rats, but it did market itself as the very best, and clubs want to stock the very best and similarly their clientele wants to purchase it, so boom. We're hovering around the same point, I'm just looking at the brand perception and you the demographic of the consumer. Oddly enough, go to alot of clubs these days and you see as much Ciroc or Belvidere or similar brands as you do Grey Goose.
By the time you spend money on the filter and the vodka, you might as well just buy a good bottle of vodka. Because once you filter shit vodka through it a few times, that filter is almost unusable for another go; it turns black. I am not a vodka fan anymore, but Grey Goose really is good despite the dubious marketing. If good to you means no flavor, very clean, no rubbing alcohol vapors. 10 times distilled, low yield, which accounts for price. I think it is a quality product. Chopin was the most similar in regards to flavor, palette. Hated Ketel One, Belvedere. Goose is not worth $30 a fifth, but no vodka is worth that much. If you mix it with anything you're an idiot. It is meant for vodka martinis and that is it. Buy Tito's instead. Small distiller, good quality, good price. Support American distilleries. What I'm really trying to say is: drink gin. Try not to break out all your car windows in a spruce flavored fugue state.
I like gin the same way as I like rum - as a mixed cocktail only. I admit to loving Pimm's Cup and Bombay is what I usually buy, but I think Gin tastes like ass on its own. It's dryer than Death Valley firetrail and I can't palate dry-tasting liquor without a splash. Sambuca, not in your wildest dreams. I'd rather drink Satan's pee after he had an asparagus bender, It's the one booze I will flat-put call somebody insane for liking. Up until WWII it was the worst thing Italy did to the world since the Romans were in charge.
Using a roommate's filter solved some those problems. It was worth buying some cheap off-brand filter re-fills then. But nowadays I just buy a jug of Tito's when it's on sale, since my girlfriend will drink that and not filtered Karkov. That's okay because a vodka tonic with Tito's on a warm summer evening (hell, anytime) is quite nice.
Maybe this is because I don't drink nearly as much as I used to, but I didn't know people still bought vodka this much after age 22 or so. I mean its OK, but its never been my go-to drink and other than when I was in college, I never knew anyone who said vodka was their favorite liquor. Ah well. As far as gin goes, Hendricks is king. A friend of mine got me a bottle of gin that I've never seen before (And can't name off the top of my head, I'll post a pic when I get home) that is pretty good as well.
Tito's is Texas vodka. I like supporting my home state. edit: I was just going through my cabinets and found the Six Points Brewing Co. glass. That beer...Apollo...tastes like kangaroo piss and antifreeze. I'm almost sad I paid for it.