Take The Money And Run

I have to confess I never bother with the ads in either 'What's Brewing' and 'BEER", CAMRA's newspaper and periodical for members, respectively.

However, with all the heat over Roger Protz's April op-ed about keg, and the feedback in the current WB letters page being broadly supportive of the man they apparently call 'The Colonel', and then Tim Webb and Tandleman doing the head-to-head on whether CAMRA should support all craft beer on page 55 of BEER, I allowed myself a snigger at the ad on page 32 of the latter organ.

Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat's UK ad people have taken a full page to plug their Vedett lager to CAMRA members. I assume the Men In Red Braces managing the account see the membership as a perfect captive audience for their Imported Premium Lager. Indeed, I believe many CAMRA members are fond of Duvel and the Moortgat tradition. However, the more dogmatic of them (the "Kevin's") will probably be going up the wall and across the ceiling over an invitation to drink Vedett on draught.

I seem to recall complaints in issues of WB past, over the type of advertising CAMRA accepts (such important matters as implicitly condoning short measures seem to crop up regularly), but I suppose a fee is a fee, even if the product is that yucky "chemical fizz". I bet next month's letters page in WB will be interesting, though...