Sham, and for shame

A little off topic but here goes:

This is a big reason the New Jersey Turnpike Authority should embrace a beer series that salutes its world-famous toll highway instead of denouncing it and acting like someone threw a stinky diaper in its lap.

If the authority is going to be an event ticket broker – and the mere fact you can buy concert tickets through a toll road bureaucracy is so patently absurd – then the PNC Bank Arts Center should be selling at its concession stands beers that were made locally. (The Turnpike Authority owns the arts center; naming rights were sold to PNC years ago. Yet, the state is still broke, drowning in red ink.) The authority's bitching earlier this summer about Flying Fish and its Exit Series beers was bootless, knee-jerk whining more suited for a dumbed-down world we should have taken the exit off of long ago.

Of course, ensuring Jersey brewers enjoy a home-state advantage at those concessions would be circumventing the public bidding process for contracts. But hey, looks like the Turnpike ensures a concernt ticket advantage for insiders and its employees (because they work hard. Note to the TA: Let's just assume people paying taxes and tolls to support the Turnpike and Garden State Parkway and pay off the highway bond debt work hard, too).

But the bigger picture here is: How do you place any credence in the Turnpike's gripes about it being prima facie wrong to mention beer and a highway in the same breath, when the Turnpike's administration is running a ticket racket, selling premium concert seats to people smart enough know the Turnpike has killer seats for Dave Matthews or Incubus?

That in-the-know crowd pretty much excludes most of us, since last time we checked the E-ZPass lanes don't have signs saying "Need seats? Call (732) 750-5300." Nor do Turnpike toll tickets.

What's the next act taking the stage? Sham.

Time for a beer.

Exit to ale ... and so it goes

There's an AP story on the wires and Internet in which MADD gets annoyed at Flying Fish's Exit Series.

Nothing truly new in this, unless you're looking for a release date for the hoppy American wheat ale that will be Exit 11 (it's July 15th, and alas a media event to kick things off is being held in Philadelphia that day, not New Jersey. Sort of flies in the face of the talked-up homage to Jerseyana. But then, Philadelphia is, was and probably always will be a top market for Flying Fish, so there's that to consider). And when we say "nothing new," we mean the very same argument/gripe trotted out in June is being recycled a mere month later. Who cares if it's coming from a different mouth this time?

If you read The Associated Press story, you get the impression that Mothers Against Drunk Driving was contacted for comment (a completely logical thing to do as far as news reporting goes; and honestly, where was MADD a month ago when the chance to grouse about this was on the front burner?), as opposed to MADD getting out its long knives to fillet the Fish with a protest, à la a news conference at the start of a major travel holiday (such as last week's Fourth of July celebrations), something the organization is known to do. Not that we're advocating MADD tee off on a brewery; hardly, since we think MADD, nationally, has become a temperance league – as in all beer, liquor and wine are bad or lead to trouble – and especially since we thought the New Jersey Turnpike Authority needed to lighten up when it was getting fussy last month over this. But it is curious that the freshest news release on the Web site for the New Jersey chapter of MADD is dated 2006. The Exit Series gripe isn't even mentioned on MADD-NJ.

And, if you ask us, The Star-Ledger's headline on the story sort of oversells things. MADD gets second fiddle following some more of the Turnpike Authority frowning and resignation at Flying Fish's First Amendment rights (which the Exit Series wholly is). The balance of the story, aside from more rebuttal from FF, is about the beer series, not about how MADD intends to get madder over this. A mild slam, it would seem.

This item made WCBS radio in New York this afternoon, with audio comment from MADD folks (in which they did indeed slam FF, saying they were "appalled") coupled with some renewed deflection from Gene Muller at Flying Fish in Cherry Hill (he has proffered once before that drinking and driving are an unthinkable combination, something anyone could guess). But oddly enough, WCBS did this same story three weeks ago – after Channel 4 in New York did a take on the Turnpike folks having a conniption, after the TollroadsNews Web site broke the story (if you want to call it that). In CBS' report back then, the station spoke to Gene, but never went after the MADD angle. Hmmm.

And now a news day in the slow lane once again today.

And so it goes ...

PS: One thing about the Exit Series that does come to mind these seven months into FF's program for 2009 and as far as keeping beer denizens far and wide interested: 18 exits, 3 beers a year = 6 years of taking exits. The turnpike's a long road, indeed. Maybe the US Mint has some tips after 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, 52 quarters and 10 years.

Exit to ale, reprise

If you believe Toll Road News, there’s some frowning at the Woodbridge headquarters of the New Jersey Turnpike over Flying Fish and its Exit Series beers. If that’s the case, then the Turnpike Authority should lighten up.

From a chat with Gene Muller, Flying Fish’s president, it seems the fuss is a little overblown, but not without a PR dividend for the brewery. The static comes from fears over the potential for assumptions, albeit erroneous, that the Turnpike is behind the beer.

That’s funny, since Flying Fish doesn’t use the word turnpike on its labels or related Web site. And you can't get an Exit beer at the Molly Pitcher rest stop, nor an Exit 4 T-shirt anywhere but Flying Fish.

Also, the brewery isn't infringing on any trademarks. (You can’t trademark that highway-sign color of green; nor can you trademark the word exit; the shape of the Turnpike’s sign is trademarked, however.)

In the grand scheme of things, this is about the New Jersey Turnpike as iconography and pop culture. The Flying Fish series is an homage to something distinctly New Jersey. And last we checked, the Exit Series celebrates that slice of Jerseyana; it does not mock it, like so many comedians and a recent headline in Draft Magazine.

Still, in the face of all this gear grinding, the brewery’s Web site for the Exit Series now features a disclaimer now (pictured; click to enlarge).

Any authority concerns about drinking and driving were met with the reply that Flying Fish folks don’t condone drinking and driving (they never have; nor does any Jersey micro or pub brewery), and that they drive the same roads as everyone else.

(The dim view of roads and beer or wine or liquor mentioned in the same breath is a knee-jerk association to DUI, a propensity to see a dark side. The thinking person knows better, knows it's not fait accompli. It's unfortunate and makes you wonder when you consider this: Five years ago, Buena Vista Township in Atlantic County temporarily changed the name of its mint-growing section of Richland to Mojito. Why? Because Bacardi gave the town 5 grand for the promotion, and got a mojito sign along Route 40, the main highway through town. Last we checked, a mojito was made not with just mint, but rum, too. And this event went over with not a hubub, but feature stories written about it. Go figure.)

Gene did suggest the Turnpike shouldn’t be spending money on lawyers to swat at a small, taxpaying business. (A lawyer contacted the brewery to press the authority's concerns; there's no cease and desist notice that we know of.) Tolls pay the Turnpike’s bills; who needs a toll hike because the Turnpike Authority took a wrong turn down a legal dead-end?

In the long run, all of this attention proves beneficial for Flying Fish. Exit 11, the second installament of the series, is due out soon. News media from the surrounding region have been working the story. (Update: Channel 4 in New York did a somewhat dour turn on the dispute on the 6 o'clock news. Their written version has a lame headline pun.)

A day in the slow lane for the news outlets perhaps, but a grand avenue of exposure for the beer.

One final word: We’ve dealt with Joe Orlando from the Turnpike Authority, going back to our AP days. And while the Turnpike Authority's concerns are understandable, the tone and disparaging remarks in the Toll Road News story seem out of character. Even on the worst of days, i.e. bad news coming out of the Turnpike, Joe was always helpful and candid, never coarse. Hence, some doubts about Toll Road News.