Tuesday, April 17, 2012

With my mind on my money and my money on my mind

Thomas Edsall brings us this beautiful piece of microtargeting, showing the partisan breakdown of various alcohol choices:
Now, call me a cynic, but I'm just not sure how useful this information is to a political campaign. I mean, with a decent political list, you should be able to figure out my party ID, my age, my race, my marital status, my religion, my voter turnout history, and my area of residence. Just how useful is it to also know that I prefer scotch to bourbon?

That said, it's a fun chart. I would not have thought that cognac -- the drink of Louis XIV, Kim Jong Il, and Winston Churchill -- would be the furthest left, but there you are. I also like that Budweiser (which is union made) is to the left of Coors (which is not).

6 comments:

Matt Jarvis said...

Notice cognac, brandy, gin, and malt liquor are all on the left side of the scale. That's a racial effect.

The other thing I find interesting is that the light version of each beer is just a couple points to the right of the non-light version.

Why no wine, though? you couldn't use labels, but you could use red vs white at least.

knecht ruprecht said...

I would not have thought that cognac -- the drink of Louis XIV, Kim Jong Il, and Winston Churchill -- would be the furthest left, but there you are.

The author of the piece expressed the same surprise. But if you think about it, it's pretty obvious why: the main source of growth for cognac consumption in the U.S. these days is African Americans. The producers dance around this issue very carefully, not wanting to alienate their more traditional affluent consumers, but the market they are selling to is a distinctly hip-hop one. Just look how it's marketed.

Seth Masket said...

Well, yes, race plays a big role here, but that's not easily separable from party, any more than white people liking Amstel Light is.

KevinNYC said...

If you asked me about cognac, I might have thought It would lean right, but if you mention Couvousier or Hennessy or Alize, I would immediately think African American.

I would have liked to see the spread of all microbrews lumped together. My guess is that would lean heavily left.

KevinNYC said...

Of course it's marketing to hip-hop audience, because that's its audience.

Half of Rémy Martin’s volume in the U.S. is sold to African-Americans, according to a spokeswoman. Hennessy declined to share its numbers. For the overall market, the share of sales to African-Americans is 55% by volume and 57% by dollar, according to the Nielsen Co. Overall, one million U.S. households purchase Cognac at least once a year.

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