Familiar Bedfellows Now Go Commercial

In the category of "it's about time" comes a recent announcement that seems to make perfect sense. At least to me. When I was working in Japan for some time, I couldn't really watch TV for very long, as my command of the language was pretty limited. I would get a laugh out of the crazy game shows they had on, but they were only entertaining for about ten minutes. After that, I needed to do something else to relax, and inevitably that meant curling up with a good book and a glass of wine.

So why has it taken so long for the book industry and the wine industry to get together? Seems like a natural fit, at least for a lot of lonely bachelors and stressed housewives. Apparently someone has finally worked out the overlap in demographics and in what has got to be one of the more intriguing cross industry promotions I've seen in a while, some Sutter Home wines are now going to be carrying hang tags for discounts on Harper Collins books. Of course, one might argue that the world would be better served if all Harper Collins books came with a coupon for a discount on a bottle of wine, but I guess we need to protect the kiddies.

I'm clearly not the demographic they're targeting, so I shouldn't complain about the choice of Sutter Home versus any other wine brand, but I do secretly wish that some other wine labels might explore such marketing partnerships.

Ravenswood could do a deal with Marvel Comics, and Screaming Eagle could hook up with the Robb Report, for instance. Honestly, the possibilities are endless....

Read the full story.

Posted by: Alder on July 17, 2006 11:17 PM: Filed under: Ramblings and Rants; Like this post? Share it! Digg it! - Add to del.icio.us - Add to Stumbleupon - Add to Reddit

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Comments (2)

Eric wrote:

07.18.06 at 10:12 AM

While on the subject, I've also recently came across a Canadian wine writer who has also written some mystery novels set in the wine world. There may be others doing this but it's the first I saw.

http://www.tonyaspler.com/pub/articleview.asp?id=127&s=13

duane wrote:

07.18.06 at 9:47 PM

Does this mean that "The Hitching Post" gets stuck with "Barely Legal"? (The new addition)...

I will lay claim to "Atlas Shrugged"...

-Duane