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[Update] There Is No 88-Yr-Old Williamsburg Grandma With A Wacky Beer Company
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jun 28, 2012
Modified Jun 28, 2012
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Jun 28, 2012
Modified Jun 28, 2012
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[UPDATE Below] There are a lot of cool grandmothers out there, but eccentric Williamsburg native Ethel Goldschmidt may take the bundt cake. After her husband of 60+ years died, the octogenarian has started her own beer company, Ethel's Brew, carrying the label “go out with a bang.” Because wouldn't you rather have your beer brewed by someone who has been going to Oktoberfest since the 1950s? Below, watch a video in which Ethel narrates how she got to this point:
"It's not about being blonde or brunette," Ethel said in a press release. "The girls who have more fun are the ones with my beer. I'm very excited to finally bring my late husband's dream to life and to start my own beer company." The brew is described as "a clean, smooth, European-style busty blonde brewed with three different types of malt, is produced from French barley and several varieties of hops."
Along with the brew comes a very wacky advertising campaign, including the photos above and videos interspersed throughout this post. The best one however is a man-on-the-street interview with some of her Brooklyn neighbors, who talk about spotting Ethel walking down Metropolitan at 3:30 a.m., how much Ethel likes to drink 40s, and according to one woman, how terrible it is that she's wasting her late husband's money:
Watch some more of the advertisements below:
Update: Sometimes wacky advertising turns out to be TOO wacky: it seems that Ethel's Brew and its creator, Ethel Goldschmidt, are completely made up parts of a make believe ad campaign by advertising agency DDB, created essentially to tout the company's expertise at successfully being able to make shit up. Read more about it here.
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grandma
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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