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Cars & Calories. No one knows why. Some brewers say that they themselves have brought on the slump in beer by preaching moderation. Others feel that it is the natural result of changes in U.S. living habits. Once, the saloon was the workingman's club, where he put away large quantities of the poor man's drink. But now, with more people making more money than ever in history, the workingman is much less inclined to idle over a glass of suds. He has too many other things to occupy his leisure hours: auto trips, sports, do-it-yourself hobbies, home improvement. Moreover, motorists are increasingly conscious of the danger in drunken driving. Other reasons for the decline in beer drinking: reducing diets, the fad for low-calorie soft drinks, rising beverage taxes, which have helped to make the poor man's drink expensive.
Whatever the reason, U.S. brewers are trying every trick of the trade to boost their lagging sales. To keep ahead of the pack, Anheuser-Busch's President Gussie Busch has taken over the sales job personally, is kicking off a record $14 million advertising campaign to plug his beer; to tempt the TV-watching home market he has brought out new four-fifths-of-a-quart bottles, plus 16-oz., 10-oz. and tiny 7-oz. "ladies' size" bottles. As a running mate for premium Budweiser, the company has developed a brand-new, cheaper (5¢ to 10¢ a bottle) beer called Busch Lager, is now test-marketing it in St. Louis and Texas in the hope of taking sales away from competing nonpremium local beers.
Milwaukee's Schlitz, which once loaded its beer with vitamin D, is spending millions on TV advertising, has brought out 16-oz. cans to tempt the home market, and a new, specially treated paper cup to make beer taste better at ball games. Milwaukee's Pabst also has half-quart sizes, is pushing an "Ice-Pak" beer cooler for the summer trade and a new "four-pak" carton, has even set up a special "gustametric" laboratory to test beer flavor on a scientific basis by charting the tastes of a dozen beer drinkers. Together, Pabst and Schlitz have spent $35 million for new West Coast breweries to match, the $25 million plant Anheuser-Busch opened last year in Los Angeles. Throughout the industry, every brewery is scrambling to fortify its market against the national giants. No one dares relax.
"Love Your Work." August Anheuser Busch Jr., fourth in a 90-year family line to head the brewery, does not fear this competition; he thrives on it. Trim (5 ft. 10 in., 164 lbs.), greying, hard as an oaken keg at 56, Gussief Busch operates on a simple formula: "Work hard—love your work." Whether at his baronial suburban home or his main brewery sprawling alongside the Mississippi River in South St. Louis, he spends most of his waking hours selling beer. He rarely talks in a normal voice; he sounds more like a hoarse lion. On his way to appointments, he lopes in a half-walk, half-trot, arms pumping like a sprinter, while he bellows orders to an aide panting along behind. He often loses his bowstring temper. But recently he has learned to temper his tantrums with humor. "All right, you guys," he roared at a recent company meeting when everyone started clamoring at once, "let me blow my top first. Then you can blow yours."