Dickeling around with the consumer

The folks at the George Dickel distillery are either idiots or marketing visionaries.

My vote is for the latter. It's the people who have fallen for the manufactrured "shortage" of George Dickel Whisky No. 8 who are acting idiotically.

Dickel stopped production of No. 8 from 1999 to 2003 at its Tullahoma, TN, facility, thus intentionally reducing inventory. Once the normal supply-and-demand forces came into effect, Dickel wasn't able to supply enough of its tipple to consumers.

Result: Dickel recently launched an advertising campaign "apologizing" for the shortage and saying it came about because its whiskey is so popular.

That was a great way to (1.) raise consumer awareness of a whiskey that, while a good Tennessee sipping spirit, is a pale shadow of category leader Jack Daniel's, and (2.) feed the fantasy that it is so popular the supply dried up.

Wise up folks. Nothing wrong with controlling production of your own product, but the beverage writers ought to know better than to fall for the gimmick.

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