off the leash

Beer in New Jersey: All the Laws We Never Followed

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Ken Dowell

This is a state with a long history of resisting any attempts to stem the flow of alcohol, a state which probably produced more beer than anyone during Prohibition, and yet New Jersey ended up with some of the most confusing and restrictive alcohol and beverage laws that you’ll find anywhere.

Despite the often radical religious nature of the Europeans who came to America there was very little attempt to limit beer or other alcohol during colonial times. It is believed that the Mayflower arrived with a hearty stock of brew. When concerns were raised about alcohol, and these usually came from a pulpit, they were not about drink itself but about excessive drinking.

Things started to change with the growth of the temperance movement in the late 19^th and early 20^th century. This was largely a Protestant led effort, Catholics and Jews tended to show very little interest in temperance. In New Jersey, it led to the passage of a law in 1906, called the Bishops law, which prohibited the sale of alcohol on Sunday and raised the fees for liquor licenses.

With the passage of this law, many New Jersey taverns closed and locked their front door on Sunday. But not the back or side doors. And in many of New Jersey’s cities, the police force was made up of folks whose preference was taverns over temperance. Two years later, most of the legislators that were closely associated with this law were voted out of office.

The ultimate triumph of the temperance movement was the 18^th amendment, Prohibition. All but three states ratified this constitutional amendment in 1919. New Jersey was one that didn’t, the others were Rhode Island and Connecticut. In 1919 Edward I. Edwards was the Democratic candidate for governor. He campaigned with the pronouncement “I am from Hudson County and I am as wet as the Atlantic Ocean.” He won.

Here are a few examples of how New Jerseyans reacted to Prohibition:

Col. Ira L. Reeves, an army man and supporter of the 18^th Amendment, was appointed New Jersey’s Prohibition Czar. He lasted eight months after which he quit and called for repeal of Prohibition commenting that all it did was raise the price and lower the quality of alcohol.
When the feds tried to raid one Trenton brewery, the local police showed up and arrested them for carrying guns in the city.
The Jersey Trio (see Beer Barons of New Jersey) operated more than a dozen breweries in New Jersey and in neighboring states. In Camden, they pumped beer out of the brewery to a warehouse by using firehouses in the city sewer line. Thus if there was a raid the brewery only had the near beer that they were licensed to produce in stock.
When a restaurant in Oradel was raided and the alcohol that was being used for a dinner party was seized, the enforcers had some problems shipping it out. They left the restaurant only to find all of their tires had been slashed.
Some New Jersey doctors prescribed beer as a cure for nervousness or hysteria. Congress reacted by making “medical beer” illegal as well.
The Anti-Dry League of New Jersey, which claimed to have 60,000 members, lobbied for the legalization of beer and wine.

In his book Jersey Brew, Michael Pellegrino sums it up: “Prohibition just had no chance in Jersey where people seem to pick and choose which laws really need to be followed, especially when it comes to alcohol consumption.”

FDR finally pulled the plug on the Prohibition experiment in 1933. That ushered in some boom years for New Jersey’s biggest brewers like Krueger, Pabst and Ballantine. Later in the century the number of breweries dwindled in New Jersey due to corporate consolidation and the control by a small number of national brands over the distribution system. And by the end of the 20^th century, New Jersey found itself behind most of the rest of the country in developing microbeweries and brew pubs. The the reason was some of the laws that had their roots in Prohibition.

By the 1990’s these laws were no longer about moral or religious issues, but instead were maintained because of the interests of groups who benefited from the restrictions.

New Jersey didn’t have a brew pub until 1995 when the Ship Inn opened in Milford. Before that year it was illegal in New Jersey to sell beer at the location it was made. The first microbrewery in New Jersey, Climax Brewing in Roselle Park, opened one year later. By 2010 there were still only five microbreweries in New Jersey.

It was after new legislation in 2012 was signed into the law that the microbrewery movement really gained momentum. That legislation allowed brew pubs to increase their production and to sell to retail outlets through wholesalers. It also allowed microbreweries to sell beer at the brewery location and permitted the sale of a limited amount for home consumption.

The state legislature is likely not done with the job of updating liquor laws as a number of bills are currently under consideration. There is a farm brewery/winery bill pending that would allow wineries to produce some beer and to sell it for home consumption. It also provides for a cheaper license, between $100 and $300. A brewery food consumption bill would allow customers to bring food into a brewery with them, although the brewery is still not allowed to offer food. Another proposal would streamline the licensing process.

Lest you think all this legislation would put an end to the weirdness of New Jersey alcohol beverage laws, consider these:

There are 29 different types of liquor licenses in New Jersey.
Most supermarkets and convenience stores don’t sell wine and beer because of the restrictions on the number of licenses a single corporation can hold
A bar owner can offer a free drink as long as it isn’t advertised.
Bars are prohibited from having “ladies nights” as the pricing would be considered discriminatory.
We have BYOB restaurants but it is illegal to advertise that fact and restaurants cannot charge a cover or corkage fee.
Strip clubs cannot offer both alcohol and full nudity. If alcohol is served, they can have partially clad “go-go dancers.”
If you are carrying a bottle of beer or alcohol in a car that had previously been opened, it has to be transported in the trunk.
A brewery license allows you to sell beer on the premises but only as part of a tour of the brewery.
It is illegal to charge a flat fee for unlimited drinks except on New Year’s Eve.

Given our heritage, you can imagine what the level of compliance is for some of these.

Posted in History | Tagged alcohol, beer, Bishop's law, brew pubs, history, laws, liquor licenses, microbreweries, New Jersey, Prohibition, temperance | 24 Comments

It’s World Series Time and I’m Thinking About Yogi

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Ken Dowell

Yogi Berra played in the World Series 14 times between 1947 and 1963. Ten times he won the championship, more than any other player. All were with the New York Yankees. He leads all players in World Series games played (75), plate appearances in the World Series (249) and has the most World Series hits (71). In his first World Series in 1947 he hit the first pinch-hit home run in World Series history. He also managed two different teams in the World Series, the Yankees in 1964 and the New York Mets in 1973.

1954 American League MVP

Leroy Neiman’s Yogi

I’m a resident of Montclair, N.J., where Yogi lived since the 1950’s. Here we remember him as a good baseball player but even more as a really good person.

————————————

These photos were taken at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center on the campus of Montclair State University.

1949 World Series championship ring

Posted in Baseball, Sports | Tagged baseball, catchers, New York Yankees, sports, World Series, Yogi Berra | 2 Comments

Beer Barons of New Jersey: Gottfried Krueger and Max Hassel

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Ken Dowell

Gottfried Krueger

German-born Gottfried Krueger showed up in America in 1853, a 16-year old who stepped ashore wearing wooden shoes and knew not a word of English. He settled in Newark where his brewer uncle, John Laible, took him under his wing. Together they founded the company that was to become the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company in 1858. When Laible died in 1975 Krueger became sole owner. It was a business that would last for more than a century until it was bought out by Narragansett in 1961.

Krueger branched out into real estate, entertainment and politics. He owned interests in several other breweries. His real estate holdings included the Krueger Auditorium. Located on Belmont Avenue in what was then the heart of the German district of Newark, the auditorium became a cultural center for German Americans. Krueger became a Newark City councilman and as Essex County Freeholder. He also held the odd position of “lay judge” in the equally odd Newark institution called the “Court of Errors and Appeals.”

Unlike his contemporary Peter Ballantine, there was no bungalow living at the brewery for Krueger. In 1888 he spent $250,000 on a High Street home that was heralded as the most lavish mansion ever built in Newark.

The Krueger Mansion, Newark (Jim Henderson)

In 1914 Gottfried and his wife Bertha set out for a trip to the homeland. It turned out to be a far longer visit than they expected. World War I broke out while they were in Germany and the Kruegers were trapped. To make matters worse, a character by the name A. Mitchell Palmer who paraded about as the “Great War Alien Property Custodian” seized the Krueger holdings.

After the war ended Gottfried found his way back to Newark and was able to regain possession of his business and properties. He died in 1926 during Prohibition as his heirs tried to keep the business afloat by making soda. He never got to see his company make beer history when, in 1935, Krueger left its mark on the brewery business by introducing the first beer in cans.

Max Hassel

An 11-year old boy named Mendel Gassel left Latvia and arrived on these shores in 1911. His father had already preceded him, his mother and his four siblings and had settled in Reading, Pa. The family adopted the name Hassel and the Latvian Mendel became the American Max. Max Hasell would only live to age 32 but during that time he was alternately the “Beer Baron of Berks County,” the “Jersey Gentleman Beer Baron,” and a member of the legendary bootlegging Jersey Trio.

Max got his start in Reading as an enterprising young man. He left school at age 14, worked for a while hawkling newspapers, then went into business with a friend making cigars. They eventually opened a retail cigar store.

Then came Prohibition. The ban on alcohol was neither a religious nor a moral issue for Max, it was an economic opportunity and despite his young age he was quick to take advantage of it. Before long he had interests in three Reading based breweries, Lauer Brewing, Reading Brewing and Fisher Brewing. But unlike New Jersey, Pennsylvania took Prohibition seriously.

In 1923 the feds raided Fisher Brewing after arresting one of its truck drivers, Max’s 19-year old brother Morris. Shortly thereafter, Lauer Brewing was raided and tax evasion charges were levied against Hassel. So the Beer Baron of Berks County crossed the Delaware. Hassel put down a stake in Camden by acquiring the Camden County Cereal Beverage Company. It was there that he utilized the common Prohibition era technique of piping beer in fire hoses through the city sewer lines to a warehouse while keeping only the low-alcohol near beer that he was licensed to produce at the brewery.

Max Hassel was of the non-violent sort. At this point in his career he never carried a gun, nor did he surround himself with gun-toting thugs. History has crafted an image of Max Hassel as a fair-minded honest businessman, albeit in a dishonest business.

Beer during Prohibition was not a gentleman’s game and Hassel would soon come face-to-face with that fact when a mobster from Philadelphia named Mickey Duffy paid a visit to Hassel and offered to become his partner. Max said no and shortly thereafter Duffy’s thugs came to Camden and physically tossed Hassel out of the Camden brewery.

Hassel laid low for a bit then decided it was time to change tactics. He made a deal with Duffy, who wasn’t long for the world anyway. He moved to Elizabeth, setting up operations in the Carteret Hotel in 1929. He hooked up with a couple other successful bootleggers, Waxey Gordon and Max Greenberg, to form the Jersey Trio. These guys ran a network of 16 breweries. In addition to Camden Brewing, New Jersey holdings included Eureka Brewing (Paterson), Harrison Brewing, Rising Sun (Elizabeth), Union Brewing and Superior Manufacturing in Newark and Union City Brewing. The Jersey Trio may have been responsible for pumping more beer into the market during Prohibition than just about anyone.

Their success however caught the eye of some high profile mobsters, including Dutch Schultz, It is believed that the hitmen who entered the Carteret Hotel on April 12, 1933, were hired by Schultz. Hassel and Greenberg were killed. Gorden escaped because he had skipped out to spend the afternoon with a prostitute in one of the other hotel rooms.

Max Hassel was killed five days after prohibition ended. Later in the decade Paul “Frankie” Carbo was charged with the murders but he never made it to trial as all of the prosecution’s witnesses disappeared. Welcome to New Jersey Max!

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Posted in History | Tagged beer, bootleggers, gangsters, Gottfried Krueger, history, Jersey Trio, Krueger Brewing, Mas Hassel, New Jersey, Newark, Prohibition | 22 Comments

Beer Barons of New Jersey: Aert Teunissen van Putten and Peter Ballantine

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Ken Dowell

Aert Teunissen van Putten

Not a whole lot is known about Aert Teunissen van Putten, New Jersey’s first beer baron. Perhaps his contemporaries didn’t realize the significance of being the first person in New Jersey to start up a brewery. We do know that Aert was born in 1612 in Putten in the Netherlands, that he married Susanna Jans van Schuenburgh, also from the Netherlands, and that they were among the first European settlers of Hoboken.

New Netherland

In 1640 Willem Kieft, governor of what was then called New Netherland, granted van Putten a lease on the property that is now Hoboken, beginning on Jan. 1, 1641. As rent van Putten agreed to pay “the fourth sheaf with which God Almighty shall favor the field.” (I suspect that means some produce.) The agreement also involved Kieft building a house on the property for the Dutchman and his family. van Putten cleared the land, fenced it in and got some farming going. He brought in cattle, pigs, goats and sheep. And he built New Jersey’s first brewery.

One suspects that this early colonial ale was a favorite in the van Putten household, but it was also trade bait. van Putten offered his brew to the native peoples who inhabited the region in return for furs. Some of these trades took place on an inlet near the Sandy Hook area called Beeregat which translates from the Dutch to beer hole.

So while it appears Gov. Kieft set the young Dutchman up, he also laid the groundwork for his demise. Kieft ordered the massacre of 120 Native Americans in Pavonia in 1643 and in doing so started what has been known as Kieft’s war. A retaliatory strike by the Lenni Lenape killed the 31-year-old brewery pioneer that same year while he was on a trading trek. They also destroyed his land and livestock, but spared Susanna and apparently left the brewery standing although there is no evidence of operations there ever resuming. Not sure of the exact location but given that it’s Hoboken, there’s a good chance there is a bar on the site now.

Peter Ballantine

Peter Ballantine was born in Ayershire, Scotland in 1791. He came to the U.S. at the age of 29 and pretty much immediately began a career around beer. His first job in the New World was at a tavern in Block Rock, Conn. After moving to Albany he learned brewing at a Troy, N.Y., based brewery and started one of his own in 1830.

Ten years later he headed south settling in Newark. Along with a partner he purchased a brewery on High Street. That partnership lasted five years. In 1850 he built his own brewery on the banks of the Passaic River in the Ironbound section of Newark. In 1857 he brought his three sons into the business and renamed it P. Ballantine and Sons. Later in his career Ballantine decided to expand into lager. His sons were not up with the move, so he bought another brewery (Schalk Brothers) and set up a separate company, Ballantine & Co.

While many of our captains of industry from the 19^th century built substantial mansions that still stand, Peter Ballantine was not one for ostentation. He lived in a bungalow on Front Street on the grounds of the brewery. The Ballantine House on Washington Street (photos below), which is now part of the Newark Museum, was built in 1885 for his son, John Holme Ballantine.

Of all of New Jersey’s big brewers, Ballantine is the one that is most known for the quality of its product. While Peter Ballantine’s operation was at one time the third largest brewery in America it in some ways operated like a modern craft beer producer, making seasonal and one-time release brews. It was known for its XXX ale (the XXX signifies the strength of the brew, not pornographic packaging) and is considered by some to be the first commercial producer of an IPA. Ballantine’s IPA was aged in wood for a year. They also produced a Burton Ale which was aged at least 10 years and was used solely as a gift for friends, family and associates.

Ballantine’s brewery lasted until 1972. The brand was purchased by Pabst. Last year, in what many consider Pabst’s effort to move into the craft beer market, they made an attempt to reverse engineer Ballantine’s recipe and re-introduced Ballantine IPA.

——-

In my next post, I’ll profile one of Newark’s most successful German brewers and Camden’s “gentleman beer baron.”

Posted in History | Tagged Ballantine, Ballantine House, beer, breweries, history, New Jersey, New Netherland, Newark, Newark Museum, Peter Ballantine | 6 Comments

The History of Beer in New Jersey

Posted on October 18, 2015 by Ken Dowell

If you spent any part of your young adulthood in northern New Jersey, you probably spent a night or two in the Hoboken bars. Or maybe three. So it will come as no surprise that the first brewery in the state was situated right in the middle of the Mile Square, although it was not yet called Hoboken.

A Dutch settler by the name of Aert Teunissen van Putten set up a brewery amidst a Dutch settlement on the banks of the Hudson in 1641. He lasted two years, not because of either the Hoboken police or New Jersey’s alcohol and beverage regulations, neither of which yet existed. Rather, a raid by a tribe of Lenni Lenape in 1643 wiped out both van Putten and his brewery.

For the next couple of centuries most new world beer was home brewed. By most accounts is was a think murky sort of ale. But it was the preferred beverage of many Americans at the time, not because they were anxious to get hammered, but rather because many Europeans came from places where there was nothing in the beer that equaled the toxicity of the water.

Drinking vessels from the 19th century on display at the restored Ballantine House in the Newark Museum.

Fortunately in the 19^th century we did not have politicians campaigning on the promise to build a wall to keep out immigrants, because it was the flood of German immigrants into the U.S. that made beer brewing a serious business. They brought knowledge, they brought ingredients, and they brought lager, the type of brew that would eventually become the defining style of American beer.

Beer brewing in New Jersey had a definite German accent. So it isn’t surprising that Newark became the state’s beer capital. By 1865, half of Newark’s population was German. The city was home to 242 brewers in 1880, 204 of them were German born.

Gottfried Krueger came here from Germany in 1853 at the age of 16. By 1858 he founded, with a partner, the company that would become Krueger Brewing. Joseph Hensler, son of a German brewer, arrived in Newark with his father in 1854 and founded the Joseph Hensler Brewing Company. Both of those breweries lasted for more than a century. In 1873 the three Winter Brothers migrated from Germany to Pittsburgh. They founded M Winter Brothers Brewing in 1893. Six years later they sold that firm and moved to New Jersey where they founded the Orange Brewing Company.

1911 ad for Pabst Blue Ribbon from the back cover of Judge Magazine

The heyday of beer brewing in the New Jersey was the early 20^th century. At the start of the century there were 51 breweries in the state. Twenty-five of those were in Newark. By 1934 that number had been cut in half. Some of New Jersey’s German brewers split for the Midwest due to the anti-German sentiment generated during World War I. But the big blow was the 18th amendment, Prohibition.

New Jersey was not exactly a Prohibition friendly state. In his book Jersey Brew, author Michael Pellegino notes a federal study that estimated that 40% of all alcohol consumed in the U.S. during Prohibition came through Newark. But for legitimate Jersey breweries the onset of Prohibition in 1920 left them with three options: pack it in; try to keep afloat by producing alternatives like soda or near beer (Is that what they called Bud Light in those days?); or go black market and link up with the gangster distribution network.

Among the breweries that closed in 1920 were the Weidenmayer Brewing Company of Newark, Columbia Brewing and Lembeck and Betz Eagle Brewing, both in Jersey City. Newark Trefz’s Brewing was sold to Krueger in that year.

But some of the largest breweries bounced back strong and in fact made beer brewing history. Krueger was ready to go from day one and when Prohibition ended in 1933 they were selling beer in cups from the brewery doorways. This was so popular it gave rise to New Jersey’s first beer riot since the Lenni Lanape raid on Hoboken. The Newark brewery was to change the nature of beer drinking in America when, in conjunction with American Can, it introduced canned beer in 1934. Beer, which was primarily consumed in public houses, was now accessible and convenient for house consumption. It is also during the 30’s that another Newark brewer, Ballantine, is credited by some with producing the first IPA. The Ballantine offering was wood-aged for a year before being bottled.

Another Jersey beer innovation, noted by Pelligrino in his book, came from the Eastern Brewing Corporation in Hammonton. Nude Beer included on its label a bikini clad woman. It was a scratch off. This one didn’t catch on and was pulled from the market.

At mid-century, while Ballantine and Pabst and Krueger were going strong, another milestone in New Jersey beer history occurred. Anheiser-Busch opened a Budweiser plant in Newark in 1951. Thirty-five years later it would be the only remaining brewery in New Jersey.

Garden State brewers survived anti-immigrant sentiment and wars, the religious Right and prohibition, they even survived the gangsters. What they couldn’t survive is the larger trend in American business of consolidation. In the beer industry, like so many others, large national brewers who dominated the marketing and distribution, gobbled up the local and regional manufacturers.

Krueger was merged into Narragansett in 1961. Falstaff bought out Narragansett in 1965 and closed the Newark plant. Ballantine, at one time the third largest brewer in the country, was also bought by Falstaff in 1965 and their Newark site was shut down as well. Newark’s Joseph Hensler Brewing Company, which dated back to 1855, closed in 1958. The Orange Brewing Company was acquired by Rheingold which closed its doors in 1977. Pabst in Newark shut down in 1985. When they took down the big Pabst bottle, which was actually a water tower, from the roof of the old brewery in Newark, it symbolized the end of an era. The big brown bottle had been a landmark for New Jerseyans as they headed down the Garden State Parkway for the shore.

Those closings ushered in the dark ages of beer brewing in New Jersey. Not only had the breweries that thrived in the state for a century closed their doors, but the archaic and confusing alcohol and beverage laws in the state left it behind others in the renaissance of American beer brewing that was just getting started.

A gradual loosening of some of those regulations led to the rebirth of microbrewing in New Jersey. Climax Brewing in Roselle Park became New Jersey’s first modern microbrewery in 1993. One the most successful, Flying Fish in Cherry Hill, started in 1995 as a virtual brewery then opening its doors in 1996 as did River Horse Brewing in Lambertville. Brew pubs finally became legal in New Jersey in 1994 and one year later the Ship Inn Restaurant and Brewery in Milford became the first brew pub in New Jersey.

According to New Jersey Craft Beer there are in 2015 37 operating breweries in the state and 15 brew pubs. Another 22 start ups have a license, permit or physical location and 16 more are planned but haven’t yet gotten to that point. So we’re getting close to the 51 breweries that were in production in 1900.

Posted in History | Tagged 19th century, Anheuser Busch, beer, beweries, Hoboken, Joseph Hensler Brewing, Krueger Brewing, New Jersey, New Jersey Craft Beer, Newark, Prohibition | 30 Comments

Curious Things I Saw at the Liberty Science Center

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Ken Dowell

Beam in foreground from World Trade Center

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

Sputnik

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Jersey City, Liberty Science Center, Liberty State Park, museum, Science, Sputnik, World Trade Center | 3 Comments

Frida

Posted on October 13, 2015 by Ken Dowell

Images are from the Frida Kahlo Art Garden Life exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden. It includes a small collection of Kahlo’s works highlighted by the self portrait that adorns the exhibit banner shown above. The setting is a botanical garden so there is a recreation of the gardens in Casa Azul where Kahlo lived with Diego Rivera and an exhibition of Mexican trees, plants and flowers..

The Two Fridas (shown below) is an artwork created by Humberto Spindola. It is adorned by Kahlo-style dresses and was inspired by the artist’s double self portrait.

Posted in Art | Tagged art, Casa Azul, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, gardens, Mexica, New York Botanical Garden | 3 Comments

Vintage Advertising Slogans: A Pop Quiz

Posted on October 8, 2015 by Ken Dowell

This 1969 TV ad opened with the line “mama mia, thatsa spicy meatball.”

(alvimann)

Chippendales
Chef Boyardee
IKEA
Alka Seltzer

Answer

This advertiser promised “we put you in the driver’s seat.”

Harvard Universcity
Hertz
Zamboni World
Chevrolet

Answer

This advertiser claimed that “his prices are insane.” That is, until he went bankrupt.

Crazy Eddie
Sam Goody
Robert Hall
F.W. Woolworth

Answer

Late night radio in New York was dominated for a short period of time by this advertiser who popularized the tagline “Money talks, nobody walks.”

(DodgertonSkillhause)

Dennison Clothes
Fannie Mae
Newark City Hall
The law firm of Goldman, Silverman and Cashman

Answer

You apparently didn’t need to get a lot of this stuff because the ads said “a little dab’ll do ya.”

Brylcreem
Super Glue
Viagra
Tobasco

Answer

This is the advertiser that brought us the exclamation “where’s the beef!”

(Werner22brigette)

Chippendale’s
Dinty Moore
Wendy’s
Chick fil A

Answer

This advertiser acknowledged that it was not #1 but interpreted that as a good thing because “we try harder.” (Hint: They had the foresight to not hire OJ as spokesperson.)

City of Chicago
Banquet Frozen TV Dinners
Avis
Ford

Answer

And finally, who said their stuff was “good to the last drop.”

Pepsi
WD-40
Maxwell House
Southern Comfort

Answer

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged advertising, commercials, humor, marketing, media, television | 26 Comments

Advertising: The Big Fail

Posted on October 4, 2015 by Ken Dowell

The recent announcement by Apple that its newest operating system would allow ad blockers has set off a wave of consternation among advertisers and the publishers that live off of those ads. Estimates of how many online folks currently use ad blockers range from 20% to 35%, but that appears to be rising rapidly and with Apple’s announcement the fear is that ad blockers will be downloaded onto most of our phones.

In response, I’ve seen doomsday forecasts about the future of journalism. I’ve seen moralistic pieces trying to shame us into not using ad blockers. Others have bemoaned the “greed” of the producers of those apps. And still others have tried to portray publishers as innocent victims in the war between tech giants (in this case Apple vs. Google).

But the problem here isn’t the morals of the digital reader, nor is it about any unsavoriness amongst the developers. Rather I think it’s a logical outgrowth of a failed industry, advertising.

(JessicaGale)

The very premise of advertising was always to get you to see something that you in fact never chose to see. Whether it was ads on the printed page, commercials on television, or billboards on the highway, advertisers sought to thrust themselves into your line of vision when you were hoping to see something else.

That advertising produced what was an assumed audience. Rates were based on the circulation of the newspaper, the viewership of the TV program that an ad interrupted, or the number of people that drove down the highway a billboard sat next too. Advertisers tallied up these numbers and sold their clients on this as an audience. Did anybody notice, read or react to these ads? Who knew?

But the jig was up when all this went online. All of a sudden we had measurement. Initially advertisers and publishers tried to sell their customers on the same sort of assumed audience numbers. They would talk about how many people accessed a page that a display ad appeared on. Then some of the guys paying the bills starting asking the next question. How many people clicked on the display ad? The answer came back pretty quickly. Pretty much no one.

(geralt)

The response of the advertising industry was to take the commercial drivel that online audiences had already rejected as being of no interest and to deliver it in increasingly more intrusive ways. Hence we had the likes of pop-ups and video pre-roll. So what’s happening now is we’re taking something that consumers have already rejected as undesirable and thrusting in the way of something that they are trying to get to. Does that sound like the makings of a successful business?

At the same time the marketing and advertising industry has moved into the espionage business, accumulating all sorts of data about each and every one of us through various means of tracking. The promise is that they will be able to deliver targeted ads to the most appropriate audience. So far they’ve missed the boat here also.

Amazon is one of the leaders in this area, recommending products based upon our past purchases. Here’s an example of what Amazon does for me. A couple years ago I bought a book about a fashion designer as a Christmas present for a relative. So Amazon solicits me to buy more books about fashion designers. But I have no interest in fashion or the designers and I’ll probably never buy another book like that. I guess something was missing in their data.

About six months ago I was in the market to buy a new car. I shopped around a bit online. Ever since I get lots of new car ads. But I already bought a new car and I’m years away from buying another one. Looks like this data has a hole in it too.

The use of data to target ads has grown at the same time as most online advertising has been placed programmatically. What that means is that you don’t buy an ad on a specific page or even a specific site. Instead the “program” identifies appropriate online placement for your ad. I have a hard time imagining that this works since most of what I see is on the order of the miracle pill that enables you to lose 50 pounds in a week. (And I don’t need to lose 50 pounds so they didn’t get that right either.)

In the past few years advertisers have been pretty open about acknowledging how ineffective their traditional tactics have been and have turned to what it now called native advertising. The idea behind native advertising is that it involves content that looks to be “native” to the Web site on which it is published. While both the buyers (advertisers and marketers) and the sellers (media and publishers) of native advertising will expound upon how they are committed to identifying these paid entries as just that, they surely are winking at each other as they say this. Because the effectiveness of this type of advertising is directly related to how well it deceives the reader into thinking that it is in fact native content, that is, non-commercial, journalist-written, editorial content.

I can’t think of any other industry that has a standard mode of operations to give their audience what they don’t want. Is it any wonder this is blowing up? We don’t download ad blockers because we don’t want publishers to get paid. And we don’t download them because we want to get back at Google. We use them to keep stuff we don’t want to see from getting in the way of the stuff we do want to see.

Ad blockers won’t eliminate advertising. And they won’t destroy publishing. But they are a pretty good indication that advertisers have to rethink their tactics and some publishers are going to have to look at new ways to meet their payroll.