Take away some of their civil liberties with the Patriot Act and they’ll turn a blind eye. Threaten them with an upgraded “Victory” Act and maybe a few will raise their hands in concern. But God help you if you take away their beer. Nearly 40,000 Americans joined recent petitions to keep Anheuser-Busch in business.
Savebudweiser.com is part of a new movement to keep Budweiser beer strictly American. The Missouri-based brewer was offered an unsolicited $46 billion bid from the Belgian company InBev, maker of Stella Artois and Becks.
The website speaks of a “hostile takeover” and reads, “Let’s band together as one voice and try to save more than just our beer. We don’t want another American icon turned over to a foreign company; we want the motto to remain…The Great American Lager.”
InBev promises to keep St. Louis, Anheuser’s hometown, as the company headquarters, but savebuddweiser.com doesn’t acknowledge it anywhere on the petition.
Missouri governor Matt Blunt also opposes the company sale, seeing it as a threat to local jobs, as well as an American tradition. His own website, SaveAB.com, currently holds a little under 7,000 signatures. According to the Guardian, he is currently working with the Missouri Department of Economic Development to see if anything can legally stop the sale.
“Shareholders should resist choosing dollars over American jobs,” Martin says. “Selling out to the Belgians is not worth it—because this is about more than beer: it’s about our jobs and our nation.”
InBev is attempting to fight back with their own website GlobalBeerLeader.com
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