LIEB FAMILY CELLARS: THE FINE LINES IN “CAUSE” MARKETING

By Erin Becker, Research and Innovation

In case you haven’t heard—and if you follow any US wine blogs, you surely have—Lieb Family Cellars is selling a 9/11 Memorial Commemorative Merlot and Chardonnay to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The wine retails for $19.11 per bottle and a portion of the proceeds will help support the National September 11th Memorial and Museum through the September Mission Foundation.

A quick Google search of “September 11 wine” is enough to demonstrate the outrage this act of kindness/marketing move is causing. Out of 472 million+ results, the top few are “Is a 9/11 wine in bad taste?”; “Memorial 9/11 Wine?!? WTF?!?”; “NY Vintner Releases 9/11 Wine to Give Back, Critics Cry ‘Distasteful’”; and “9/11 wine leaves bitter taste in many.”

9/11: A CASE STUDY OF MARKETING AND CHARITABLE CAUSES

Many of the articles are actually more nuanced than the headlines suggest. Salon.com makes an especially good point—Lieb is not the first to do something like this, nor will it be the last:

“In the days after 9/11, seemingly faster than the New York City police started letting people back downtown, a cottage industry of memorabilia sprang up on the streets. The air, still thick with dust, was thick with consumerism as well, as vendors began hawking flags and ‘United We Stand’ T-shirts.”

The list of September 11th gear is lengthy. Event supply and flag store flagandbanner.com has “9/11 Tribute” listed under holidays, next to California State Birthday and WNBA Playoffs. Among this holiday’s products: a printed stars and stripes polo shirt, a pull-down purple and black mourning flag, and a bald eagle beanie baby. And remember those American flag pins? Someone must have made a buck off of those.

All advertising appeals to emotion of some sort; mourning, pride, and anger can motivate people to purchase, just like happiness or desire. Perhaps the guy selling flags on the street corner on September 13, 2001 felt it was his patriotic duty. But it’s more likely that he just wanted to make some money. Lieb’s wine is really no different, except a portion of the proceeds is helping the memorial products. In a special released statement, their hearts seem to be in the right place:

“Having lost friends and colleagues in the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we at Lieb Cellars feel strongly that it is everyone’s responsibility to support the 9/11 memorial. […] We appreciate all of the kind support we have received this past week from first responders, active duty military, families of the victims of September 11th and the public in general, and very much look forward to the opening of the September 11th Museum and helping to preserve the memory of those lost.”

NOT JUST LIEB CELLARS: A SURVEY OF CHARITY WINE

The fact lost in much of this discussion is that Lieb Family Cellars is far from the first company to make a buck off 9/11, or the first winery to sell wine for a cause or partially for a cause. At greaterpurpose.com, for example, you can buy wine knowing that 55% of the profits will go to fight hunger in places like Haiti and sub-Saharan Africa. The wine says “GREATER PURPOSE” in giant pink-and-white letters vertically down the black label. When you tease out the implications, this, too, creates some discomfort. While we are worrying about pairing, there are people out there who don’t even have food, the wine reminds us. Does that make the wine distasteful, or can we drink it a little easier knowing we’re at least doing something to help? In the end, that depends on the person holding the glass.

And the list of charity wines goes on, some partially for profit, some 100% for their causes. The owners of Rivera Vineyards in California give all their wine to charities, from United Friends of the Children to the John Muir Health Foundation, who auction them off to raise money for their respective non-profits. Charity Wines gets sports stars to lend their images to wine labels and then donates the proceeds to a charity of the athlete’s choice. At ONEHOPE Wine, you can buy a Zinfandel to support the troops, a Merlot to fight AIDS, or a Pinot Noir to help children’s hospitals.

Lieb Family Cellars itself also sells a limited edition Syrah at their winery, which helps support kidney disease research at the NYC Animal Medical Center. They also at one point sold a white Merlot to raise money for breast cancer research.

Lieb has been raising money for the 9/11 memorial with their “September Mission” wine since 2002, yet it’s only in the last few weeks that people have decided this is an “outrage.” Rather than Lieb acting in bad faith, this public scolding by the media seems to be a question of timing. With the tenth anniversary of 9/11 just around the corner, wounds still feel a little fresh. It’s an extremely sensitive topic, even more so this time of year. If many New Yorkers aren’t in the mood to uncork this wine, that’s certainly their prerogative.

Yet on Lieb’s part, it was a miscalculation and nothing more. As interest in both wine and the non-profit sector grows in the US, we’ll probably see more and more wine-for-a-cause. One person’s philanthropy is another person’s opportunism, but knee-jerk reactions and name-calling do no one good.

Erin Becker, Research and Innovation for Andes Wines, graduated with a degree in literature and creative writing from the University of North Carolina, where she was also co-founder and editor-in-chief of Campus BluePrint magazine and co-founder of an Arts and Cultural Policy think tank.

Photo from liebcellars.com.

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