Jimmy, donnez-moi les Gimmix!

In Mancheter a couple of weeks ago, you could barely walk 10 metres without seeing an ad for Artois Peeterman, a new addition to 'La Famille Artois'. As a Belgian resident I was both surprised an amused to see these ads. Surprised because I had never heard of Artois Peeterman before. Amused because the citizens of Leuven, the lovely city from which Stella Artois and its new offspring hail, are Dutch-speakers, not francophones. Brits ignorant of Belgium's language divide will doubtless sup up this marketing froth. In Flanders, questions would be asked in Parliament.
The food and drink industry in the UK loves a gimmick. This rule holds true all the way from Heston Blumenthal down to crisp manufacturers searching for one more novel flavour to tempt jaded snack munchers. In the booze sector, new variants of successful brands are the norm, from bottles of Fosters lager 'with a twist', to Stella's new children (Artois Bock is the other addition to the family, as this press release explains: http://www.artoischampionships.com/1/home/default.asp). It's all about market positioning: Stella, one of the three bog standard lagers sold everywhere here in Belgium (the others are Maes and Jupiler), used to be promoted as being 'Reassuringly Expensive' in adverts in the UK. Makes you wonder whether how much depth there is to the new-found interest in slow food, organic farming, etc? Just another gimmick being sold to people with no real knowledge of how food and drink is actually produced?