KSDK hits Anheuser-Busch; Anheuser-Busch hits KSDK
If you’ve been watching TV over the past few days, perhaps you’ve seen them: promos for an upcoming segment on KSDK (Channel 5), in which the station promises to expose tasteless spending at Anheuser-Busch, contrasting it sharply with local layoffs.
“Forget AIG,” we are told one promo intones. “This one hits home.”
That’s strongly worded. Does reporter Leisa Zigman back it up? We can’t answer that, not having seen the segment. (It airs tonight at 10:00.) But the controversy has already begun.
Anheuser-Busch is none too happy about what it calls “insensitive” treatment at the hands of KSDK. Not happy. At. All. It has told KSDK management thus.
Two top executives - president Dave Peacock and Jim Brickey, vice president of people - also sent out a long, tart memo to A-B employees, in which they accused KSDK and Zigman of exploiting “the misfortune of others for their own gain.” Oh, but A-B wasn’t done: A-B, now a division of Anheuser-Busch InBev, said the station “took the low road in distorting facts while relying on sources with questionable motives” while airing a “sensationalized” and “hyped” story.
Good night, Sally. That is rough. Rarely have we seen Anheuser-Busch hit back so hard against a news piece. We wonder…is this part of the company’s stated commitment to “communicate in a thorough and timely manner”? If so, reporters might want to gird up their loins for battle. Or at least for criticism.
The crux of the issue, so far as we can tell, is a trip by 14 A-B managers to meetings and training events at Anheuser-Busch’s property at Lake of the Ozarks. The trips, it seems, are cast in the KSDK piece as an example of especially ill-timed corporate greed. A-B strongly objects to that characterization.
According to Anheuser-Busch, the group car‑pooled to the lake to reduce costs and used one of the company-owned boats to visit local restaurants. The boat was actually the least-expensive option for a night of visiting customers, according to A-B. The group bought Anheuser-Busch beers for other patrons at the restaurants, but that was for a good cause, A-B argued in the memo: building goodwill among customers.
On the other side, one source told Lager Heads the memo was an exercise in “spin.” The trips to the lake were indeed pretty lavish back in the day, we are told - replete with golf, massages and outings on the boats. High-level folks, as well as any special presenters, would get helicopter rides to and from the place.
But A-B, for its part, said the meeting in question was cost-effective and authorized - not a shameworthy exercise in self-indulgence. The total cost of the two-day meetings was about $100 per person, excluding the costs people incurred to drive to the lake, A-B said. Some of the staffers stayed in their personal homes, so the company incurred no lodging costs.
No matter who is right, the times are changing. Anheuser-Busch, which has owned the Lake of the Ozarks facility for 25 years, is assessing the need for the property. It is looking to sell all or most of the assets. The watercraft is already on the market.
(16 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5)
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Jeremiah McWilliams is a native Virginian who came to the Post-Dispatch in early 2007 to cover beer and other consumer products. He previously covered manufacturing for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Va. He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University. 
Lame, lame, lame there is so much corruption going on out there in the real world. St. Louis main stream media is a joke.
I wonder how many of these pro-AB, anti-KSDK posts are being written by A-B associates … the minutes apart timing and catchy names are leading me to believe a lot. Doesn’t the communications department have anything else to do?
Dan, would you agree then, with the fact that KSDK also wasted resources sending sports reporters to Florida to cover Cardinals Spring Training?
What a lame ‘news’ story. What would they do at AB? Have a potluck supper in the parking lot?
AIG execs were spending outrageous amounts of money on luxuries right when the fed was pouring cash into their failing business. That is a world away from AB execs having a reasonable couple days at the lake. AB is a profitable business, spending their own money as they see fit on business development. Perfectly reasonable.
KSDK is ridiculous!
I love the “we’re standing up for the workers” stuff. What a crock. Anyone who has worked for a large company has always run into this. Company launches $20 million ad campaign, and the workers say “Think how big a bonus they could have given us with that money” or “they’re making us pay more for our healthcare benefits and they’re using the money for fancy TV commercials.” A-B is not a government entity. Corporate parties, advertising, trade shows, conferences, etc., generate big opportunities to increase sales. Compensating your top salesmen increases sales. They’re a business, and a successful one. If laying off an accountant, a bottle washer and a truck driver frees up cash to take retail execs fishing on a fancy boat at Lake of the Ozarks–and sales go up $50 million because of it–that’s a good investment. If the government followed that model, we’d have a balanced budget.
As much as I would like to see InBev trashed in the news, I think KSDK is stretching wildly by calling a trip to the lake by a bunch of managers excessive. It’s actually quite cost effective. In the olden days at AB, a trip to the Lake for department meetings meant lavish meals, golf, massages, entertainment, and helicopter transportation for many, if not all, participants. They squeezed in enough business meetings to justify the trip, but even then I would not have called the trip excessively costly. Anyway, I think KSDK missed the boat on this one. Too bad. InBev’s policies suck in so many ways, it’s unfortunate that KSDK didn’t come up with something with some meat on it.
What a revolting development. Should I drink a Bud Light or watch KSDK News? Decisions,Decisions.
Why wasn’t Leisa Zigman given the axe intead of Deanne Lane? Her reports are worthless. She should be reporting in a market like Kirksville or Joplin at best.
Every company activates their “spin doctors” when bag things are discovered about them. This isn’t “hitting back” it’s called covering your a…
By the way, corporate “spin doctors” are just people who make a living by lying through their teeth.
“And Cantor, do you really think the travel industry is down because news media is reporting on lavish corporate spending? Might be the economy, stupid.”
— skoolin’
Dear skoolin-
It is obvious that you do not have a clue regarding the point I and ‘kd’ made in our comments. Companies survive on communication. Specifically, face to face communication. The economy is a factor of course, but not the major factor for the ruin of an industry I have been a part of for almost 30 years. Companies are actually using code words in email correspondence so that the press does not get wind of events. The sudden surge in video conferencing will go away. Not because of the quality of the product, but because of the lack of human interaction. Meetings and events, especially off property, offer a chance for people to get to know their coworkers and/or clients on a level that can not be achieved on a conference call. Meeting is not a four letter word.