100,000 and Still Going...

In August at the Great British Beer Festival CAMRA, the biggest single issue consumer group in the world, announced that membership had passed the 100,000 figure.  At the time of going to press the figure stood at 107,400.

Here in Birmingham, membership is currently 940, it would sound so much better if we were into 4 figures so why not join us today.

CAMRA was founded in 1971 by 4 men who were frustrated by the dominance of the big brewers who were hell bent on replacing traditional beer with mass produced fizz.

To convince the public to accept the new products (Double Diamond, Whitbread Tankard and Watneys Red Barrel etc) huge advertising campaigns had to be mounted.  It’s much the same today with the savings from mass production of manufactured ale being pumped into million pound indoctrination programmes.  Those early years proved that if you market the product cleverly enough and repeat the message often enough the public will literally swallow anything.  Who would have thought for example that sales of tasteless John Smiths Smooth would eclipse all other beers, or that supposedly grown men could be conned into drinking (pardon the sexism) the “girlie” drink WKD, or believe that Magners really make their cider from real Irish apples – the production problems they faced when a Northumberland chemical plant broke down proved what the product is really about.

Times have changed since CAMRA was formed, the issues we face are different but just as important as in those early days.

CAMRA needs you just as much now, if not more than ever so why not help us towards the 200,000 figure and consider joining.

With acknowledgement to Mike Clark - West Lancs branch