Because NPR has been running their pledge drive this week I've been listening to commercial radio. There's currently an ad that Budweiser is running that ends with the tag line "Budweiser: the more you know about it, the better it tastes." This made me wonder:
1. if it was true?
and
2. Did this apply to other things?
After spending a good portion of my commute every day pondering this, I've decided that Budweiser is wrong, but that there are a few instances where this is true.
Starting with Budweiser there are several reasons that their premise is wrong. First, the more a person knows about beer flavor, the less likely they are to be impressed by Budweiser. Even if it is just a comparison with other flavorless light American mass produced lagers, statistically, a lot of people will like one of the alternatives better. Then if Budweiser is compared to good beer and people realize that "beer" does not mean "light American mass produced lager"Budweiser falls further behind. As a beer drinker develops a taste for hoppy ales, for example, that lack of flavor in an average Bud becomes even more pronounced. This is where the counter argument comes in, but the more you know about good beer, the better some beers become because you can actually tell the difference between types of hops or pick up on the subtle flavors the brew master was trying to create. The same is true for good wine.
Broadening this though, does knowing more about something make it better in general? If you look at a movie or TV show, knowing more about the way a show is produced might help you "read" it better, but you will also know when you're being manipulated and it will be harder to suspend disbelief which is what that type of media is based on. Knowing and understanding good literature makes popular books like The DaVinci Code, Harry Potter and Twilight look worse. (Though it doesn't stop one from enjoying them).
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