The Untold Battle That Crushed Milwaukee’s Brewery Empire—And What It Means for Your Next Cold One
If Martin was the mastermind of the strategy, his top lieutenant in the effort was George Shay, a polished Amherst grad turned director of special accounts. The Securities and Exchange Commission indictment later pegged him as the key figure executing Schlitz’s aggressive marketing tactics. And a Washington Post piece made it plain: “Martin chose George Shay . . . to carry out the plan.”
From a distance, Shay was an unlikely candidate to fill that role. A world-traveling, blue-blood polyglot, Shay had majored in French; spent his summers in Grenoble, France; and spoke a bit of Turkish, Japanese, Malay, and Greek. But he was equally adept at managing Schlitz’s on-the-ground marketing. He was the guy making deals, securing placements, and ensuring bars were well stocked with Schlitz-branded gear.
The scheme ran deep. Schlitz allegedly kept two sets of books to conceal illicit payments. Testimony revealed that the company funneled $50,000 through an ad agency to the president of a restaurant chain called Emersons and secretly paid a Schlitz wholesaler to secure exclusive draft-beer rights from a Virginia seafood restaurant. Schlitz shelled out $75,000 to secure “sales priority” at Wrigley Field and had a similar deal with the Texas Rangers’ stadium. In total, the SEC’s indictment estimated that Schlitz spent $3 million annually—about $17 million in today’s money—on these tactics.
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