The controversial branding behind Voodoo Ranger IPA
Most craft breweries try to make every can look different, which makes it hard to build anything people recognize. In this clip from You’re Not the Audience, Parliament Creative Director Calvin Ross Carl explains why Voodoo Ranger IPA, despite an aesthetic he openly struggles with, built a razor-sharp identity by putting the same skeleton mascot on every can. He shares how Parliament tackled the opposite challenge for Fremont Brewing, then tours the regional beers he admires most, including Coors Banquet, Narragansett, and Lone Star, and why each one wins by owning its place. It’s from the You’re Not the Audience episode on beer brands, The Death of Boring Beer Brands.
Watch the full episode
Outline
Summary
Calvin Ross Carl calls Voodoo Ranger IPA a surprising example of a razor-sharp identity. Aesthetically, it’s about as far from his taste as a brand can get, but where most craft breweries design every can to look different, Voodoo Ranger put the same skeleton mascot on every one, and it has taken over New Belgium’s business.
He relates it to Parliament’s rebrand of Fremont Brewing, where every can carries a unique illustration. The team designed a simple system that keeps the Fremont name in the same spot, letting the illustration act as a canvas while the packaging stays consistent.
Calvin then shares his favorite regional beer aesthetics: Coors Banquet’s heritage-heavy stubby, Narragansett’s claim on coastal New England, and Lone Star, the national beer of Texas, which Pabst reimagined around the same time Parliament worked on Rainier Beer.
Highlights
Voodoo Ranger puts the same skeleton mascot on every can.
Parliament built a consistent can system for Fremont Brewing’s changing illustrations.
Coors Banquet promotes its history in a way most domestics don’t.
Narragansett has cornered the market as the beer of the Northeast.
Lone Star would fall apart if it stopped being about Texas.
Key insights
Consistency beats taste
A brand doesn’t have to suit a designer’s aesthetic to work. Voodoo Ranger’s commitment to one mascot made it iconic.
Mascots are powerful tools
Echoing the previous week’s fast food episode, Calvin notes how rare and valuable an iconic mascot is.
Systems can hold variety together
When every package changes, a fixed element like a consistently placed name keeps the brand recognizable.
Own a place
Coors, Narragansett, and Lone Star each built their brands around a specific landscape or region, and that focus is what keeps them strong.
Detailed analysis
The clip contrasts two ways to handle a portfolio of beers. Voodoo Ranger keeps one character constant, while Fremont lets illustrations change and anchors them with a fixed system. Both avoid the craft trap of every can feeling like a different brand.
The regional examples show the same principle at the brand level. Each knows its corner of the market so well that stepping away from it would be catastrophic.
Conclusion
Whether through a mascot or a region, the beer brands doing well are the ones that know exactly who they are and show up the same way every time.
Transcript
Let’s talk about—this is one I think is a super interesting example of someone with a really razor-sharp identity, and it’s not a brand I would normally think of with this, especially in the craft space. And that is Voodoo Ranger IPA. Now, I want to be clear here. Aesthetically, I struggle with this brand so much. You could probably not pick a brand that is more diametrically opposed to my aesthetic, but they have done something so good with this, which I think a ton of other craft [unclear].
Yes, I know. I feel the same way about Voodoo Ranger. I really struggle with—though, Aaron, that’s just an empty table.
Something about Voodoo Ranger is they did something that most craft breweries have screwed up. Most craft breweries try really hard to make each individual can look really different. Like, this one tastes like this, so it needs to look like it’s containing these flavor profiles. This one looks like this, it needs to look like this. These guys were smart. This goes back to our talk about fast food last week. Fast food brands were really good at creating mascots, and mascots end up being really powerful tools. And the Voodoo Ranger skeleton, they consistently put on every can. And I mean, it has taken over New Belgium’s business. They are Voodoo Ranger now, for better or for worse.
So yeah, please, in chat, drop all your thoughts on the design aesthetic of Voodoo Ranger, because I really struggle with it. But it’s been so impressive to see how much they leaned into that mascot and how consistent they’ve been with it. I mean, this stuff’s absurd. It all looks like Mountain Dew cans to me, but good on them. They’re great. And I think that kind of iconic mascot is really rare.
And this is stuff that’s come up in our own conversations internally. Years ago we did the rebrand for Fremont Brewing, and we really like Fremont Brewing and the stuff they did. But that was a really important deciding point when we did work with Fremont Brewing: Fremont Brewing is really known for having a very unique illustration on every can. And that was an immediate challenge we identified up front. How do we create a really consistent can and packaging experience when that illustration changes on every single package? I don’t have any photos of Fremont pulled up right now, otherwise I’d show you, but we designed a really simple system where the Fremont is always in the same spot. You’re always seeing it, and then that lets the illustration be a canvas that fills everything. So, just an interesting challenge that happens when you’re trying to develop an identity that changes up a lot.
Okay, let’s talk about what I think are some of my favorite aesthetics in beer now. And that’s all the strong regional beers, the ones who are doing great. Number one favorite by far, just aesthetically, is Coors Banquet. It’s in a stubby. They know what they’re doing. Coors and Coors Light—I feel like we like to dog on Coors Light, but their whole brand is all about, if you want a cold drink and you’re near the mountains, you’re probably drinking a Coors. They know that corner of their market. It really is about coldness, refreshing. It’s a beer for relaxing. And Banquet specifically is actually doing pretty well, because they’re doubling down on this idea of heritage and legacy. They’ve got a lot of history, and they promote their history in a way that I think a lot of other domestics don’t. And so they’ve been doing really well.
So Campfather in chat, these are the beers for you. They’re cold.
The other one that’s on the more micro side that I love is Narragansett. I don’t know if everyone here on the West Coast has had Narragansett. It shows up around here occasionally. Narragansett is actually owned by Quaker City Mercantile—well, they’re one of the owners—which is an agency, a design agency. They also own Hendrick’s Gin and things like that. But Narragansett has been a little bit more exploratory. They do a lot of different flavors, but their whole vibe, their whole messaging, their whole aesthetic has been cornering the market on, we are basically the official beer of the Northeast. So if you are hanging out near a cute little coastal town in New England, this is the beer you’re drinking. So everything is about that. It’s about crabs, lobsters, hanging out. It’s really, really good.
Nick says, “I drink whenever Sam Elliott tells me to drink.” As you should. Do whatever Sam Elliott says. His dulcet tones.
And then, okay, another good regional. So Narragansett is technically a micro. I think they’re like the 15th or 20th biggest brewery in the country at that size. And the next one I love, also owned by Pabst, who also owns Rainier Beer, so we’ll talk about them some, is Lone Star. Lone Star is great. You’re in Texas, you’re going to drink Lone Star. They are, as it says here, the national beer of Texas. If they ever stepped away from that, it would be catastrophic. If they tried going broader and it wasn’t all about Texas and the greatness of Texas, they would just fall apart, and so they know that really well. They did a bit of a rebrand where they really doubled down on that, I think around the time that we did Rainier Beer as well, when Pabst was doing a kind of big reimagining of a lot of their portfolio of regional beers. So I think Lone Star is great. I even begged people at Pabst to let us work on Lone Star. They were like, “Nah, you’re in Oregon, not in Texas.” So I tried my best, though.
And then last, I think this is also like that group that really relates to this, is a lot of the heritage beers.