Abstract
“Coors Day” was coming to San Francisco, reported the San Francisco Bay Guardian in May 1981. For the first time ever, noted the paper, the local public television station, KQED, was allowing corporate sponsorship of its annual telethon. Coors and its Bay Area distributors had pledged $13,000 in order to have an entire day of the fundraiser—May 30—dedicated to their brand. Howard Wallace, coordinator of the Northern California Coors Boycott Committee, was aghast when he read about this at home one evening. Livid at this “publicity bonanza,” Wallace immediately phoned Dave Sickler, the AFL-CIO’s national Coors boycott coordinator,