I remember reading about a product placement campaign by gallo wines
for one of there really cheap wines where they put empty bottles in
the streets of LA in order to create awareness with wino's and bums --
cant find any references to it now....

Hello tadwook-ga,

I found several references to this ?advertising campaign?.  It is
difficult however to determine if it is true or simply an urban
legend.

It is said to appear in ?Blood and Wine: The Unauthorized Story of the
Gallo Wine Empire?, by Ellen Hawkes.


Google Groups
Topic in alt.food.wine
Thunderbird Wine
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.food.wine/browse_thread/thread/f4e1e425f79bb5a/d97376982fbecb37?q=gallo+empty+bottles+ghetto+OR+neighborhoods+OR+%22skid+row%22&_done=%2Fgroups%3Fq%3Dgallo+empty+bottles+ghetto+OR+neighborhoods+OR+%22skid+row%22%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26c2coff%3D1%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwg%26&_doneTitle=Back+to+Search&&d#d97376982fbecb37
?Thunderbird/African-Americans: 


"...on May 1, 1957, it was test-marketed and distributed in all the
key black stores in Los Angeles, Houston, Shreveport, and New York
City. According to Fenderson's account, he and his staff  'arranged
for street-sampling and Thunderbird parties in colored bars wherever
we could.' Gallo salesmen recalled that 'street-sampling' was
perfected for Thunderbird in the ghetto. Bottles of Thunderbird were
left on the backseats of alesmen's cars or were handed out in the
neighborhood - the idea was to give away free samples and saturate the
market. Empty bottles of Thunderbird were thrown in the gutters of
skid row streets to increase product awareness..."
 - Blood & Wine, The unauthorized story of the Gallo Wine Empire?




For more information on this book see:


Amazon.com
Blood and Wine: The Unauthorized Story of the Gallo Wine Empire
by Ellen Hawkes
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0671649868/ref=dp_proddesc_0/104-0976554-8219911?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=283155




Other references:


The Bathroom Companion
Family Feud
THE GRAPES OF WRATH
http://www.bathroomcompanion.com/gallo.html
?The Gallo brothers built a successful company using hard-nosed
competitive tactics. Its sales force was notorious for sabotaging the
competition with tricks like counterscrewing their bottle caps tightly
so that they couldn?t be gotten off, or puncturing the caps with
icepicks so the wine would go bad, or spraying light oil on the
bottles so dust would collect, making them look like they weren?t
selling. They deliberately littered ghetto neighborhoods with empty
Thunderbird bottles to ?advertise? the brand.?



PBS.org
Ernest Gallo
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/president/players/gallo.html
?With the end of Prohibition, the Gallo brothers set out to dominate
what was then a relatively small and down-market American wine
industry. Ernest wanted the company to be the "Campbell Soup company
of the wine industry" and effectively marketed cheap, fortified (20%
alcohol content) wines like White Port and Thunderbird in inner city
markets. A radio jingle for perhaps the Gallos' most notorious product
went like this: "What's the word? /Thunderbird/ How's it sold?/ Good
and cold/What's the jive?/ Bird's alive/ What's the price?/ Thirty
twice." According to author Ellen Hawkes, who wrote an unauthorized
history of the Gallo family called Blood and Wine, Ernest later
delighted in telling the story of driving through a tough, inner city
neighborhood. Seeing a man on the sidewalk, Gallo rolled down his
window and called out, "What's the word?" The immediate answer was,
"Thunderbird."?



Indiana Prevention Resource Center
on High Potency Alcoholic Beverages
Indiana University
http://www.iprc.indiana.edu/publications/iprc/factline/high_potency.html
?Thunderbird - ("An American Classic")
         Thunderbird was introduced immediately after the repeal of
prohibition, by Ernest and Julio Gallo, as a means of gaining market
share and becoming the "Campbell Soup company of the wine industry."
It is a favorite seller in inner-city, "skid-row" retail outlets.?




I hope you have found this information helpful.  If you have any
questions, please request clarification prior to rating the answer.

Googlenut



Google Search Terms:


gallo bottles street
://www.google.com/search?q=gallo+bottles+street&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&c2coff=1

gallo bottles street thunderbird
://www.google.com/search?q=gallo+bottles+street+thunderbird&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&c2coff=1

gallo empty bottles ghetto OR neighborhoods OR "skid row"
://www.google.com/search?q=gallo+empty+bottles+ghetto+OR+neighborhoods+OR+%22skid+row%22&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&c2coff=1

gallo thunderbird "inner city"
://www.google.com/search?q=gallo+thunderbird+%22inner+city%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&c2coff=1

very nice -----

there is a great deal of mis information here. Ernest Gallo started
Thunderbird in 1959(@4  years after the end of prohibition) after he
saw farm workers squeezing lemon and lime juice into white port.As a
Gallo salesman you were allowed to buy a few bottles of a slow mover
to make room for Gallo products."Wino" sampling used to be wide
spread.In Gallup New Mexico in the mid sixtes after Gallo stopped
making "Twister", a mint flovered white port the winemasters Guild
intorduced 'Garden DeLuxe Light Mint Mist" I personallly handed it out
to Indiains beign released from jail at around 8 in the morning to get
the brand started. In those days the real volume was in fortified
wines-Mo, gan David, Monarch, Guild, all the big players had fortified
wines- MD 20/20. Richards Wild Irish Rose, Roma, Mission, La
Bohimme,MW,Italian Swiss Colony,Thunderbird, and Night Train
Express(the last two from Gallo) ruled the roost. This was before
beverage wines and the popularity of table wines in the US.Everyboby
had a sherry, a dry sherry, a port,a tokay. a white port, muscatel,&
cream sherry. Some made maderia or marsala.Wine was strong a cheap.
T-Bird was sold with a song "What's the word- Thuderbird, What's the
Reason "It's the season", "How is it sold" "Good and Cold", What's the
Price ,35 twice(refuring to the pint)Who like's it most us colered
folks(showing it's age)Will it give you a buzz you bet cuz(Not allways
used last verse.) Like the "Becosta Wille" conection of Garden De Luxe
Tokay it seems that the cutomers invented this saying but it was used
for 20 years to flog T-Bird.