Looking at the posts from 4 years ago, there were some remarks about "Ale is Beer", "No it's not", etc. I distinctly remember that 1970s CAMRA regional guides stated "no real BEER" when a keg-only pub was mentioned. Looks like CAMRA started the confusion!

Incidentally, looks like the campaign against Grotneys started much earlier than the 1970s! Found this snippet about the first ads on ITV:

"During the live boxing match from Shoreditch a 'natural break' was taken between two rounds. The last advertisement before cutting back to the match was for Watney's Beer. The advert showed a row of beer tumblers emptying themselves unaided while the voiceover told viewers, "You try it." At this point the picture cut back to the boxing just as one of the fighters was spitting frenziedly into a bucket. One can only imagine the horror on the face of Watney's executives as they viewed their first TV commercial".