The global liquor industry is one of the few places on earth where it is evidently possible to put lipstick on a pig. Multinational giants like Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) and Diageo (DEO) have become masters of exporting a beverage from one country to another, having first subjected the product to a repositioning bordering on an extreme makeover. By manipulating the exotic nature of the brand, one nation’s blue-collar beverage can become another’s aspirational nectar.

Illustrations by Lydia Nichols