Think I'll spend £230 replacing the bra I just burnt.........

I'm certainly not the first to comment on this weeks Brewdog news but for anyone that's missed it they promised us this on Twitter

"20th of October. Brewdog to make the single most exciting, influential, ground-breaking and audacious move ever in British beer brewing"

What they actually launched was Equity for Punks, an IPO offering Brewdog fans the chance to own a smidgeon of the brewery that will raise funds to build a new brewery. So hardly groundbreaking or life changing but I think that Brewdog should be applauded for their use of Social Media - the Twittersphere was alive with speculation and it has been much commented on since.

I know a little bit about beer PR and I think Brewdog make some great beers so I probably wouldn't have said much more than a good job well done had I not seen the picture they've chosen to use to launch their new venture.........

To me this is a perfect example of the sexist way women can be portrayed in beer adverts, and it's pretty shocking in this day and age!! From a team that claim to be 'about breaking rules, taking risks, upsetting trends and unsettling institutions but first and foremost, great tasting beer' to see them objectify women in this way makes me CROSS - surely they could have made their point without using a woman in her bra???

I may have mentioned before that I work for the The BitterSweet Partnership which was launched because the beer industry has ignored women for far too long. We know that lots of women already love beer, but our research showed that almost 8 out of 10 women (77%) say they seldom or never drink it.

42% of women polled said changing beer advertising is one of the biggest things that could be done to make it more appealing to them, looking at something like this makes it obvious it's a change that can't come soon enough...

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Oct 25, 2009

woolpackdave said...

There is part of me that very much agrees with your sentiments. We are never going to break into the female market with beer if we keep advertising it to men. But there is another angle, if we consider it from an individual brewery perspective.

When advertising there has to be considered the return on investment that is put into the campaign. I'd say that most testosterone inflicted men found the images amusing and perhaps a little sexy, but would not say they were offensive. There have certainly been more provocative marketing in the past from say Coors.

Sex sells, and this is used on women as well, to sell make-up, clothes and even food. OK, the message is often a little more subtle and doesn't normally show flexing 6 packs, but it happens. BrewDog in my view have got the advertising right for their target audience - Sad old beer geeks like me.

It would be nice to know how to break this cycle, but I don't think the responsibility lies with the little boys. It would be fun to set up a small microbrewery that targeted women as their main audience, however everybody in business has to make the concept work. A beer marketed at women is too risky a concept to contemplate for smaller enterprises.

I admire and support The BitterSweet Partnership. I hope it achieves, or is achieving what it set out to do. If you succeed then us microbreweries will have to take notice once the market is created.

Oct 28, 2009

Ally said...

Thanks for putting in your two cents about this, and the bra-burning title made me chuckle. I have a feeling we won't be seeing this kind of thing from Brew Dog in the future. While the Bittersweet Partnership's materials have not resonated with me yet, I have to agree with you, this sea change in beer advertising can't come soon enough!

The Lighter Side of Beer

Think I'll spend £230 replacing the bra I just burnt.........

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