Brewdog has been labelled as "extremely irresponsible" after it released a pink-branded "beer for girls" ahead of International Women's Day.
Launched yesterday, 6 March 2018, the new Pink IPA is a variation of Brewdog's Punk IPA.
It features a "lurid pink" label and was intended by the company to be a satirical comment on sexist marketing aimed at women – particularly within the brewing industry.
But many felt this approach was off the mark, with Twitter users describing the campaign as "badly executed" and "extremely irresponsible".
We’ve created a beer for girls. And it’s pink. Because women only like pink and glitter, right?
Lets show that enough is enough with stereotypes. pic.twitter.com/g1zonXFInm
— BrewDog (@BrewDog) 6 March 2018
Brewdog, a Scottish independent craft brewer, described the Pink IPA as an attempt to tackle the "lazy marketing efforts targeting the female market".
Released ahead of International Women's Day on 7 March, the new beer will be sold for 20 per cent less than the regular blue-coloured IPA – a move intended to reflect the 18.1 per cent average pay gap between men and women in Britain.
Brewdog has also pledged to donate a minimum of 20 per cent of proceeds from Pink and Punk IPAs to charities that fight against gender inequality.
"With the product being identical to the blue-branded Punk IPA, [Brewdog] intends to trigger questions about why women continue to earn less than their male counterparts and offer them a discount on the beer equivalent to the gender pay gap," said a statement on the company's website.
I get what Brewdog are trying, but the joke doesn't correlate itself when it's on the supermarket shelf in a pink bottle and labelled "Beer For Women". It looks exactly like an example of what it's claiming to satirise, but without someone there to tell you it's a joke. #PinkIPA
— Nick Deal (@Nicko12321) 6 March 2018
But despite the brand's claims and intentions, it has received ample criticism from commentators who believe it is, in fact, perpetuating these stereotypes.
"BrewDog is trying to be clever, sarcastic and ironic but I think it may be viewed as a patronising beer from one of the big boys," Sara Barton the director of Brewster's Brewing Company and instigator of Project Venus, a network of female brewers, told the Guardian.
"I applaud the thought – it is an issue that needs highlighting in brewing and beyond – but it may be too subtle for people to understand, over their heads and therefore patronising," she continued.
Others have highlighted the disparity in Brewdog's own gender pay gap, which has disclosed a 2.8 per cent median difference in pay in favour of men across its global business.
In response to the negative reception, BrewDog's global head of marketing Sarah Warman told HuffPost UK, "We always anticipated that some people might not immediately appreciate the irony of Pink IPA but that did not deter us in our mission to spark a conversation about the gender pay gap."
"Pink IPA is clearly an over-the-top ridiculing of the types of sexist marketing we often see from brands trying to engage a female audience," she said.
The Pink IPA will be available for 4 weeks in the UK, South Korea, Ireland, Germany, the USA and the Netherlands. UK proceeds will go towards the Women's Engineering Society, a charity and a professional network of women engineers, scientists and technologists.
Extremely irresponsible that #BrewDog launches a pink 'beer for girls'
No point calling it a satirical move to address the gender pay gap.
it is simply callous marketing https://t.co/nWQFRLUeb4— Rajesh Mohan (@raj_psyc) March 7, 2018
The new beer comes after the Brewdog released a beer designed to "remind leaders to prioritise climate-change issues" – which it described as a protest against the USA's decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement earlier this year.
The post Brewdog faces backlash over pink "beer for girls" appeared first on Dezeen.
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