BrewDog has released Pink IPA 'beer for girls' ahead of International Women's Day and it's backfired
Marketing that misses the point or a bold stand against sexist marketing?
Joshua Barrie
Gareth Bartlett
Updated 09:43, 7 MAR 2018
Here are some women drinking the beer (Image: Brewdog)
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Craft brewery BrewDog has launched Pink IPA in a bid to fight the "global scourge of gender pay inequality" and take on "sexist marketing".
Its 'beer for girls', which takes its name from the company's flagship Punk IPA, has been released ahead of International Women's Day,
But the marketing ploy, which also enables customers who identify as female to get a 20 per cent discount, has spectacularly backfired.
The bottle is pink – rather than the original blue – and the company said the branding is designed to "trigger questions about why women continue to earn less than their male counterparts".
Pink IPA has arrived on the market just days before International Women's Day on Thursday. It will be served in BrewDog's 30 UK bars, which are in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, and beyond.
The beer is 'for women' (Image: Brewdog)
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The brewer also announced it would donate 20 per cent of all proceeds to the Women's Engineering Society and to 9to5, which both work to fight gender equality and support women in work.
BrewDog, which has 900 employees, told Mirror Online that it has a 2.8 per cent median gender pay gap – which is much lower than the national average of 18.4 per cent.
"The fact that the gender pay gap is still an issue in 2018 shows that a lot of lip service is being paid, but not enough action is being taken to tackle inequality," said head of marketing Sarah Warman.
A classic IPA? (Image: Brewdog)
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"We want to accelerate change by empowering more women to make their voices heard and calling out industries and employees that need to do more. With Pink IPA, we are making a statement the only way we know how – with beer."
Sarah added: "There is a long history of products that pander and patronise through harmful, sexist stereotypes and vulgar imagery, and we're rallying to put an end to this nonsense. The love of beer is not gendered. Beer is universal. Beer is for everyone."
Content editor Alice Westoby told us: "[It's] sloppy and attention seeking - 'we can't be bothered to think too hard but want to seem inclusive so lets make a pink beer and call it satire!'"
And journalist and food critic George Reynolds commented: "Petition to coin a term for brands who clearly don't give a s*** about an issue trying to benefit from pretending to care about it. Woke-washing?"
Some believe the company's often controversial marketing tactics are in order to gain publicity rather than to support causes and combat injustice.
In 2015, co-founders James Watt and Martin Dickie were lambasted for an advertising campaign many labelled "transphobic". Many threatened to boycott the brand.
Watt and Dickie have yet to comment on their latest beer.
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