BrewDog: yet another hip company using 'rebel' language to sell its stuff

[Spymaster]

Spymaster Awesome, thanks for all your sexist beer advertisements. How did you find them all?

By Googling "sexist beer adverts".

If you do the same with "sexist alcohol ads" you get even more and far more recent stuff.

So ElizabethofYork is correct and those badgering her are wrong. And that is my ruling.

 

[planetgeli]

Got any dates for those example, Spymaster ? Whilst those are undoubtedly examples of genius marketing from (estimated) the 1950s through to the maybe 80s/90s, those were very different times for ad campaigns. It's not really fair to compare them to a recent ad campaign supposed to be from a more enlightened time. Allegedly.

Allegedly is the absolute key word there. We are never living in as enlightened times as we think we are.

Anyway, Schlitz beer, Spy's final picture. Because it said 'largest selling beer in America', and I'd never heard of it, I had to google. Turns out the claim is (was) true, and was true for many years. But as for genius marketing I couldn't help but piss myself at the following.

Schlitz launched a disastrous 1977 television ad campaign created by Leo Burnett & Co. In each of the ads, an off-screen speaker tries to convince a Schlitz drinker to switch to a rival beer. The Schlitz drinker then talked about how they would never switch and jokingly threatened the person trying to persuade them away from their favorite beer. Despite the tone of the campaign intending to be comedic levity, audiences found the campaign somewhat menacing and the ad industry dubbed it "Drink Schlitz or I'll kill you." Schlitz, unwilling to endure more bad press, pulled the campaign after 10 weeks and fired Burnett.

I lol'd.

End of story? They lost out to a strike in 1981 (1-0 to the workers!) and sold out to another company I've never heard of who were America's 3rd biggest brewer at the time.

 

[brogdale]

I played there when the tree was still up. Obviously, winning the match was a secondary objective to hitting the tree.

Brilliant! Many a six thwarted to a mere 4 by the old Lime

My father & 2 Uncles played on the hallowed turf, but my club cricket was not of a sufficient level every to warrant a chance.

 

[teuchter]

More likely that no one disputes the terrible working conditions and pay, so no point discussing it. We’d rather disagree about stuff instead

I'm going to try and be optimistic about it, and assume that none of the ultra-anti brewdog lot are talking about the recent pay reductions because they do actually feel guilty and ashamed about being complicit in it.

 

[brogdale]

By Googling "sexist beer adverts".

If you do the same with "sexist alcohol ads" you get even more and far more recent stuff.

So ElizabethofYork is correct and those badgering her are wrong. And that is my ruling.

Looks like they all pre-date May 15 2013, and some by a very large margin.
Good effort, but try again.

 

[equationgirl]

I'm going to try and be optimistic about it, and assume that none of the ultra-anti brewdog lot are talking about the recent pay reductions because they do actually feel guilty and ashamed about being complicit in it.

Go back and read the thread, because there were some discussions about it.

 

[Orang Utan]

I'm going to try and be optimistic about it, and assume that none of the ultra-anti brewdog lot are talking about the recent pay reductions because they do actually feel guilty and ashamed about being complicit in it.

Complicit how?

 

[teuchter]

Complicit how?

I explained in my previous post. Disappointing that you did not take the time to read it and absorb the facts that I outlined.

 

[Orang Utan]

I explained in my previous post. Disappointing that you did not take the time to read it and absorb the facts that I outlined.

No you did not

 

[Spymaster]

Brilliant! Many a six thwarted to a mere 4 by the old Lime

My father & 2 Uncles played on the hallowed turf, but my club cricket was not of a sufficient level every to warrant a chance.

We have a much loved oak tree right on the line at my club. We just put a kink in the rope to accommodate it, and it's absolutely straight so there's a sight screen in front of the trunk, but the branches overhang the playing area by about 30 feet. Rules are, anything into the tree is a 6, and can't be caught off it. Long-on/off is a coveted fielding spot on a hot afternoon to catch a bit of shade.

 

[kenny g]

So do I, but not in the same glass.

A lot of the stuff sold as IPA today has little to do with proper original UK IPAs, which are ales (not fizzy lagers, which most of the modern offerings are) and do NOT taste and smell of citrus fruit. This stuff has been hijacked and buggered about with by American brewers and has unfortunately made its way back to our shores.

Some yeasts create citrusy flavours. I'm currently drinking a Belgium farmhouse saison which I have home-brewed and definitely has citrus notes. Absolutely beautiful stuff and purely malt, hops and saison yeast.

 

[editor]

Incredibly, all those adverts have done is to prove just how disgustingly sexist Brewdog are because none of them come from this decade. Or the one before. Or the one before that, most likely.

And even those from decades ago don't feature near-naked women pulling off the clothes of the company's bosses.


Foot. Shot. LOL.

 

[editor]

Got any dates for those example, Spymaster ? Whilst those are undoubtedly examples of genius marketing from (estimated) the 1950s through to the maybe 80s/90s, those were very different times for ad campaigns. It's not really fair to compare them to a recent ad campaign supposed to be from a more enlightened time. Allegedly.

Some of them are over half a century old because that's how far back you've got reach to get close to Brewdog's filthy sexism.

 

[hitmouse]

I drink both lager and bitter, but much of the pale, fizzy shit served up as some variant of pale ale by these so-called independent breweries over the last few decades tastes like neither, and is usually unpleasant.

There's few things more disspiriting than being dragged into a self-styled 'community pub' to see nothing but a host of beers you've never heard of and none of them a straightforward bitter. And the stout is almost always some crap tasting heavily of chocolate or coffee.

It's taken a while, but feel like that this is the first time I've seen an RD post that I agree with completely, no reservations. First time for everything I suppose.

I absolutely adored the nutty , brown mild that Shepherd Neame produced back in the day. Not only delicious but also cheap and the skint teenager's half of mild could last a long time if necessary! I was distraught when the stopped production of draught mild.

You can still get mild at any Holt's pub, and there are loads of those in the northwest. Probably not much help if you're not in the northwest though. This has definitely made me want to have some next time I'm in one.

I actually work with a proper self-declared Goth!

So they do still exist. I'll have to check with her that they do still drink snakebite.

I just texted a twentysomething goth of my acquaintance to check if goths still drink snakebite, and the answer was "Never had it, but I've always wanted to try it". So mixed/inconclusive results from the survey so far.

The BD pic that keeps getting posted here is 20-odd years old and they've said it was a mistake at the time.

Blimey, I knew they were marketing geniuses and all that, but a company founded in 2007 having marketing that's 20-odd years old is truly next level. What marvellous foresight they must have had.

Anyway, Schlitz beer, Spy's final picture. Because it said 'largest selling beer in America', and I'd never heard of it, I had to google. Turns out the claim is (was) true, and was true for many years. But as for genius marketing I couldn't help but piss myself at the following.

Schlitz launched a disastrous 1977 television ad campaign created by Leo Burnett & Co. In each of the ads, an off-screen speaker tries to convince a Schlitz drinker to switch to a rival beer. The Schlitz drinker then talked about how they would never switch and jokingly threatened the person trying to persuade them away from their favorite beer. Despite the tone of the campaign intending to be comedic levity, audiences found the campaign somewhat menacing and the ad industry dubbed it "Drink Schlitz or I'll kill you." Schlitz, unwilling to endure more bad press, pulled the campaign after 10 weeks and fired Burnett.

I lol'd.

End of story? They lost out to a strike in 1981 (1-0 to the workers!) and sold out to another company I've never heard of who were America's 3rd biggest brewer at the time.

As it happens, I've never seen Schlitz in real life, but I know the name cos it's mentioned in a song by Suzi Quatro's early band the Pleasure Seekers, later covered by the Shop Assistants: "When I start my drinking/My baby throws a fit/So I just blitz him outta my mind/With seventeen bottles of Schlitz". Not something the brand did intentionally of course, but getting namechecked in a really catchy 1960s garage song really is great marketing of a kind. Has anyone ever written a song that mentions Brewdog? I bet it's probably shit if so.

 

[Combustible]

ffs

Some more recent examples of sexism in the beer industry

As just one example 'Dizzy Blonde' still seems to be being produced.

 

[PR1Berske]

As just one example 'Dizzy Blonde' still seems to be being produced

But no longer with the busty bimbo icon, they were pressured to change the imagery to the one now used.

 

[Spymaster]

Some more recent examples of sexism in the beer industry

As just one example 'Dizzy Blonde' still seems to be being produced.

But, but, but ...

 

[Spymaster]

Anyway. The thread's about beer and cricket now. Not bitter old cat-strokers.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

bitter old cats deserve stroking too...

 

[Combustible]

But no longer with the busty bimbo icon, they were pressured to change the imagery to the one now used.

Indeed, in 2019, so hardly confined to the distant past.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Shitty fucking company…

 

[brogdale]

So there appears to be a thread consensus that any sexist branding in the brewing industry is a bad thing.
But strangely there is, apparently, no such consensus that the use of sexist branding by a business purporting to be 'rebel' or 'punk' is particularly egregious or worthy of opprobrium?

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

So there appears to be a thread consensus that any sexist branding in the brewing industry is a bad thing.
But strangely there is, apparently, no such consensus that the use of sexist branding by a business purporting to be 'rebel' or 'punk' is particularly egregious or worthy of opprobrium?

I think it's pretty cringy but as corporate evil goes it's probably about as unimportant as you can get. Like Lynx Africa doesn't actually make you irresistible to women but I'm not going to spend a decade fulminating about it. I can't see it's 'particularly egregious' at all tbh.

 

[brogdale]

I think it's pretty cringy but as corporate evil goes it's probably about as unimportant as you can get. Like Lynx Africa doesn't actually make you irresistible to women but I'm not going to spend a decade fulminating about it. I can't see it's 'particularly egregious' at all tbh.

And there is that lack of consensus that maintains the thread, I suppose. At least we're still addressing the OP.

 

[teuchter]

Firstly it's completely nuts to look at some kind of commercial branding that imitates a particular scene or culture and expect that the company or product will actually genuinely reflect that.

Secondly there's no reason to expect "punk" or "rebel" culture to be less sexist than the mainstream. In fact the punk scene was known to be a sexist one.

 

[nastyned]

Don't see the point of all this whataboutery. Other companies being shit doesn't make Brewdog less shit.

 

[ddraig]

Some more recent examples of sexism in the beer industry

As just one example 'Dizzy Blonde' still seems to be being produced.

thanks for taking the effort to get more recent examples
not comparable to the far more recent BD image IMO still

 

[Spymaster]

Don't see the point of all this whataboutery. Other companies being shit doesn't make Brewdog less shit.

Ahhh, but who requested the comparisons?

This latest episode could be the biggest calamity for the frothers since the thread began.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

Don't see the point of all this whataboutery. Other companies being shit doesn't make Brewdog less shit.

Correct. Shit companies are shit companies. Brewdog is one amongst many.

 

[brogdale]

Correct. Shit companies are shit companies. Brewdog is one amongst many.

But it is the subject of this thread. If you feel that others deserve similar scrutiny you could, of course, open a dedicated thread.