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Insurgent beer model BrewDog discovered itself dealing with a contemporary barrage of hypocrisy claims as its marketing campaign towards soccer World Cup hosts Qatar continued to backfire.
A extensively circulated picture on social media revealed that the brewery continues to be promoting its beers in Qatar, regardless of its grandstand towards the Arab nation.
A spokesperson for the agency confirmed to Fortune on Wednesday that BrewDog beers have been being offered in Qatar, however mentioned the corporate didn’t promote immediately into the Qatari market.
“We do have a relationship with a distributor that sells into a number of Center Japanese markets, primarily into Dubai however together with Qatar,” they mentioned.
On Monday, the self-styled ‘punk’ brewery from Scotland launched its ‘anti-World Cup’ marketing campaign with a slew of posters highlighting Qatar’s problematic human rights file, stance on homosexuality and corruption allegations.
BrewDog additionally promised to donate the earnings from one among its beers, Misplaced Lager, to human rights organizations during the event.
Nonetheless, the corporate’s CEO James Watt was shortly accused of hypocrisy as he was beforehand the topic of an open letter from current and former employees in June 2021 detailing a ‘tradition of concern‘ inside BrewDog, with staff demanding an apology for ‘harassing, assaulting, belittling, insulting and gaslighting.’
BrewDog has since apologized and claims “we’re a unique enterprise in the present day and completely targeted on changing into the perfect employer in our sector.”
The choice to display World Cup matches at its chain of bars internationally was additionally criticized, though BrewDog argued the transfer would result in elevated gross sales of Misplaced Lager, due to this fact, offering extra money for charity.
Nonetheless, whole gross sales of its extra standard choices would additionally probably improve, which means the next revenue for the brewery throughout the board, and BrewDog confirmed to Fortune that Misplaced Lager was solely its third-highest vendor.
On Wednesday, the corporate lashed out on the marketing campaign’s critics when photographs of BrewDog beers being offered in Qatar started to floor throughout social media.
In a press release to Fortune, the Scottish model drew comparisons with tech giants Apple for its place on gross sales in Qatar.
“Apple sells iPhones in Qatar—that doesn’t imply it endorses human rights abuses,’ a spokesperson mentioned.
“Neither will we. We’re doing our bit to lift consciousness of those scandals and injustices and can maintain doing so.”
Apple has made no public stand towards Qatar or the World Cup, nor has it launched any marketing campaign that’s more likely to increase its earnings.
The beer model then went on to level the finger at different main firms, who it felt have been extra deserving of criticism.
In a separate assertion to British commerce publication Simply Drinks, BrewDog mentioned: “If folks wish to assault manufacturers, possibly they’d be higher off turning their consideration to the likes of Adidas, Kia and Visa who’re all official companions of [international soccer governing body] FIFA.”
Representatives for Adidas, Kia and Visa weren’t instantly out there for remark when contacted by Fortune.
BrewDog — which scaled quickly because of crowdfunding — isn’t alone in its criticism of the occasion, with protests against the Qatar World Cup gaining traction, however many have taken to social media to slam what many are calling a large PR personal objective.
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