BrewDog Sinks With Pink

Scottish craft beer maker BrewDog is repackaging its flagship Punk IPA as Pink IPA in time for International Women’s Day.

The beer was supposed to raise further awareness of equal pay and throw humour on many food and drink brands’ unimaginative way of appealing to women. The pink label and the name Pink IPA, BrewDog argued, was a satirisation of lazy marketing techniques – the likes of Bic’s ‘For Her’ range of biros designed specifically for female hands, which surely counts as a low point in needlessly gender-specific advertising.

The company, which has never shied away from addressing social issues like environmental change and a shortage of organ donors, said the beer is exactly the same inside the bottle as its regular Punk IPA.

It wants to raise further awareness around the global fight for gender equality, and in particular equal pay, with customers ‘who identify as female’ able to get 20% off Pink IPA at any of BrewDog’s bars from this Thursday.

The promotion coincides with International Women’s Day.

According to the Scottish company, that is the average difference between men’s and women’s pay in the UK, with rates of gender equality varying wildly from country to country. It also criticised the way some companies target female consumers.

“The gender pay gap is one issue to which we are taking aim with Pink IPA,” it said in a statement. “But we have a second problem that also warrants action. It beggars belief that in 2018 we are still seeing some breweries rely on sexist marketing to sell their beers.

“Lazily targeting the female market with sub-par products designed by expensive research are inherently patronising. Depicting women in wholly unacceptable ways on labels is something we do not condone, and creating concepts that undermine women’s ability to enjoy beer (any beer) is both short-sighted and restricts progression.”