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BrewDog stirs up Olympic fever
Scottish craft brewery, BrewDog, has unveiled a limited edition beer called “Never Mind the Anabolics.”
The brewery hopes this beer “will undermine global sponsorship deals for this summer’s games.”
Designed to “unmask the corporate beast of the world’s biggest sporting event and highlight the shallow nature of sponsorship”, the new beer contains creatine, guarana, lycii berries, kola nut, Gingko, matcha tea, maca powder and steroids – all of which are banned for professional athletes.
James Watt, cofounder of BrewDog said, “It seems a beer laced with performance enhancing ingredients isn’t actually illegal, but it is definitely frowned upon. However, we don’t think Never Mind the Anabolics is as absurd and obnoxious as the tenuous sponsorship deals from fast food chains and global mega breweries that seem to define the people’s games.
“A burger, can of fizzy pop and an industrial lager are not the most ideal preparation for the steeple chase or the dressage (for human or horse). So we decided to give the athletes something that was going to make them happier and better. A way to relax before a big event and at the same time, increase your chances of winning.
“Never Mind the Anabolics is a thorn in the side of the biggest corporate beast spawned this century. We don’t care what shampoo the athletes use, or what their favourite fast-food meal is, or even if they decide to drink tasteless, mass-produced fizzy yellow lager from global mega corporations – and if we did we wouldn’t believe the shameless advertisements peddling them.
“This is the craft beer community showing the sponsors of the games the finger in the best way we know how.”
A percentage of the proceeds of the craft beer is going towards a new surfboard for surfing dog called Abbie. BrewDog claims this is another “added snub to professional sports sponsorship.”
While I love the sentiment of Brew Dogs anti-establishment stance, I can’t help thinking that their reliance on the major supermarkets for distribution is somewhat at odds with this.
Punk IPA available from all good branches of Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda: not very ‘punk’ & anti establishment if you ask me.
Why not take a real stance and only sell through independents? or be properly ‘punk’ and sell through unlicensed premises………
Because most of their consumers buy their beer at supermarkets and haven’t got time to go to an independent?
Good job we don’t all think like you………..
What a kop-out to simply hand over your soul to the supermarkets in the name of an easy route to market
Bet the Brew Dog salesman’s not so ‘anti’ when he sits in front of the ‘hard-nosed-kiss-my-butt’ supermarket buyers!
By the way I don’t work for Diageo either; I’m an independent wine & spirit merchant who works hard to maintain an alternative route to market for interesting producers and enthusiastic consumers.
@andrewwilson:
To have the funds to ‘mock’ the sponsorship of dutch Heineken beer for the London2012 and junk food, Brewdog must have funds to pull off such a message. Hence a distribution chain through supermarkets for their high quality craft beer. Same goes for the Sink the Bismarck. These light-hearted products do ruffle a few feathers, which is healthy for a competitive industry, but to be purely punk (unlicensed premises etc) would not money. good luck on that front then
Why pretend to be alternative and anti-marketing and then sell in mainstream outlets and deploy dull and juvenile tactics? These people are either idiots or think that their consumers are. Get a life guys. You are cheap, vulgar and deliberately offensive. You are the joke. Wake up.
Kathryn – do you work for Diageo by any chance?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9255369/Scottish-beer-company-BrewDog-forces-Diageo-to-apologise-over-dirty-tricks-at-awards.html
I’m not convinced they are a “joke”, they seem to do rather well and make very good beer.
I agree