Brewdog temporarily takes down parody porn site after backlash
Brewdog has pulled a parody porn site from the internet to "tweak" it after a backlash from beer fans.
The pugnacious Scottish brewer, known for its attention-grabbing marketing initiatives, announced yesterday that it had launched a parody porn website under the URL beer.porn, which showcased videos from its new streaming network under sexually suggestive titles.
https://twitter.com/BrewDog/status/1034110978965815297
But today a representative for the brewer's PR agency Manifest London confirmed that the Beer Porn website is offline. This was put down to a technical issue, though the content is also being "tweaked".
The campaign yesterday faced backlash from Twitter users including people who called themselves shareholders in the company, with some saying it was offensive to gay and trans people.
https://twitter.com/MrsMichelleWR/status/1034158118190632960
I am embarrassed to be a shareholder right now.
— Will Angus (@beercrit) August 27, 2018
4) The butt of the jokes include men pretending to be women and being gay as a punchline. Neither are particularly funny or land well. Gay and trans people aren't punchlines.
— Carla Jean (@beerbabe) August 27, 2018
The site design mimicked the layout of Pornhub, the largest pornography site on the web. BrewDog also advertised the pretend porn site on the real Pornhub.
It was designed to advertise Brewdog's new Netflix-style streaming service, called The Brewdog Network. The platform hosts a mix of original and acquired content. Customers can pay $4.99 a month to watch the shows.
Video previews of the shows appeared on the Beer Porn site under captions such as "Nerdy brunette loves big cocktails" and "Three bad boys explode everywhere".
At the time of writing, the link to the parody site redirects to a standard page about The Brewdog Network.
Despite the public backlash, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) confirmed to City PM that it had not yet received any complaints about the campaign.
The boss, Manifest London, has defended the campaign on Twitter, saying it is a "joke".
Why not aim high? It’s a joke. To launch a content network. Based on beer. Right now the most popular content on the internet, for men & women, is porn. Hence the parody. It’s in combo with an ad takeover on pornhub w/ the tag line ‘I’d rather be watching The BrewDog Network’
— Alex Myers (@AlexMyers) August 28, 2018
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