In August, it was Illinois brewery Pig Minds Brewing Co., who named its blueberry beer PD (short for Panty Dropper) California Style Ale, with a label to match. Outrage ensued on social media and Time Out journalist Amy Cavanaugh wrote a post calling out Pig Minds and a few other breweries and asking them to grow up. Before that, it was Deep Ellum Brewing Co.’s Dallas Blonde beer, paired with the slogan “Goes down easy,” or Massachusetts’s Clown Shoes Beer’s Tramp Stamp controversy, to name a few.
This time, it’s San Diego’s Mother Earth Brew Co. (not to be confused with Mother Earth Brewing in Kinston, North Carolina) who announced their new "Love your Cans, Love your Mother" campaign. The advertisement for the Cali Creamin’ Vanilla Cream Ale features a naked woman holding a carefully positioned six-pack with the slogan “Got cans?” The Facebook photo drew more than sixty comments, ranging from drinkers declaring they would no longer be buying Mother Earth’s beer to commenters telling the offended to just lighten up.
"This ad demonstrates how out-of-touch Mother Earth [Brew Co.] is with their clientele. Women are a growing demographic of consumers in the craft beer industry,” wrote one commenter, Mercedes Alcoser. “We know the difference between an IPA, a stout, and a pale ale. We will gladly spend the $12 you’re going to charge for that six-pack because you produce a quality product. Budweiser and the other beer conglomerates have to use flashy ads to get the public’s attention because their beer is sh*t. Do not succumb to their standards of advertising.”
Alcoser’s point, echoed by several others, is that craft beer is better than this, that it doesn’t have to use sexist marketing tactics to sell beer because the beer is a quality product. And in order to increase its market share, craft beer should reach growing markets, young women being one of the fastest growing ones.
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According to an article published on Brewbound.com, “Brewers Association: Craft Beer Drinkers are More Diverse Than Ever,” women between the ages of 21 and 34 now make up 15 percent of craft beer drinkers.
Citing a new report from Brewers Association economist Bart Watson, writer David Eisenberg looks at the growing and diversifying market for craft beer, in particular, women and Hispanic drinkers as well the geographic diversity of breweries.
“If craft is to reach the oft-stated goal of gaining 20 percent market share by 2020, Watson said, continued consumer diversity is critical.”
"I think to achieve that goal, we’re going to have to see these trends continue, which is bringing new people into the category,’ [Watson] said. ‘I think we’re going to see young women [aged] 21-34 continue drinking craft beer and I’d like to think the generation of women behind them will also continue. I think we’re going to continue to see ethnic diversity increase and I think the Hispanic population can be a big part of that.’”
What an average beer drinker looks like is changing. Should the beer labels and marketing campaigns featuring naked women and suggestive names be changing too?