Brewers BrewDog and Scofflaw caught in “idiotic” PR disaster
Beware of Twitter, where a few followers can force a humiliating show of apologies. A recent offer of free beer by Scofflaw to supporters of US President Trump in the UK sparked an international kerfuffle within hours of posting.
After a Twitter mob cried foul, Scottish craft brewery BrewDog was forced to cancel a series of planned events at its UK bars with its US counterpart Scofflaw for the weekend of 29-30 September 2018.
For its part, Atlanta-based craft brewer Scofflaw claimed that the offer was made by its UK agency Frank PR without its knowledge, which in turn forced Frank to announce it had suspended the rogue employee who had put out the post without anybody’s approval.
The whole ruckus – fishy as it sounds – may have put an end to the friendship between BrewDog and Scofflaw as BrewDog felt compelled to send all of Scofflaw’s beer back.
The original statement, which went out on 27 September, said Scofflaw would get UK drinkers “beered up redneck style completely free of charge,” before adding “you have to be a Trump supporter,” according to The Scotsman newspaper.
The first reaction came from BrewDog, the Scottish punk brewer and vocal critic of President Trump. BrewDog is equally notorious for its controversial PR stunts. It responded to the online criticism by twittering that it had had no prior knowledge of the offer and had cancelled the events.
Responding to the hubbub, Atlanta-based Scofflaw released its statement the following day, claiming that the promotion was issued without its approval by Frank, a UK agency it had hired to promote its products in the UK, and that it was “outraged” at the “idiotic misrepresentation”.
Later that day, Frank PR, which claims to be “a creative consumer PR agency that is all about coming up with those great ideas that provoke (!) a public reaction, kick-starting talkability and getting a buzz going”, acknowledged the mistake. It wrote on Twitter: “We apologise to Scofflaw, BrewDog and anyone that may have been offended by these actions.” It added that the employee who released information about the Trump promotion was suspended pending an investigation.
I find it hard to believe that neither BrewDog nor Scofflaw had any early knowledge of Frank’s promotion on behalf of its client. These matters usually require coordination and consent, especially if money is involved. Who would have reimbursed BrewDog for those free beers, I wonder?
Still, this episode underlines what may have been meant to be taken ironically – how many BrewDog visitors will come out as Trump supporters in front of bar staff from the other end of the political spectrum? – quickly degenerated into a blame game by holier-than-thou craft brewers trying to save their reputations. Such is the power of Twitterati to launch an effective online mobbing campaign in almost no time.
Sadly, the only one to suffer from this soon-to-be-forgotten affair will be the agency employee, whose “wrong” tweet will probably send him or her back to a life working for Uber.
