BrewDog and Diageo draw scorn over Women’s Day stunts
Thursday last week – 8 March – was International Women’s Day. To support women and their campaigns towards their fair share of the world, Diageo and BrewDog each launched one of their popular products in women-friendly packaging. Diageo brought out a special edition of its Johnny Walker Scotch, calling it Jane Walker, while Scottish craft brewer BrewDog released a satirical pink-branded “beer for girls”, which is basically a variation of Brewdog's Punk IPA with a pink label.
Whereas BrewDog hoped to draw attention to the lazy marketing efforts targeting the female market, especially in the brewing industry, Diageo’s Jane Walker exactly fell into this category.
Throughout March 2018 BrewDog’s Pink IPA will be sold in several markets for 20 percent less than the regular blue-coloured IPA – a move intended to reflect the 18.1 percent average pay gap between men and women in Britain. The brewer has also pledged to donate a minimum of 20 percent of proceeds from Pink and Punk IPAs to charities that fight against gender inequality.
However, critics still thought the effort patronising.
Sara Barton, the director of Brewster’s Brewing Company and instigator of Project Venus, a network of female brewers, told the UK’s Guardian newspaper: “I applaud the thought – it is an issue that needs highlighting in brewing and beyond – but it may be too subtle for people to understand, over their heads and therefore patronising.”
Moreover, BrewDog’s own pay policy was found lacking in this respect, when it came to light that there was a 2.8 percent median difference in pay in favour of men across its global business.
Diageo’s Jane Walker marketing initiative in the US for the month of March has not fared any better either.
As commented Don Kavanagh on the website wine-searcher.com on 4 March 2018: “The sheer stupidity of Diageo's Johnnie Walker re-gendering … is breath-taking. Here’s a company with some of the most deservedly famous drinks brands in the world – and a board with four women on it – that decided that the best way to raise a glass to the 37 percent of US whiskey drinkers who are female was to pat them on the head and patronize the hell out of them. Gee, I’ll bet they're really grateful, guys.”
“The replacement of some runs of Johnnie Walker Black with a female ‘Jane Walker’ on the label will be a historical moment, if not for the evolution of gender equality, then certainly in marketing classes, where it will be hauled out anytime a teacher needs a good illustration of a ‘hell, no’ moment,” he added.
Part of the problem Mr Kavanagh has with the Jane Walker concept is the multiple levels on which it offends. One, Jean would have been a more acceptably “Scottish” name than Jane, which sounds suspiciously English. Besides, why not Elizabeth Walker? There were quite a few prominent Elizabeths in distilling, not least Johnnie Walker’s wife Elizabeth who helped the grocer run his business.
Two, Diageo has decided to “celebrate” women in the most patriarchal way possible – by jumping aboard a bandwagon with a token gesture that screams “We’re only doing this for the optics”.
Whether these attempts at celebrating women were well-meant or cynical ploys to hike sales – both failed to convince right-on commentators and rightly so.
