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Trump-tinged promotion ends BrewDog and Scofflaw’s week of events
Scotland’s BrewDog has cancelled a series of events with US brewer Scofflaw after a press release was sent out by the latter’s PR agency promising free beer for supporters of the US president Donald Trump.
Here’s the deal…
Atlanta, Georgia’s Scofflaw Brewing who have been contract brewing with BrewDog USA while they are building g a new brewing facility had planned to a series of event planned for this week to showcase their beers in the United Kingdom and their partnership with BrewDog.
Scofflaw had hired a UK publicist for one press release which the brewery approved to promote a number of appearances at BrewDog venues.
And according to Beer Street Journal, a publicist at the PR firm Frank released an unapproved press release which stated that Scofflaw would be giving free beer to Trump supporters and that led to social media meltdown.
This from the unapproved Scofflaw press release…..
his weekend see’s redneck US brewers Scofflaw (known as the Jackass brand of the brewing industry’) partner with badass beer brand BrewDog to launch in the UK.
“The self-confessed ‘trailer trash’ brewers are renowned in the states for their lawless attitude and have landed in London today – their aim?
“To get the UK ‘beered up redneck style,’ completely free of charge! But there is a hook… you have to be a Trump supporter.
“Scofflaw are putting tens of thousands of pounds behind BrewDog bars in Shoreditch, Soho, Shepherd’s Bush, Tower Hill, Manchester and Leeds over the next 7 days and are intending to crash onto the UK beer scene with their tagline:
“‘There’s a little dissent in everything we do’”.
BrewDog, who have been outspoken in their opposition to President Trump after he pulled out of the Paris Accord, the took to social media to report that not only they were blindsided by the release they were pulling the weeks planned series of BrewDog/ Scofflaw events and possibly that partnership…
“We are in no way aligned with their position and we will of course be cancelling all the events and sending all of the beer back”
BrewDog also issued this official statement…
Today we were the victim of Fake News, with Scofflaw falsely promoting an offer for Trump supporters in our bars that we had no idea about. We’d like to again categorically confirm we did not know of, endorse or approve this promotion and as a result we’ll be sending all the Scofflaw beer from our bars back to the US.
We had planned to stock their beers in our bars, and hold collaborative tasting events, but nobody ever mentioned anything about Trump to us. We will also offer that free beer they promised, but this time it will be Punk IPA (or any of our other headliners) to anyone who shows up to our bars in the name of love not hate. All you need to do is tell the bar staff at any UK BrewDog bar, BrewDog Brussels or BrewDog Berlin Mitte you’re a lover not a hater, and we’ll pour you a free pint.
From what we can tell, the rogue press release about the weird Trump offer was sent to media without us ever seeing it, let alone agreeing to it, from Scofflaw’s PR agency, Frank PR. It’s not just that it wasn’t approved that is the issue for us here – it’s the fact that the offer directly contradicts our own views and values at BrewDog.
We’ve been pretty clear about our views here in the past. When The Donald pulled out of the Paris Accord, we produced a protest beer called Make Earth Great Again, drawing attention to the ingredients under threat from climate change and donating profits to climate change action group 10:10.
And to make matters even stranger…The Drinks Business is reporting that someone at PR firm Frank called BrewDog’s co-founder James Watt to explain that the unapproved press release came “rogue element in their team”.
But however things finally sort out, BrewDog’s UK alliance with Scofflaw is over and that BrewDog will now be offering a free beer promotion at all of its UK bars, BrewDog Brussels bar and BrewDog Berlin Mitte “to anyone who shows up to our bars in the name of love not hate”.
