Why BrewDog’s ‘Anti-Sponsoring’ World Cup Marketing campaign Could Land Them In Bother

With the 2022 FIFA World Cup now lower than every week away, the minds of the football-watching public are turning to Qatar.  Given Qatar’s human rights document and numerous different query marks hanging over the legitimacy of the nation’s bid to host the match, many outdoors of the soccer neighborhood (together with manufacturers) are paying nearer consideration than they’d be usually.  

As explored in a current article on the topic by Alex Kelham, this political highlight offers prime situations for ambush advertising and marketing campaigns.  Ambush is often related to companies attempting to go themselves off as sponsors of an occasion in an effort to profit from the goodwill generated by it. However it is usually not unusual for opportunistic manufacturers to grab upon pleasure and curiosity surrounding occasions, even when such curiosity is (as with the Qatar World Cup) largely vital or detrimental.

Earlier this week, BrewDog (the Scottish brewery) proclaimed itself, by means of a sequence of bodily billboards and on-line posts, the “Proud Anti-Sponsor of the World F*Cup“.  This punchy strapline is backed up by a claim on BrewDog’s website that it’s going to donate the earnings from all gross sales of its Misplaced Lager in the course of the World Cup to human rights charities.

This text explores the advertising and marketing marketing campaign run by BrewDog together with the criticisms of the marketing campaign and potential authorized points that will come up.