Why BrewDog’s ‘Anti-Sponsoring’ World Cup Campaign May Land Them In Trouble

With the 2022 FIFA Environment Cup now less than a 7 days away, the minds of the football-viewing general public are turning to Qatar.  Given Qatar’s human rights document and numerous other query marks hanging more than the legitimacy of the country’s bid to host the event, many outdoors of the soccer local community (which include brand names) are shelling out nearer notice than they would be typically.  

As explored in a recent write-up on the subject matter by Alex Kelham, this political highlight delivers prime problems for ambush marketing campaigns.  Ambush is generally associated with enterprises hoping to move them selves off as sponsors of an celebration in get to benefit from the goodwill generated by it. But it is also not unusual for opportunistic manufacturers to seize on excitement and desire surrounding gatherings, even if these desire is (as with the Qatar World Cup) largely essential or detrimental.

Earlier this week, BrewDog (the Scottish brewery) proclaimed alone, by way of a collection of physical billboards and on the web posts, the “Happy Anti-Sponsor of the Planet F*Cup“.  This punchy strapline is backed up by a assert on BrewDog’s web-site that it will donate the earnings from all gross sales of its Lost Lager all through the World Cup to human rights charities.

This write-up explores the advertising and marketing campaign run by BrewDog together with the criticisms of the marketing campaign and prospective lawful challenges that may perhaps come up.