A new advertising campaign from a German beer company is raising some eyebrows.
“Bitte ein Bit” – Bitburger is known by this advertising slogan among beer drinkers. But now the traditional German brewery is facing a small storm just after the turn of the year. The reason is the advertising subjects that Bitburger uses to advertise on social media, among other things.
One of them shows a clearly pregnant woman with a bare stomach who is enjoying drinking from her bottle of Bitburger beer. The image bears the slogan “Tested by mothers. Made for all of you.”
Bitburger uses this reason to advertise its non-alcoholic beer
©Instagram/Bitburger
×
A reason for excitement for some users, as alcohol is strictly prohibited during pregnancy and breastfeeding and can harm the child. The fact that Bitburger used the theme to advertise its “Bitburger 0.0” alcohol-free line is apparently irrelevant.
“Extremely bad”, “Disconcerting”, “Doesn’t work at all”
“In my opinion, this advertising does not work at all”, can be read in one of the comments below the publication. An outraged user sees the same thing and writes: “Extremely bad advertising… Sorry, but this doesn't work at all.” Elsewhere there are criticisms: “The beer may taste good, but the advertising is really weird.”
Bitburger itself refutes a user's objection that many non-alcoholic beers still contain up to 0.5% alcohol in a comment: “Our Bitburger 0.0% contains such a small amount of residual alcohol that, mathematically speaking, the calculation is 0. This means that the residual alcohol in our non-alcoholic beer is even lower than in apple juice.”
This is how Bitburger reacts
Although Bitburger also receives positive comments for the pregnant woman's photo, the overwhelming response is negative. But the brewery doesn't want to let this go – the marketing director of Bitburger Braugruppe defended the campaign like this to RTL: They wanted to let those who are the absolute experts in non-alcoholic drinks have a say: namely pregnant women and young mothers .”
The occasion is called Dry January, a movement in Great Britain for the responsible use of alcohol. It is not yet known whether Bitburger was successful with this campaign…