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Porn-inspired beer removed from Australian market

22 May 2023 By Eloise Feilden

A Queensland-based brewery has been forced to withdraw its ‘Barely Legal IPA’ from the Australian market following a social media storm concerning its name and porn-inspired marketing campaign.

Porn-inspired beer removed from Australian market

Blackflag Brewing, based in Queensland, has issued an online apology and withdrawn its latest brew from the Australian market after receiving major backlash online.

The brewery’s Barely Legal IPA has an alcohol content of 18.1% ABV and a logo designed to mimic the graphics of pornography website Porn Hub.

Blackflag Brewing planned to premiere the new beer at Melbourne’s Great Australasian Beer Spec-tap-ular (GABS) festival, but organisers pulled the IPA due to a surge of complaints in the lead-up to the event.

Clementine Ford, an Australian feminist writer, took to the internet to criticise the brand for its offensive marketing. She wrote: “What a totally interesting and funny name for a beer that doesn’t in any way imply you’re a bunch of creeps with a s***ty sense of humour and total disregard for women.”

Jayne Lewis, co-founder of Two Birds, which claims to be Australia’s first female-founded brewery, was among those who called on the festival to drop the beer. According to Bodyandsoul.com, she told ABC: “If you google ‘Barely Legal’ the things that come up are all around young women and involvement in either some sort of pornography of involvement in sexual acts… These are the kinds of things that feel like a real punch in the guts for a lot of women.”

She added: “It’s sexist and it glorifies sexualising minors and young women, which to us is inappropriate, and especially has no place in relation to an 18.1 per cent alcohol beer.”

Blackflag posted an apology to its Instagram page, saying it regretted “any offence or distress caused by our recent marketing campaign”. The brewery claimed that its campaign was intended to be “light-hearted and engaging” but “missed the mark”.