Last week, a brewery launched a beer called 'Barely Legal'. It reflects a wider problem.

This week, there's a story about an Aussie brewery's marketing campaign that's been met with widespread criticism.

It's to do with a Queensland brewery called Blakflag and a beer they launched called 'Barely Legal'. 

The beer had a 18.1 per cent alcohol content. The label design they used is immediately familiar, with strong similarities between their label and the world's biggest pornography website, PornHub. Add on the fact they called their beer 'Barely Legal' and marketed it in a sexualised tone — the implication and messaging were widely condemned. 

Eventually after an outcry from the general public and others in the brewery industry, the marketing campaign was discontinued and the brewery's beer was withdrawn from a major craft beer festival in Melbourne. The Independent Brewers Association (IBA) has also said this brewery's marketing campaign represented a breach of its Code of Conduct.

In the aftermath of this story, some have suggested critics should be able to "take a joke", the brewery itself saying their aim was for it to be "light-hearted and engaging".

But this story is far bigger than just beer. Why? Because it represents a far deeper issue in our society. 

Watch: Jayne Lewis on women in the craft beer industry. Post continues below.

Throughout the beer industry's history, they have consistently relied on the use of gender stereotypes in their alcohol marketing. Think Foster's Beer, Budweiser, Miller Lite and more. Maybe you remember the bikini-clad women featured the ads.

For decades, the alcohol industry relied almost entirely on sexist advertising. Although in recent years we've seen a decline in this sort of advertising, it's examples like this recent case that can be a blimp in that progress.

Interestingly, when Respect Victoria's CEO Emily Maguire first saw the Barely Legal Beer marketing campaign, she was surprised.

"I mean we're in 2023, I thought we were beyond this," she tells Mamamia. "It shows how normalised the objectification of young women still is, and that the glorification of sexualising minors and young women remains a big issue."

Although it was good to see the wider industry and the craft beer festival take this issue seriously, Emily says it is frustrating to have seen this sort of thing happen in the first place. 

"This marketing ploy doesn't appear to be accidental. It was a really deliberate play on mirroring PornHub's logo. Much of that website's content focuses on younger women appearing to be underage or close to it, not to mention the denigrating nature of most of their content," Emily explains.

"We're in the context as a country where we are having a once-in-a-generation conversation about sexual assault, consent and violence. Yet they thought it would be a good idea to normalise a so-called joke around the fact that young women are barely legal and therefore attractive and you're more of a man if you have sex with someone who's in the 'barely legal' camp is pretty horrific."

It's a sentiment that many women in the beer industry have been echoing, including Instagram page @chicksinventedbeer, and Jayne Lewis who is the co-founder of Australia's first female-owned brewery, Two Birds. 

Lewis is among a group of industry leaders called Drink Agents For Change, who lobbied the craft beer festival directly to reconsider including Blakflag's beer marketing in their event line-up.

"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," Lewis said to ABC News. "These are the kinds of things that feel like a real punch in the guts for a lot of women."

But as Emily from Respect Victoria notes, it shouldn't be up to women to consistently be the ones calling out the disrespectful behaviour and actions of their male counterparts — in any workplace. 

In a statement on their social media accounts, Blakflag Brewing said they deeply regret "any offence or distress caused" over the marketing campaign. 

They also said it was "intended to be light-hearted and engaging" but "unfortunately missed the mark and inadvertently conveyed unintended implications that were offensive".

They confirmed the marketing theme in question has been discontinued and they're conducting a review into their marketing processes. You can see their full statement below.

More generally speaking, Emily tells Mamamia that when it comes to issues of sexism disguised as humour, the consequences can be far-reaching.

Often when anyone takes a stand against something clearly sexist, the response they get is to 'lighten up'. 

'It was done in good humour. Can't you take a joke? This is political correctness gone mad.'

"What all the research shows is that the so-called jokes that are based on stereotypes, sexism or objectification, they actually create a culture where violence and harm is normalised," Emily says.

"This sort of fallback reasoning just abdicates responsibility. These are contexts — particularly for the brewing industry — where problematic forms of masculinity thrive. That becomes not only an issue for men but for women too."

Aptly timed, Drink Agents For Change released the results from an internal industry survey this week. They found issues of harassment, sexism and discrimination were still prevalent in the industry. Of the 158 participants surveyed, 57 per cent reported experiencing harassment based on gender. From this percentage, 93 per cent identify as women.

For Emily, she feels optimistic that at least we're having these conversations and asking for accountability from brands and companies when they don't step up to the plate.

"The positive is that 10 years ago, a story like this would have been under the radar. We now as a collective are calling on brands to take accountability. The fact this marketing campaign has since been taken down signifies a change," Emily says.

"What's clear is that this is a culture we want nothing to do with anymore."

Feature Image: Canva/Instagram @chicksinventedbeer / @blackflag_brewing.