First it was the overpriced pink razors. Then came the Bic's "Pens for Her." And just when you thought gendered products couldn't get more ridiculous or condescending, a Czech company called Aurosa just released the first "beer for her."
Oh yeah, and it's pink.
The company has launched the "premium lifestyle" beer that comes in Instagram-worthy delicate pink-and-grey marble bottles small enough for frail lady hands. The brand’s founder Marina Smirova says that the beer is a "representation of a woman’s strength and a girl’s tenderness"— which may have been the weirdest sentence I've ever read.
Clearly, Aurosa just wanted to jump on the "female empowerment" bandwagon, using hollow and vague "female-centric" marketing to make money off of women consumers. Often times products marketed toward women cost more than the same product marketed toward men. (It's unclear what the price of this pink beer will be.)
The beer's marketing is aggressively feminine with the company's Instagram comprising of a few pictures of the beer amongst a sea of photos of dresses, flowers, and lots of "millennial pink."
"Oh look, butterflies happened to have landed on my beer!"
"I only read pink books about clothes!"
Yeah, we are definitely getting some mixed messages here, Aurosa.
Like clockwork, Twitter slammed Aurosa for its sexist product.
Melissa Cole, an award winning beer expert—who just happens to be a woman—was outraged at the feminized beer.
She encouraged women to share pictures of their favorite non-gender specific beers, a.k.a. beer.
Aurosa is posting the following response to the negative comments about the beer on their Instagram page:
"We really value your opinion and wanted to thank you for sharing it. Our goal is to create a beautiful product in order to support women's femininity and elegance. If you don't like it, we are truly sorry to not have you on our side, however we remain truthful to our product. Aurosa was not [intended] to offend anyone's views or feelings. Thank you for being a part of the discussion."
Now that you've read this entire article, go crack open one of those "man" beers. You deserve it.
