Carib Beer 'HIT THEM FOR 6' ad sparks widespread outrage; Brewery apologises

Carib Beer ‘HIT THEM FOR 6’ ad sparks widespread outrage; Brewery apologises

Aug 24, 2018 News

Carib Beer tried to capitalize on the current cricket fever brought on by the Caribbean Premier League by opting to crack a joke in one of their latest ads.
Unfortunately, the ad is not only being described as tasteless, but generally offensive and insensitive to the current atmosphere surrounding Gender Based Violence (GBV) within the Caribbean where the beer is sold regionally.
The ad suggested ‘Annoyed that your wife/girlfriend is nagging you for spending more time on CPL than her?? HIT THEM FOR 6 and get back to the Cricketing Action’.
Carib Beer has since issued an apology for the ad, and has had it pulled from all social media platforms.
“We at Carib Brewery would like to apologize for the recent post on our Social Media platforms. We do not condone, support or tolerate violence of any kind including domestic violence in any form and sincerely regret this post. We will continue to work to ensure that our communications comply with the highest standards.”
In the wake of the act of contrition, however, many NGOs and Women’s rights organisations (locally and regionally) are calling out the company, claiming that the “half-hearted apology is not nearly enough to atone for this blunder”.
The ASPIRE Youth Network, a youth advocacy NGO that focuses on issues around GBV and youth involvement made the following statement:
‘”ASPIRE Youth Network considers the apology by Carib Beer to be insincere and inadequate to atone for its trivialisation of Gender Based Violence…’ the statement further went on to say, ‘Carib Beer should involve itself more in the sponsoring, supporting and even spearheading of its own campaigns aimed at mitigating the scourge of Gender Based Violence, since the products marketed by the company are often precursors to violence.’
It is not clear whether the company will take steps beyond the issuance of the public apology, but organisations throughout the Region have been expressing the hope that they take this blunder as an indication that more work needs to be done with their management team to better sensitise their staff to the ills of Gender Based Violence.
One such entity calling for this was a women’s rights activist group, Women’s Wednesdays, who said in a statement;
‘While they have issued an apology for their inappropriate advert, sensitization training is definitely needed for both staff and management to be more socially conscious about the effects of their product in Domestic Violence cases so as to not repeat such a tone deaf strategy.
This is not the first instance of sexist and dangerous advertising by alcohol companies.
The fact that alcohol is often a contributing factor in cases of domestic abuse makes these sorts of messages particularly dangerous and shows the insensitive way in which big brands such as Carib view women and the violence meted out against them’.

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