Ahh, Coopers. The brewer of Australia‘s favoured pale ale coasted along for so long as the top donors to the SA Liberal Party and various evangelical causes without catching anyone’s ire, but it was poking their head above the parapet via their partnership with The Bible Society which pushed them over the edge.
The brewery have had a real shit time of it over the past few days, with loyal drinkers ditching them over their beer’s appearance in a Bible Society ‘debate’ video about marriage equality. They issued a statement about the need for rational debate on marriage equality, followed by another hastily issued one claiming they never endorsed the video in the first place.
Presumably this was in response to the backlash. Though initially it came in the form of a flood of one-star reviews on the Coopers Facebook and some individual boycotts, now the hurting is really kicking off: a number of pubs and venues are beginning to announce they’ll be ditching the Coops tap for something else.
The general manager of Sircuit Bar and Mollies Bar & Diner filmed himself tossing his remaining Coopers stock into the bin. “Sircuit and Mollies, like beer companies, have choices. I have made mine,” he said.
This follows a widely shared post from The Old Bar on Sunday leading the charge in no longer stocking Coopers:
Though the comments are full of people accusing the bars of being opposed to free speech, its a difficult argument to lodge. These are private companies deciding not to stock a product which doesn’t align with their political views. The free speech argument doesn’t hold much muster.
Source: Facebook.
Photo: Facebook / Hollywood Hotel.
