The other day, as I was scrolling through Twitter, as I so often do, I came across this tweet:

And my first thought was this:

As a feminist, and someone who has studied gender and communication, I was instantly annoyed. There are far too many unnecessarily gendered items (think toothbrush holders , Dr. Pepper , sunscreen , etc.), and now beer??? As a college student, I'm a firm believer in the fact that beer is for everyone. And don't even get me started on the stereotypes that girls only like stuff that's pink...

After being annoyed for about five minutes, I decided to open up the conversation to other women to see what they thought about this. These were some of their responses:

1. "Did they add estrogen to the grains they made it with? No? Then it’s bullshit."

2. "I would like it more if it wasn’t an IPA. Making it fruitier would make it more feminine."

3. "It's dumb."

4. "Beer should be for anyone no matter what sex or gender."

5. "I’ve been introduced to the idea that my soft little girl mouth cannot handle the strong, manly beer and that I have been doing college wrong this whole time..."

"What the hell is this? I love the fact that it’s not even in a can it screams “no shotgunning, just sipping”. Equality, gotta love it."

6. "It’s pointless."

7. "I feel that no product should sell something for a certain gender..."

"Gender neutrality creates further comfort for consumers, and buyers do not have the pressure to stick to gender norms if they are not purchasing products with gender labels."

8. "First of all, why is it for girls? Anyone drinking it shouldn't be considered a girl. Instead, it should say women..."

"Secondly, beer is beer. It isn't gender specific (not that anything is actually gender specific). Lastly, why is it pink? Not every woman likes pink. I won't be purchasing it."

9. "I think it's sexist."

"They slap a pink sticker and women are supposed to be like "omg! Pink! I need it." Like no. It's like Bic and their pink pencils. Not all women love pink. Not everything has to be pink. It's poor execution of what could've been a good idea had they marketed it without pink girly crap. If it was meant for equality they should've marketed it that way."

10. "I don’t want a beer specifically for women, I want all dresses to have pockets and our jeans to not have fake pockets."

11. "Why can't I drink normal beer?"

12. "I’m unsure of what classifies as a separate beer for women, like what they’re doing to make it different, but sounds a little sexist tbh. like how Doritos tried to make a “quieter chip” for women."

13. "I think it’s kind of ridiculous because it’s basically implying that regular beer “isn’t for girls...”

"This is one of those times where they are trying to have equality for something that was never based on gender to begin with."

14. "I mean, isn't it kinda stereotyping although they are trying to 'create equality'? At the end of the day, I'm gonna drink whatever beer doesn't taste like piss and is cheap lol"

15. "Why does this need to be a thing? Girls either like “regular” beer or they don’t calling it “Beer for Girls” isn’t going to make them sell more product."

16. " I think it's dumb. You shouldn't have to gender beer. Beer itself is for everyone. This kind of reminds me of when Bic tried to sell pens for women. All pens are for women lol"

17. "This is absolute bullshit. Beer is beer and this is sexism at its finest."

But then I came across this response:

"On first glance I was like “Really? Another company making an unnecessarily gendered product?” But then once I read about it a little bit and found out that it’s being used to address the gender pay gap issue, as well as the fact that women will be able to purchase it for 20% off due to the pay gap, I think it’s a powerful way to get a message across. I like it!"

And I decided to do a little more research.

Turns out, this was a marketing plan meant to be taken sarcastically so that people would start talking about the ridiculousness of stereotyping women and gendering products, as well as bring awareness to the 20% pay gap in the UK. During the month of March, which is Women's History Month, 20% of the proceeds from the Beer for Girls will go to charities that support women.

Some of the women I asked applauded this marketing tactic:

"I think this parodied attempt to bring awareness to the gender pay gap is rather brilliant. As someone who loves a good IPA, and also just wants to be paid the same as her male co-workers in her future career, I am ALL for this campaign."

"I know people would say "there shouldn't be gender labels for things" like women's beer for example. But I think if it's a beer company composed of women workers, its kind of cool."

But mostly, as the tweet was the first thing that people saw and the only thing many people paid attention to, the campaign was kind of a flop. Brew Dog acknowledged this in a later tweet, with a link to a statement that said:

"So, that escalated quickly.

Yesterday we launched Pink IPA - a satirical joke about products marketed to women using patronising gender stereotypes (such as making things pink or covering them in glitter. Ridiculous things).

For many of you - well, most of you - it seems we didn’t land the joke. The fact that people so easily believed that we were serious about the name and branding is a stark reminder of the scale of the problem. We should have done more to show that this element of the campaign was tongue in cheek."

So, good intentions, but poor marketing. At least Brew Dog did achieve one of their goals, getting the conversation started about sexist marketing, even if it wasn't exactly how they had planned.