Rwanda: Big Alcohol Uses Sexist Marketing
The beer brand Skol was caught using sexist marketing in Rwanda.
Skol printed sexist jokes on their beer bottles. One of the jokes read “when can a woman make you a millionaire” with the answer “when you are a billionaire”. Another of the jokes in French read “how does a beauty queen try and kill a fish? By putting its head in water.”
According to the World Economic Forum’s 2016 report, Rwanda ranks 5th in the world for gender equality. The “jokes” drew public outcry.
Among those to react was Gender Minister Soline Nyirahabimana, who called the jokes “demeaning to women” and said that it was “not acceptable” in Rwanda and “should be punished by law”.
Later Skol producers, the Belgian company Unibra, apologized and promised not to release more of the bottles.
This is not the first time Big Alcohol has used sexism to market their products. In fact, Big Alcohol has a long track record of using sexist, objectifying and de-humanizing images, messages and slogans to sell more of their products. It’s a known tactic used by major alcohol companies such as AB InBev.
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