Aldi, Brewdog Brand War Ends In The Best Possible Way: Collaboration
from the take-note-congress dept
The world may well feel like a terrible place to you right now. A pandemic is sweeping much of the world, with leaders from many countries playing the ostrich, or else treating the victims as though they were mere idiots. Racial tensions and brutal police practices are on full display, with the most surprising aspects being that they continue even as the world is shining a spotlight on the offenders. World leadership appears to be in full retreat, leaving space for truly nefarious actors to shoulder their way into ever more troubling activities.
Just last week, the White Sox beat the Cubs in two out of three. These are dark, dark times indeed.
But, hark, all ye who may despair, for I bring good tidings. Mere days ago, we talked about a brand war that appeared to be brewing (heh) between grocerer Aldi and Brewdog, a self-styled "punk brewery." It started when Brewdog released a "Punk IPA", fully in line with its branding motif. Aldi then released a beer called "Anti-Establishment IPA", in a similar looking blue can. This led to Brewdog suggesting on Twitter that maybe it should release a "Yaldi" beer. Aldi said "ALD IPA" would be a better name... and Brewdog agreed, rebranding the beer under that name.
Notably absent from the whole episode were cease and desist notices from either side, lawyers filing trademark lawsuits, or any legal machinations of any kind. Instead, there was much good-natured ribbing and a fair amount of congenial creativity at play. In the end, Aldi's social media accounts had a laugh at Brewdog taking its suggestion, and even mentioned it might have to save some aisle space for the newly branded beer.
Which, in conclusion, appears to be happening.
ALDI have jsut confirmed that our fake ALDI beer is now going to be sold in @AldiUK stores.
Plus, for every case we sell both @BrewDog & @AldiUK are going to plant one extra tree in the new BrewDog Forest. pic.twitter.com/exXCKdFyEu
— James Watt (@BrewDogJames) August 27, 2020
Were you like me, where some part of your professional life is spent writing stories about ever more stupid trademark disputes and far too may of them ending in even more stupid litigation, you would realize just how satisfying this is. Compared with pointless protectionism, this is such good business on so many levels.
Lawyer fees are completely avoided. Trademarks for all sides are still fine. Just fine. And, most importantly, an entirely new business arrangement, one which will make some good money judging by the response to this news, is entered into by both sides. Everyone is fine, everyone is happy, everyone makes money.
And everyone has at least a little bit of fun with all of this on top of it. Bravo all the way around.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: ald ipa, beer, collaboration, friendly dispute, punk ipa, trademark, yaldi
Companies: alti, brewdog
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Holy shit.
(a) There are two actual adults at beer companies who are capable of positive-sum thinking.
(b) They ran in to each other.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
What a humble man asked is answered
We CAN all get along! If we stop the endless blood lust of trying to win every competition at any cost, we can improve in so many areas, to the benefit of almost everyone. How much? I have no idea, but it's sure worth a try.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Doesn't really pass the sniff test. More plausible is that the whole thing was cooked up between Brewdog and Aldi PRs. Not least Aldi's alleged 'Anti-Establishment IPA' can looks at best like a very poor mock-up.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Let’s assume it is.
So what?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
It undermines completely the premise of the story. It wasn't a brand-war with a happy ending. It wasn't a brand war. It was just PR.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Again: So what? Even if it is a PR move, it can still serve as an example of how to handle trademark conflicts without delving into expensive lawsuits: collaboration and a refusal to see the situation as a zero-sum game. I fail to see what’s horrible about that, and that’s assuming it is a PR move instead of a genuine trademark conflict that got solved by adults being mature and rational adults instead of greedy capitalist fucks.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
Let's say you're correct. What that means is that the marketing and legal departments on both sides understand that the whole system is so hilariously broken and widely absused that pretending to have a fight with a happy ending was the best PR for their new product.
The point of the story remains even if it was fiction.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
"Not least Aldi's alleged 'Anti-Establishment IPA' can looks at best like a very poor mock-up."
I've actually drank the beer, and you can find plenty of YouTube videos of people doing the same, so your assumption is wrong.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Yeast and Persist
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Eh,oh no!
Just think of the legal work lost, somewhere there is a poor starving lawyer without a case to think of...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Eh,oh no!
Probably not so starving that they couldn't afford a case of Brewdog.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
…take your Funny vote and get out. 🙃
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: I Doubt It
Have you seen inside an Aldi store? At least 95% of their groceries are packaged as knock-off's. It's nearly all made by/for Aldi but designed to look like a name brand. Not similar enough to cause confusion but similar enough that you know exactly what they're imitating. So did they copy BrewDog's beer? More than likely!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
If only more companies would behave this way...
but instead we have lawsuits over the shape of fruit being able to confuse consumers that a grocery store is a high end smart phone.
[ link to this | view in thread ]