Beer ‘containing’ steroids launched in hope of undermining Olympic sponsors

By on Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Scottish craft brewery BrewDog has announced a limited edition beer containing a number of prohibited substances, including creatine, guarana, lycii berries, kola nut, Gingko, matcha tea, maca powder and anabolic steroids – though which anabolic steroid out of the dozens available hasn’t been made public.

The product, called Never Mind the Anabolics, has been released in the hope that it will ‘undermine global sponsorship deals for this summer’s games’, by containing 8 ingredients that are banned for professional athletes due to performance enhancing effects.

I’m a big fan of BrewDog’s stunts and whilst this one is again headline-grabbing and fits with the brand’s anti-establishment ethos, there’s one thing I wasn’t sure about and that is the legality of it.

It turns out, having spoken to somebody involved with the campaign, that only the first batch of beer contains steroids – the ones being sold to the public will not contain steroids, though they still contain the other substances athletes are banned from consuming.

My concerns were simply because it’s illegal to sell steroids in the UK, though legal to buy them for personal use.

As mentioned in the press release, BrewDog will be using the hashtag #FaketheStage to ask followers to joke about ‘tenuous sponsorship opportunities the games has yet to tap into’.

Here’s a video to launch Never Mind the Anabolics:

Involved agency: Manifest Communications

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