Beer brewer Grolsch will not be holding a marketing campaign focused on the sporting event around the World Cup in Qatar this year. That decision was prompted by a “coincidence of circumstances”, including international criticism of the human rights situation in the Gulf state, a spokesman said on Tuesday. On Monday, supermarket chain Lidl announced the same.
“We have just launched a new campaign, the emphasis is on spending time together. We are not going to make it a separate World Cup campaign,” explains Grolsch’s spokesman. Football or references to the sporting event in November and December do not appear in the commercials.
Grolsch also considered how customers would respond to marketing communications with references to the World Cup. The Dutch brewer does not yet know whether it buys airtime in commercial breaks around World Cup matches.
In Qatar, the conditions in which migrant workers are building stadiums for the World Cup are particularly criticized by human rights organizations. According to those organizations, thousands of guest workers have died since the World Cup was awarded to Qatar in 2010. This happened, among other things, on construction sites where stadiums were built for the tournament.
At previous final tournaments of the Dutch national team, the beer brand did come up with special promotions around a European Championship or World Cup. In the last editions, the emphasis was less on orange merchandise, Grolsch reports.
Supermarket chain Lidl already indicated on Monday that it would not conduct a major advertising campaign around the World Cup in Qatar. That would be inappropriate due to a “sum of factors”. Industry peers Albert Heijn, Jumbo and Plus do not yet know what they will do around the World Cup.
