|  Updated: 

Carlsberg promotes negative tweets about its own beer as it finally agrees with drinkers

Drinkers have “moved on” from mainstream lager, Carlsberg admitted today after promoting a series of negative tweets about its much-despised drink.

The brewer has admit it is probably not the best beer in the world, in sharp contrast to its famous marketing campaign.

Read more: Carlsberg sparks intrigue with Twitter marketing campaign

Instead it launched a new Carlsberg Danish Pilsner, and trashed its old brew.

The Danish beer giant sparked speculation of a new product launch last week when it started promoting tweets which were less than complimentary of its brew. Today it has posted a video of its staff reading some of these messages.

They include harsh comments like comparing the taste of Carlsberg to “drinking the bath water that your nan died in”.

Twitter users also likened Carlsberg to “breadsticks” and “naan bread”.

The drinks brand promoted those critical tweets in a mystery marketing move that turns out to have been because it has finally admitted it feels the same way about its old recipe.

“At Carlsberg UK, we lost our way. We focused on brewing quantity, not quality; we became one of the cheapest, not the best. In order to live up to our promise of being ‘probably the best beer in the world’, we had to create a better beer,” said Carlsberg UK’s vice president of marketing, Liam Newton.

The new pilsner marks the end of Carlsberg’s traditional beer. It is a “complete” rebrew which the firm promises will have a “crisper, fuller flavour”.

Tweeters with nasty things to say about Carlsberg’s old beer will be given a taste of its new product, the company said, prompting a new swathe of tweets.

Some of them even got a little post-modern.

https://twitter.com/serenxm/status/1117548070177247233

https://twitter.com/davidfiggins/status/1117213789919879168

The company’s decision follows years of growth in small-scale brewing in the beer industry, giving rise to a boom in craft beers.

The prominence of microbreweries has caused some of the big players to enter the market, often snapping up their smaller up-and-coming rivals.

Read more: Carlsberg cheers hot summer and Chinese sales despite lower growth outlook

In 2017 Carlsberg bought the popular London Fields Brewery, and Heineken snapped up Hackney-based Beavertown last year.

“Drinker’s interest in mainstream lager has waned because, though the world has moved on, the mainstream category hasn’t,” Newton said.

Subscribe

Subscribe to the City AM newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Subscribe
By signing up to our newsletters you agree to the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.