Climate change means drought. Drought affects beer’s main ingredients. That changes everything about beer. A lot less beer means a lot less beer packaging. Be concerned.
When it comes to climate change, Australia could not be described as forward thinking. When WWF, Earth Hour and advertising agency, GPY&R, found out how many things rated above climate change in Australia’s list of concerns, they decided to show Australia why it should care more.
They demonstrated how climate change will affect something that matters to a big chunk of the population. Beer.
Beer’s main ingredients are barley, hops and water. Drought affects all three.
This could mean we’ll end up paying more for very average tasting beers. That could mean that beer production declines. And beer production’s decline invariably means that beer packaging declines.
So GPY&R Brisbane worked with leading craft brewers, Willie The Boatman and Young Henrys, to create Drought Draught – a poor quality beer made with drought-affected ingredients. That way Australians can literally ‘taste the effects of climate change’.
Drought Draught was brewed with drought affected ingredients like poor quality barley and hops, and artificial supplements because the real thing would be cost-prohibitive or simply unavailable due to climate change induced drought. That water would be scarce and expensive was factored into the brewing process also.
“Our aim is to turn beer drinkers into a political force to send a message to those who can make change happen,” GPY&R Brisbane creative director, Brendan Greaney, stated.
Drought Draught was launched at a special Save The Ales event in Sydney as part of this year’s Earth Hour activities. It is being supported by a series of taste-testing events leading up to the UN Paris Climate Conference in November.
And this film…
Reece Proudfoot, Earth Hour community engagement manager explained, “This year’s Earth Hour was all about how climate change will affect farming and food production, Drought Draught was a great way to draw attention to this.”
Credits:
Brewer: Pat McInerney, Willie The Boatman
Brewer: Sam Fuss, Young Henrys
Agency: GPY&R Brisbane
