Photo: Unsplash / Bence Boros
A large international company threatened a small Wellington Brewery with legal action over the marketing of a charity beer.
Abandoned Brewery in Porirua created a energy drink infused beer for Wellington's Rare Beer competition - a charity event raising money for rare disorders.
On the morning of the event, Monster Energy warned the company to pull its marketing or lawyers would get involved.
The brewery had taken the iconic Monster 'M' and altered it and mashed it into their branding of the five kegs of limited edition beer.
Head brewer Charlotte Feehan told Morning Report the beer was made using double IPA fermented with energy syrup, producing a product that was both alcoholic and caffeinated.
"For us it was a bit of a tongue in cheek joke at the fact we had made this ridiculous beer and we just picked one of the most notable energy drink companies that everyone recognises in New Zealand and kind of riffed off their colour scheme and their image a little bit."
"There was no malice. I mean, we were just attempting to have a little bit of fun for this charity event."
The brewery announced the issue on its Instagram on the day of the competition, saying a "certain company" had objected to the artwork on the tap badge.
It said the artwork had been changed.
The announcement that the beer would not appear at the fundraiser. Photo: Instagram/Abandoned Brewery
Feehan told Morning Report she would have hoped the company would turn the other cheek but it didn't happen.
"We understand, especially in that massive corporate world, brand is everything and we're in no way trying to make fun of Monster or any other brands. It's more that they are incredibly recognisable. This is a great charity event for a really important cause.
"At the end of the day, they had an opportunity to jump on board and laugh along and we were just a bit disappointed that they chose not to."
Monster Energy has been approached for comment.
