Activists criticise Brewdog mental health campaign

BrewDog has teamed up with the online movement #IAmWhole to raise awareness around mental health ahead of a BBC documentary claiming the brewery has a ‘toxic’ workplace environment.
Celebrities including Mo Farah, Danny Dyer, Jason Fox and Seann Walsh share their experiences of anxiety and depression in a new video made by Rizzle Kick’s Jordan Stephens
To co-inside with the campaign BrewDog have launched an alcohol-free ‘Sad AF’ beer and will donate all profits to the #IAmWhole research fund.
Activist group Punks With Purpose raised concern on how the brewer was treating their staff with an open letter saying employees were being bullied at work.
In a post PWP said: “So many of us started our jobs there eagerly, already bought into the BrewDog ethos, only to very quickly discover that ‘fast-paced’ meant ‘unmanageable,’ and ‘challenging’ meant ‘damaging.’”
A spokesperson for the activist group told The Drum: “BrewDog were directly responsible for the poor mental health of many people.”
They went on to say the decision for IAmWhole to partner with “incredibly dismissive of all the hurt that has been catalogued so far” and the ‘Sad AF’ branding “seems incredibly insensitive and shows a lack of compassion from both parties.”
The Disclosure special investigating BrewDog’s workplace is on BBC One, Monday January 24 at 7pm and available afterwards on BBC iPlayer.