Castle Lager gets naked in solidarity with Willemse

Castle Lager took to Twitter today to unveil their latest social media campaign, with the #SmashTheLabel hashtag harnessing the recent events at SuperSport regarding Ashwin Willemse and his co-hosts, Naas Botha and Nick Mallet, to position their brand as one that opposes labeling people.

The brand’s advertising agency has clearly decided that there’s money to be made in riding the wave of one of South Africa’s biggest trending topics at the moment, and they could well be right.

In light of recent events, we’ve decided to lose our label* in solidarity with all those who are unfairly and callously labeled on a daily basis. This small act is a pledge that Castle Lager will work towards eradicating the labels that divide us. #SmashTheLabel #AshwinWillemse pic.twitter.com/k3y17cUxdQ

— Castle Lager SA (@CastleLagerSA) May 21, 2018

Reactions to the campaign so far have varied, with some praise mainly overshadowed by criticism. Some have accused the brand of trying to capitalise on the Willemse saga and latch on to a trending topic. Others have disagreed with the campaign’s politics, accusing it of taking sides.

In perhaps the funniest reaction so far, some have created their own Castle Lager conspiracy theory, suggesting the brand is trying to put a positive spin on a fault at their production plant. There is no evidence to back up this claim so far.

Whatever your take on the campaign, it is certainly getting Castle Lager plenty of attention, which is probably exactly what the brand is going for.

Wow, Castle Lager Are Trying To Capitalise On The Ashwin Willemse Story #TooSoon https://t.co/GN25mE9erG pic.twitter.com/NCGipLfMfP

— eltrotiaord (@eltrotiaord) May 22, 2018

https://twitter.com/SACNSNew/status/998847976998043649

https://twitter.com/KundaScozin/status/998675083169357826

Lol, so there is a batch of bottles siiting at storage coz the labelling machine failed to label them neh. 😉good

— Kagiso Moiloanyane (@kagisoMoi) May 21, 2018