Beck’s premature withdrawal

There is nowt quite so queer as beer marketers. Mystery surrounds the move by Scottish Courage to axe Beck’s sponsorship of the Channel 4 gay drama “Queer as Folk”, which has hit the headlines for its graphic scenes of men behaving gaily.

Scottish Courage, which distributes the beer in the UK, blames the move on “the wish of Brauerai Beck to adjust the phasing of its advertising spend…” In other words, it is not SC’s fault at all but lies with the German brand owner.

The Diary has pondered the situation long and, er, hard, and can only imagine that Brauerai Beck found that the deal didn’t offer sufficient market penetration. Another spurt of sponsorship is expected in July from the premium packaged lager that dare not speak its name.