Adelaide start-up craft brewery, The Sparkke Change Beverage Company, has launched a Pozible crowdfunding campaign to bring its products with a message to the market.
Sparkke’s target is to presell 10,000 cases of its Pilsner, alcoholic ginger beer, hard lemonade and apple cider in order to launch the cans this summer.
Sparkke has chosen strong messaging on its cans, with a cider addressing sexual consent carrying the line, ‘Consent Can’t Come After You Do’, a ginger beer raising asylum seeker issues through its tag ‘Boundless Plains To Share’, a Pilsner targeting Australia Day called ‘Change The Date’ and a hard lemonade tackling gender equality through the line ‘Nipples are Nipples’.
The company, powered by nine women from Adelaide, Sydney, Freemantle and Toronto, Canada, is seeking to ‘add to the conversation’ on a host of social issues.
“In addition to producing seriously great products, our other primary goal is to spark discussion on the issues that we’re really passionate about,” said Sparkke’s Sarah Barrable-Tishauer.
“Issues that matter to our generation, ones that are centred around inclusivity, social equity and simply being fair.
“We realise it’s a totally new way to tackle social issues, but if you think about it, the greatest conversation starter of our generation – and most generations – is a social drink. We want to get people talking about important issues in relaxed settings where the real conversations happen – and at the same time get a smile or two.”
Head brewer of Sparkke, Agi Gajic, said the company is equally passionate about producing high quality brews.
“We’re really focused on perfecting our great tasting and sessionable drinks ready for this summer,” said Gajic.
“A brand like Sparkke has to be about more than just passionate, clever messaging – it has to deliver on taste too, and I’m proud of what’s been achieved. The feedback at a recent beer festival in Adelaide was incredibly positive.”
Sparkke PR lead, Jamie Bucirde, said another goal of Sparkke is to challenge the dominant corporate culture in Australia.
“We’re currently a company run almost exclusively by women, and we come from diverse backgrounds and sexual orientations. We’re talking to a couple of men about coming on board; inclusivity is at our core, and we’re happy to positively discriminate for that,” Bucirde said.
“We’re also partnering with a range of community organisations and donating 10 per cent of direct sales to causes that we believe strongly in.
“Australia’s male dominated beer industry alone is worth about $4.3b pa. If the big players donated even half of what we’re doing percentage wise, that would see around a quarter of a billion dollars every year being directed to community organisations who are fighting for a fairer country.”