A Scottish brewery has been attacked on social media for its "condescending" campaign aimed at tackling gender inequality.

Brewdog, an Aberdeen-based craft beer producer, has launched a pink, female-friendly version of its beer called Pink IPA, a play on its most popular product, Punk IPA. The company says it will will donate 20% of its proceeds to women's charities.

"This is not 'beer for girls'. This is beer for equality", the campaign says.

On their website, Brewdog says the aim of their "satirical" campaign is to expose sexist marketing and double-standards in advertising.

"At BrewDog, we have always believed that beer is for everyone, and equality is a fundamental right," they said.

"So today we are launching a clarion call to end the discrimination of gender pay inequality. In the UK men earn on average 20% more than women. And that's not ok.

"So ahead of International Women's Day this Thursday, we are launching Pink IPA. A beer for women. A beer for equality."

The company says that those who identify as women will be offered 20% off in their bars on International Women's Day to protest against global gender pay disparity.

"The gender pay gap is one issue to which we are taking aim with Pink IPA. But we have a second problem that also warrants action. It beggars belief that in 2018 we are still seeing some breweries rely on sexist marketing to sell their beers."

They added: "Lazily targeting the female market with sub-par products designed by expensive research are inherently patronising. Depicting women in wholly unacceptable ways on labels is something we do not condone, and creating concepts that undermine women's ability to enjoy beer (ANY beer) is both short sighted and restricts progression."

Some social media users, especially women, have failed to see the funny side - and have accused the company of 'laziness' and claimed the messaging was 'confused'.

We’ve created a beer for girls. And it’s pink. Because women only like pink and glitter, right?

🤦‍♀️ #Sarcasm

Lets show that enough is enough with stereotypes. pic.twitter.com/g1zonXFInm

— BrewDog (@BrewDog) March 6, 2018

Brewdog is no stranger to making controversial political statements. In 2014, the company launched a beer named 'Hello my name is Vladimr' to oppose anti-LGBT laws in Russia.

The company said it would donate the 50% of the sales of the beer to charities that "represent oppressed minorities around the world".

Pink IPA
Brewdog has launched beer to tackle 'sexist advertising.' Brewdog