Molson-Owned Brewery Is Upset About Being Tied to ‘Scatological’ Anarchist Festival Posters

Shawinigan craft brewery Le Trou du Diable is reportedly upset that an anarchist music event in Montreal included its logo on advertisements.

According to Le Journal de Montréal, the brewery (owned by beer giant Molson-Coors since 2017) was especially bothered by one particular poster affiliated with Revolution Fest, though that’s not the one that shows the company’s logo.

The poster shows a Photoshopped image of four Quebec political party leaders sitting on toilets. It’s accompanied by the caption (in French) “Sexism, intolerance, xenophobia, austerity, capitalism: the parties give us the same shit, but from different assholes”. The advertisement didn’t feature any nudity or confronting imagery, and Trou du Diable’s logo is not featured — it appears on another poster. That poster (further below) bills the festival as “feminist, anti-fascist, anti-capitalist” and lists the artists appearing at the festival, without any commentary.

Revolution Fest/Facebook

Trou du Diable has a partnership with Montreal music festival Katacombes, which is hosting Revolution Fest from October 4 to 6 and is otherwise known for hosting a variety of punk and anarchist events. Katacombes sells the brewery’s beer at a discounted rate as part of a promotional deal, including during events such as Revolution Fest. The Journal reports that the brewery’s logo appeared on the festival posters last year, drawing no complaints.

Revolution Fest/Facebook

But the sentiment on those election-themed posters upset brewery officials — a representative told the newspaper that it does not want to be associated “with people who promote hate speech”. But while crude, the poster does not feature anything generally construed as such — for example, racist or sexist imagery or text.

The brewery was also upset that the same toilet-themed poster encouraged Quebecers not to vote in next week’s provincial election, noting that while Trou du Diable supports free speech, the fact that the poster encouraged citizens not to vote in the election went against its values. On Facebook, a comment from the brewery doubled down on that sentiment, saying Trou de Diable was against “defamatory, scatological” speech.

Meanwhile, Revolution Fest does not seem bothered — it has not commented on social media or to the media, and the posters wth Trou du Diable’s logo appear to have vanished from the internet. However, some commenters on its event questioned why Trou du Diable — now under the umbrella of a large multinational — was on its advertising in the first place.

• Molson Coors forcée de se dissocier d’un festival anarchiste [Journal de Montréal]
• Revolution Fest [Facebook]