As if the flyers weren’t bad enough, a brewery has upped the ante on AI slop.

Swedesboro Brewing out of New Jersey recently introduced an AI marketing… person?… thing?… “virtual media entity”? I really don’t know what to call it, but they call her “Sarah”.

As they say themselves, “she’s the newest face of Swedesboro Brewing Company… with one little twist. She’s virtual!”. And as expected “Sarah” was met with immense backlash.

Below are just some of the more than 100 comments the original post received panning the idea.

There’s still time to delete this and say it was a joke

Checks calendar… it’s not April fools day.

I thought this was a joke!!! Wow.

The comment below sums up the argument we are making regarding AI the best…

I am a huge supporter of NJ craft breweries. I support local breweries because they feel more authentic than the huge national brands, and I like feeling connected to those in my immediate community and the communities around me. How can a brewery foster that connection to its customers by creating someone fake to hawk its beers and merch?…The NJ craft beer scene is crowded, and this makes me want to go elsewhere.

Did the brewery see and hear the comments? You bet. So much so that they doubled down on “Sarah”. In one of their latest post, “she” went on to acknowledge the backlash. In the 29 second response clip “Sarah” doesn’t address specific comments but makes light of the reaction to her. Going as far as saying how “local, talented people” created her.

Why this topic matters is because what the craft beer industry was founded on. AI is everything craft beer is not. The industry was built on creativity, uniqueness, and the ability to bring to life something that no one else had a chance to enjoy. Small batches originally allowed brewers to test their capabilities and gave the market something to chase.

Fast forward all these years later and breweries are taking the cheap route and letting AI build their brands for them.

All of this could be a result of an industry seeing a downturn. Moving towards cheap marketing practices to cut expenses before ultimately closing your doors. But as we have said in the past, if this is the future of the industry, maybe the decline in craft beer is a good thing.