PR firm under fire from gay brewery for representing Israel Folau

The PR firm representing Israel Folau launched gay-owned beer and cider company Gayle into the market 18 months ago. The brewery’s CEO says she is “shocked” Civic Reputation still has Folau as a client.

• GoFundMe kill off Folau campaign

The Israel Folau saga has now swept up his public relations firm with a backlash from clients.

Civic Reputation, helmed by director Chris Newman, just 18 months ago launched gay-owned beer and cider company Gayle into the market.

Civic Reputation helped launch gay-owned beer and cider company Gayle into the market.

“As the founder and CEO of Gayle Brewed with Love, I’m shocked and disappointed that Civic Reputation would represent Israel Folau given in November 2017 they represented Gayle to launch the first independently Australian gay owned beer and cider company in the world,” Gayle chief executive Virginia Buckworth told Confidential when contacted.

In December 2017, Civic Reputation shared an image to its Instagram page of a can of Gayle cider with the caption: “We had the privilege of introducing Australia to the first independently owned LGBTIQA+ beer and cider”.

The public relations firm shared the image with a number of hash tags, including brand reputation, strategy and PR advice.

At least two of the company’s nine staff are openly gay on social media but were unable to comment when contacted.

PR firm Civic Reputation continue to represent Israel Folau. Picture: AFP

Civic Reputation and Newman were cited as the press contact when Folau released a statement following the termination of his contract by Rugby Australia last month.

And when Folau launched his controversial now defunct GoFundMe campaign on Friday, Civic Reputation was responsible for the PR spin.

“We are continuing to work with him,” Mr Newman told Confidential.

Asked his thoughts on Buckworth’s comments, he added: “Obviously they are perfectly entitled to have that view, I am not really going to comment on our clients, that is our standard practice but I do appreciate you coming through to us to ask if we’d like to make a comment. Thank you very much but we won’t be commenting at this time.”