A Bud Light campaign is backfiring after drinkers spotted a curious slogan on some of the brand’s beer bottles.
The tagline “The perfect beer for removing the word ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night” drew shock on social media and even a new nickname from Twitter users: “the date rape beer.”
The folks at @budlight really need to rethink their #UpForWhatever slogan. #Consent pic.twitter.com/GIKZwoG7az
— Becca Coles (@BeccaColes) April 28, 2015The slogan is part of the brand’s “Up for Whatever” campaign, which launched last year, and while “whatever” probably refers to spontaneous dance parties and late-night karaoke, it’s easy to see how the message can be misconstrued.
Anheuser-Busch, which owns Bud Light, sent the following statement to TODAY.com, acknowledging that the ad “missed the mark.”
“The Bud Light Up for Whatever campaign, now in its second year, has inspired millions of consumers to engage with our brand in a positive and light-hearted way,” Alexander Lambrecht, vice president of Bud Light, said in the statement, which the company also posted on Twitter. “In this spirit, we created more than 140 different scroll messages intended to encourage spontaneous fun. It’s clear that this message missed the mark, and we regret it. We would never condone disrespectful or irresponsible behavior.”
But many people still think the brand should have caught the mistake before it happened.
HOW DID BUD LIGHT NOT SEE HOW BAD THIS IDEA WAS pic.twitter.com/n7fcjWHx4H
— KStreetHipster (@KStreetHipster) April 28, 2015Other scroll messages the brand has used are fortunately less offensive: “The perfect beer for tuning up the old air guitar,” for example.
This story originally appeared on TODAY.com
Rheana Murray