Wow. Just wow.
On Tuesday, Bud Light was pushed to apologize
for a tone-deaf (and avoidable!) tagline that appeared on a number of
bottles as part of it’s “#UpForWhatever” campaign, which advertised the
beer as “perfect” for “removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the
night.” The label was criticized for promoting rape culture after an image appeared on Reddit, prompting social media backlash.
The feminist site Jezebel gets my vote for
best response:
Ideally, what I’d like out of this is several free 30-racks and a
promise that they will hire at least one woman or even one non-idiot to
help out at the Budweiser copy desk: how many people do you think this
label had to go through without anyone side-eyeing it to the grave?
The company has
offered an anemic apology, which the internet fires received as gasoline:
“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. In this spirit, we created more than 140
different scroll messages intended to encourage brand engagement. It’s
clear that this particular message missed the mark, and we regret it. We
would never condone disrespectful or irresponsible behavior. As a
result, we have immediately ceased production of this message on all
bottles.”
What a disaster. But by cultivating a bro campaign in a social media culture, I suppose this was inevitable.
Quelle surprise! The feminist internet outrage machine is at it again, fighting patriarchy one irrelevant ad campaign at a time. Good work, ladies and gynomales, you've really shown those bud-swilling bros this time.
ReplyDeleteas much as I hate to say it, I agree with the above pot stirring comment. This is hypocritical at best when "craft" beer is just as guilty of the behavior, often done intentionally. remember mouth raper IPA...?
ReplyDeleteHypocritical of whom, exactly? What does "craft" beer have to do with this discussion at all?
ReplyDeleteThe MR Ipa thing was very clearly done to capitalize on the publicity the Offendotrons inevitably generate. This was just more calculated TWITTER OUTRAGE by people who see misogyny and rape everywhere. It's almost like they are obsessed with looking for things to be outraged about, huh?
ReplyDeleteGynochauvanism, the putrid new PC. Welcome to the 90s again, kids. Next they will form a "Feminists against alcohol" and it's back to the 20's again.
Just to be clear, I couldn't disagree more with you HS. Ignoring very real complaints by tossing them off as PC is a lazy failure of empathy. The big beer companies have been overtly antagonistic to women for decades, so it's hardly a surprise when they wander into inadvertent rape evocations. You can't subject women to mockery for 50 years and then express surprise when they don't give you the benefit of the doubt on something like this.
ReplyDeleteI'll have more later on the larger problem on All About Beer.