Bud Light, a well known and popular beer in the U.S. is now regrouping after an advertising campaign went horribly wrong. “Up for whatever” was intended to be a rallying cry for people to get together and have a good time.
A picture of one of the bottles appeared online after it was originally posted in a subsection of Reddit called r/funny. The page is reserved for “funny” pictures, and many people thought, at first, it was a joke. But in a little less than 24 hours, the picture got a million views, and the comments started coming, fast and furious.
“The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night,” goes the slogan, along with the hashtag #UpForWhatever. “The perfect beer for whatever happens.”
“Anyone else think that sounds a bit date rapey?” one user wrote. “If you’re drinking Bud Light you already stopped saying no a while back,” another pointed out. And most of the comments ran along these lines, with reference to drinking being one of the issues in date rapes.
A few people defended the company, with one user writing, “I don’t think they fully thought this through or realised the implications that would be made, but I somehow doubt it had anything to do with the consent issue.”
The slogan is real and was confirmed to Think Progress by Bud Light vice president Alexander Lambrecht. In a statement, he said: “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 spontaneous fun. It’s clear that this message missed the mark, and we regret it. We would never condone disrespectful or irresponsible behavior.”
Some of the comments were funny, like the Twitter user who responded, “the irony here is that most people would only drink Bud Light against their will.” But comedian Daniel Tosh gave us the last line, responding, “I want everyone to watch my show tonight, so have a bud light or two, because I am not taking ‘no’ for an answer. #tosh.
