Via Lucy Leiderman, here is a picture of a bottle of Bud Light emblazoned with its hot new ad campaign:
"The perfect beer for removing 'no' from your vocabulary for the night. #UpForWhatever. The perfect beer for whatever happens."
How about go fuck yourself? Are you up for that, Bud Light?
Apparently, Bud Light is claiming they were unaware of the rape culture connotations of this language.
They are lying.
There is literally no way that nary a single person involved with the development and execution of this campaign was aware of the messages implicit in an alcoholic beverage advertising its magical ability to "remove 'no' from your vocabulary." It defies belief.
And so I do not believe it.
I utterly refuse to credit as ignorance what is manifest dishonesty. Bud Light is not unaware of the rape culture connotations. They just don't care.
Except, perhaps, insomuch as appealing to rapists was entirely the point.
Meanwhile, here's the totally convincing statement of regret from Anheuser-Busch Vice President Alexander Lambrecht:
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.They begrudgingly admit "missing the mark," but only because a bunch of hysterical scolds refused to engage "light-heartedly" with their rape joke.
I mean, they would never condone disrespectful behavior. Don't let their decades of misogynist advertising featuring sexually objectified women tell you otherwise!
Nor their long advertising history of images of women being plied with beer by men.
Forgive them. They had no idea that people might interpret their fun message as a suggestion to engage in irresponsible behavior.
[H/T to Andrea Grimes.]
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