Why This Beer Label Has People Shaking Their Heads

T'is the seasons of ads missing the mark, and being told so in no uncertain terms by the social media savvy public. On the back of this awful ad being withdrawn, it's Bud Light's turn to feel the wrath of consumers who aren't at all down with its latest Up for Whatever slogan.

“The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night” was printed on the beer's American issue labels. Though it wasn't the beer manufacturer's intent, the message was attacked by Reddit users, who saw it as inadvertently promoting drunk driving or sexual assault.

“Because if she says Yes to a Bud Light, No isn’t in her vocabulary,” wrote one Redditor. “Bud Light, official sponsor of easy girls and date rape.”

And of course, Reddit being Reddit, users had fun with the controversy:

“Bill Cosby commemorative bottle?”

“Remember ‘No’ always means ‘No,’ especially if the question is: do you want a Bud Light?”

So even though the good people at Bud meant to send forth a lighthearted and message to "encourage spontaneous fun" they failed - big time - and not for the first time, either.

On St. Patrick's Day, one of Bud's subsidiaries tweeted under #UpForWhatever with a cheeky suggestion to pinch anyone who wasn't wearing green.

“It’s clear that this message missed the mark, and we regret it,” said Bud VP Alexander Lambrecht. “We would never condone disrespectful or irresponsible behaviour.”

Maybe it's high time to rethink that Up for Whatever campaign, and ensure that advertising peeps do their brainstorming sessions stone-cold sober.

Hey, Bud, No always means no, even when there are brews involved.

Back to the drawing board you go...

Please note: These bottles are not available or for sale in Canada. Labatt Canada says, "The Bud Light marketing campaign that has been referred to in your story is not a Labatt campaign, but a US campaign being conducted by Anheuser-Busch. There is no such campaign in Canada and the bottles in question are not available in Canada. Neither Labatt nor Anheuser-Busch would condone disrespectful or irresponsible behavior. Anheuser-Busch has apologized and stopped production of these labels. We take this issue very seriously."

^{Image Source: Yahoo/Reddit}