CON: Budweiser #UpForWhatever vs. #NoMeansNo
Budweiser’s current “#UpForWhatever” campaign has involved a number of marketing tactics. The most widespread one involves small mini-slogans put onto bottles of Bud Light.
One of the slogans in particular states Bud Light is, “the perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night.”
People have reacted very negatively to that. At a time where rape in higher education is under fire, the slogan itself they claim is a very tacit way of condoning rape.
Anheuser-Busch, the company in charge of making and distributing Budweiser, apologized for the slogan saying that the message “missed the mark” and that they would never “condone disrespectful or irresponsible behavior.”
The slogan itself completely disproves this. There are moments that need to have stop signs. Drinking alcohol requires a lot of them given the numerously negative effects it has on the mind and physical well-being of individuals according to a report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
#UpForWhatever is so obviously promoting #RapeCulture awful marketing by @Budweiser how was this deemed a good idea?! http://t.co/DwyKhW6lJc
— Kendra Rogers (@herroyalopinion) April 29, 2015
The moment that alcohol drinkers remove the word “no” from their vocabulary, they leave open doors to all manner of bad behavior. Sexual assault is certainly one of them and alcohol consumption has been one of the major reasons for that happening.
As for those other doors, it need go without saying that drunk drivers have ruined lives because they didn’t say no. People have injured themselves because they also removed that word. Above all people have died because they didn’t say no.
Today we understand so much about alcohol and the horrible things that it’s resulted in people doing. Self-regulation and regulation in general makes sense. We as people in this point in history should know better.
It’s still amazingly audacious of beer companies to capitalize on encouraging drinkers not to make priorities of common sense. Budweiser is very brazen to suggest that people should drink beer to help throw responsibility out the window.
@lariatnews Their marketing people clearly didn't think it through. #fail
— erin (@erininOC) April 29, 2015
Drinking alcohol doesn’t give people an exemption card from responsibility and caution. The moment you ingest alcohol is the moment you make a silent agreement to accept the consequences of your actions and to take responsibility.
Good behavior when drinking beer needs to be encouraged. Discouragement against doing so deserves scrutiny. That should be intensified into more severe finger wagging if people are encouraging bad behavior for the sake of profit.
Are people right to be offended by this campaign? The word “absolutely” definitely shouldn’t be removed from people’s vocabulary in this case. The latest campaign by Budweiser is deserving of the condemnation it’s been receiving. Showing such disrespect to personal responsibility is a form discrimination that definitely is justifiable.
Perhaps Budweiser should replace the slogan with something else. Maybe “drink responsibly and behave responsible.” It would be a much more respectful improvement.