Bud Light Ad Campaign Backfires, Criticized for Excusing ‘Date Rape’

Bud Light has had to apologize for a “misfire” of an ad campaign that many complained excused date rape.

The beer has suddenly gotten a reputation for justifying date rape with its #UpForWhatever ad campaign appearing on its products. The slogan urged drinkers to be up for whatever comes their way and to take “no” out of their vocabulary.

The full slogan told drinkers that Bud Light is “The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night.”

But many felt that this could too easily refer to drunken sex or even date rape.

It wasn’t long before the company issued an apology saying that the slogan “missed the mark.”

“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,” the company said in a statement. “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.

This is the second time that the ad campaign has been accused of promoting date rape.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.