Bud Light's latest tagline is backfiring badly, and people are accusing the brand of promoting rape

Bud Light is under fire because of an ad slogan printed on their bottles that many believe promotes rape culture.

"The perfect beer for removing 'no' from your vocabulary for the night," the label reads.

Underneath, the campaign's hashtag, #UpForWhatever, is printed, along with another slogan: "The perfect beer for whatever happens." Bud Light has seen backlash in the past for the #UpForWhatever hashtag, forcing them to delete a tweet.

Bud Light's vice president, Alexander Lambrecht, released the following statement today:

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.

The importance of the word "no" has been part of rape prevention education for years, with "no means no" being a popular slogan emphasizing the importance of consent.

 

 The company, a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch, has been running a campaign that encourages drinkers to use the tagline while taking part in sponsored contests and social media challenges.

Twitter users have already been having fun with the campaign's dubious apparent recommendation for consumers to lower all their inhibitions through alcohol.

Of course, there's a chance that this is not an example of ignorance, but of high-risk, high-reward viral marketing - like when Hostess tweeted the word "touchdown" on opening day of baseball season. People are mad at Bud Light right now, but the hashtag is making it into many more timelines than it would have without the questionable slogan. 

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