Remove ‘no’ from your vocabulary: Bud Light apologises for ‘rapey’ slogan

A BEER company has apologised and retracted a controversial slogan which encouraged people to drink until ‘no’ becomes ‘yes’.

Outrage at beer brand’s ‘rapey’ slogan

US BEER brand Bud Light has apologised and retracted a slogan which suggested having a drink would remove the word ‘no’ from your vocabulary.

The slogan, one of a number which were printed on labels as part of the company’s ‘Up For Whatever’ campaign, sparked outrage after a picture was posted to social media site Reddit yesterday, Consumerist reports.

“The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night,” the label reads, with the hashtag #UpForWhatever. “The perfect beer for whatever happens.”

Many were quick to slam the company for promoting irresponsible drinking, with others pointing out the creepy connotations of encouraging people to drink until ‘no’ becomes ‘yes’.

“Anyone else think that sounds a bit date rapey?” one user wrote. “If you’re drinking Bud Light you already stopped saying no a while back,” another pointed out.

Others defended the company. “I don’t think they fully thought this through or realised the implications that would be made, but I somehow doubt it had anything to do with the consent issue,” one said. “If you’ve seen their ads lately it’s more about going with it and doing things that you wouldn’t normally do.”

In a statement posted on the company website, Alexander Lambrecht, vice president of Bud Light at Anheuser-Busch, admitted the message “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 lighthearted way,” he said.

“In this spirit, we created more than 140 different scroll messages intended to encourage brand engagement. It’s clear that this particular message missed the mark, and we regret it.

“We would never condone disrespectful or irresponsible behaviour. As a result, we have immediately ceased production of this message on all bottles.”