On a campus where partying is quite prevalent, it would be expected that there are DePauw University students that have reached for a Bud Light at some point during a night out. Most not thinking twice about the messages portrayed by the company’s marketing strategies.
Anheuser-Busch, the producers of Bud Light, have recently faced much criticism after printing a controversial slogan on some of their bottles: “The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night.”
Critics across the country have been posting photos of these bottles on all social media platforms claiming the company is perpetuating rape culture.
In a country where there are approximately 300,000 reported incidences of sexual assault a year, this is not an okay message to send. Sexual assault and rape are serious issues that must be treated as such, and trivializing the topic in a manner such as this detracts from the severity.
The slogan was printed as a part of the now two-year long “Up for Whatever” campaign. A campaign that according to Alexander Lambrecht, vice president of the Bud Light Division of Anheuser-Busch was: “intended to encourage spontaneous fun.”
This choice in phraseology, however, clearly crossed a line that does not encourage good-natured fun the promotion intended.
Lambrecht stated that, “It’s clear this message missed the mark, and we regret it.”
According to an article on Bloomberg Business, the company has apologized for this marketing slogan. Still, it has sparked conversations nationwide drawing attention to a topic often avoided by the general public.
In the wake of Code T.E.A.L week and YouTube sensation Laci Green’s address on rape culture in the United States, The DePauw encourages students to be aware of messages such as these that permeate the media, perpetuating rape culture.
This generation is responsible for sparking change in the way sexual assault is treated. What we say, how we say it and how we react to things that are said effect how these matters are treated and what changes will be incited in the future.