• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, April 29, 2015

Yup. Another brand throws another agency under the bus. Yesterday, Bud Light caught the wrath of the Internet for one of its custom taglines on its bottles. The tagline reads, "The perfect beer for removing 'no' from your vocabulary for the night." Doh! Many around the dark corners of the Internet have linked the tagline to rape culture.

No, Bud Light is not advocating promiscuous sex and has apologized for the oversight in a statement which read: “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.”

Missed the mark? Uh, yeah. Now, certainly some blame can be laid upon BBDO for even proposing this copy but the brand and all its layers of approval should have caught it. In yet another statement, Bud Light basically admits that, saying: “BBDO is the creative agency for this UFW campaign, including all bottle scroll messages. We have an extensive review process and this label should not have made it through. It’s regrettable. This particular scroll will no longer be produced.”