Bud Light's #UpForWhatever campaign raises Congresswoman's ire

Oh, Bud. What were you thinking?

My friend Lyndsay just drew my attention to the marketing line on a Bud Light label that is accidentally(?) anti-consent.

The campaign, which features young people doing stupid things after drinking away their inhibitions, includes beer labels with throwaway lines like "The perfect beer for singing out loud, even if you don't know the words," and "The perfect beer for going without a ticket and still getting into the show."

Unfortunately, one of these lines was “The perfect beer for removing 'no' from your vocabulary for the night.”

As Chris Morran writes at Consumerist,

"Given the role that alcohol plays in many things that would have been a 'no' without a night a drinking — driving under the influence, sexual assault, vandalism, public urination, random “woot-woot”-ing as you ping-pong down the sidewalk — it’s probably not the best idea for a multinational multibillion-dollar business like Bud Light’s parent company AB InBev to publicly acknowledge that its product can lead users down a path to stupid consequences."

A storm in a beer stein? Hardly. The mistake has motivated US Congresswoman Nita Lowey to publicly admonish the brand on Twitter:

RT if you agree @budlight #UpForWhatever campaign should promote responsible - not reckless - drinking. #NoMeansNo pic.twitter.com/EFxwi2nZ4w
— Nita Lowey (@NitaLowey) April 28, 2015

Twitter is lighting up with angry disapproval of the marketing and #nomeansno Tweets.

It's quite possible that this line was simply intended to be about partying without a care, but in today's media environment marketers need to be especially sensitive about miscommunication.

They also have to be responsive to disasters like this. But @budlight has not Tweeted since April 26. Double fail.

UPDATE: BuzzFeed managed to get this statement from  Anheuser-Busch vice president Alexander Lambrecht:

“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.”

UPDATE 2:

@Creativetweets Couldn't agree more. This one's an undisputable facepalm. And here it is - http://t.co/lzd7JGxevc
— Lisa Weser (@LisaWeser) April 28, 2015

A PSA for Ottawa Comiccon #OCC #consent

In the current conversation about consent and sexual harassment/assault, the subject of how people are dressed often comes up. Whether it's a police officer saying "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized" (the wotrds that launched Slutwalk) or questions about behaviour or reputation, victim-blaming contributes to a culture that enables rape.

At this weekend's Ottawa Comiccon, you can expect to see all kinds of attendees, men and women, getting their "cosplay" on as they dress up as their favourite comic book and sci-fi characters.

Via comicsthegathering.com

Unfortunately, some attendees see costumes as an excuse to harass and assault women at the Comicon. To address this issue, Hollaback! will be there, "to explore the issue of harassment in geek spaces and open up the floor to discussions on how we can make the community safer."

They are also participating in the "Cosplay =/= Consent" campaign by Geeks for CONsent, an organization started by Hollaback! Philly that encourages the organizers of comicons to adopt an anti-harassment policy and train their volunteers on how to appropriately deal with offences. They also encourage people share their stories of harassment, to hand out "Harasser Cards," learn how to be supportive bystanders, and to promote the Cosplay =/= Consent meme by posing with branded placards.

Have fun at the con, everyone. Just don't be a SuperAsshole.

On second thought, perhaps this "tap booty" ad conveys the wrong message...

Boston Magazine reports that the above ad, which appeared on Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority vehicles, has been voluntarily removed by the advertiser.

Hollaback! Boston, the local chapter of an international anti-street-harassement organization, had complained to MBTA about the ad's appropriateness, especially in public spaces where sexual assault and street harassment happen frequently.

“We get stories constantly about groping incidents on trains,” said Britni de la Cretaz, co-site director of HollaBack! Boston. “The cartoonist made it super sexualized, and the reason I felt that was inappropriate is because a lot of people riding the trains have their butts touched without consent all the time.”

Ironically, Ms. de la Cretaz points out, the "Tapbooty" ads were appearing at the same time as MBTA was running its own anti-harassment campaign:

“I know in general [the T tries] to be good about talking about harassment and how it is not OK," she added. "Maybe they just didn’t even realize that’s what [the advertisement] looked like.”

Interestingly, both Tapbooty and Hollaback are in the apps business — Tapbooty as a "social games for fun & rewards" one, and Hollaback! with a tool to report, analyze and protect oneself from street harassment incidents.

Nova Scotia consent ads take heat for blunt sexual language

Via CBC

A campaign about consent by the government of Nova Scotia has provoked mixed reactions from the very groups it hopes to champion, in the post-Rehtaeh conversation about consent and rape culture.

According to the CBC, Sherri Bain, an advocate for survivors of assault, questioned the approach:

"Their design team, I think, missed the mark,” she said. She worries the message could be misinterpreted. 

"For someone driving by, if they're seeing 'take me' and 'do me,' I'm concerned that it may do exactly the opposite of what they're intending," she said. "Our city needs to find another way to advertise besides being so overtly sexual."

A later article adds:

...since the ads have gone up, some young women and groups that work with victims of sexual violence have complained in media reports that they don't explain clearly enough that consent from someone who has been drinking or taking drugs does not qualify as true consent for sex.

Via Global

Global News also posted this shot of the call-to-action from the posters:

The campaign site, novascotia.ca/ask, positions information about drugs and alcohol very prominently.

The ads were created by Communications Nova Scotia (the Chronicle-Herald says Stir Creative) following focus group research with male and female youth. While one woman participant has come forward to say she was assured the ads would never run, the findings from the male groups convinced Marilyn More, Nova Scotia's minister of labour and advanced education, to stand by the campaign:

"They told us this is the kind of campaign they would respond to, [that] it made a difference in how they thought about consent for sexual activity," she said. 

"Quite frankly, I don't think there is a perfect ad campaign that means the same to everyone in this province but we had to start somewhere."

Personally, I'm not in love with the art direction of these ads. But the fact that they have people in national mainstream media talking about the complexities of sexual consent is a "win" as far as social marketing goes. I only wish the province had released the posters in full, so those media wouldn't have to run smartphone shots of the creative.