Bud Light - Acting Responsibly

As part of their "Up for Whatever" campaign, Bud Light incorporate a series of scrolling messages onto their bottles in an effort to engage with consumers and to inspire a lifestyle of spontaneity. With 140 different messages, something was bound to go wrong and indeed it did.

One message in particular, about saying "no," was perceived to be in bad taste and quickly drew social media criticism. Rightly so, from my perspective, particularly as a dad. The company just as quickly apologized, although admittedly it is hard to imagine how this particular messaging made it past any sort of quality control.

If you look at it innocently through the eyes of the campaign, I can see the mistake. If you look at in cynically, then it's a huge head scratcher how it could have ever make it to print.

But the point here is that Bud Light acted responsibly, just like the industry asks its drinkers to do. They didn't hesitate or justify or make up excuses, they just simply withdrew the inventory and apologized. On every channel possible, even with paid media. The brand took responsibility for its actions and acknowledged its mistake. Whether it should have happened to begin with is a separate argument, the brand did it right.

I salute that.

What's your experience? JIM