Honestly, Bud Light’s “Up for Whatever” campaign was ill-advised long before the controversial label.

No means no… unless you’re drunk.

This week, Anheuser Busch got taken to the woodshed by numerous publications for a tone-deaf piece of copy that appeared on one of its Bud Light labels:

“The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night”

Functioning like Tweets these short bursts of copy or “scrolls” were created in support of the brand’s campaign, “Up for Whatever” created by advertising agency, BBDO.

To say I am not a fan of Bud light’s campaign is an understatement. Douche-y by design, this creative idea casts barely drinking age millennials as bar hopping pinballs with zero on their minds other than having A GOOD TIME!

Before going any further, I should add that I once worked on this brand’s advertising. For reasons I won’t fully get into, I loathed the experience. You might think casting bikini-clad babes in Hollywood a highlight in any young man’s career. I’m not denying that it wasn’t fun… at first. But like any binge, it became monotonous and even disgusting. Casting was a charade. For my stupid scripts, any girl would do. Frankly, the lights had been turned off strategically when the light beer category shifted from being a low calorie option to rocket fuel for party animals.

Yet, even in this hopelessly sophomoric category, “Up for Whatever” grates as much as anything out there. Ever. To me, the dumbass “scroll” about “removing the word no from the night’s agenda” is just more proof that being ‘up for whatever’ often leads to bad outcomes. Like rape charges.

That being said, the harpies digging their claws into AB have blinders on. If one is going to hate on Bud Light do so against the whole campaign not just a pimple on its ass. Any fool can see “up for whatever” is a euphemism for removing the word “no.” Why the hell do you think the brand is waving this flag if not to incite 20-somethings into acting like irresponsible teenagers (or irresponsible teenagers to act like irresponsible adults.) Splitting hairs over a specific execution is hypocritical and silly.

University profs weigh in. More context from Newsweek: http://www.newsweek.com/three-advertising-professors-bud-light-fiasco-326830

“Up for Whatever” continues to negatively blow up in social media: http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/bud-light-s-label-gafe-lasting-damage/298378/?utm_source=daily_email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=adage&ttl=1431049359

Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day: Reflecting on the “Bermuda Triangle” of Boozing.

(10PM)

(4AM)

For big drinkers, problem drinkers, ex-drinkers and novices alike, we are at the highest point in the Bermuda Triangle of Boozing: New Year’s Eve. The other two points, obviously, are Thanksgiving and Christmas. But tonight is the Big One, along with its attendant aftershocks on New Year’s Day.

After that things generally fall off a cliff when it comes to imbibing. Bleary-eyed resolutions are made from under the covers and foxholes around the world: “Never again! Today is the day I stop drinking for good!”

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Doubtful many ever quit drinking New Year’s Eve. Might as well get hammered on the 364th day of the year. We’ll shake up the Etch-a-Sketch tomorrow. Tonight we party like it’s on sale for $19.99!

Funny thing, however, for us drinkers in the reformatory: Any given Wednesday could have been December 31st. A random Tuesday in August easily played surrogate for Christmas Day or Independence Day or that bastion day of buffoonery, St. Pat’s.

Frankly, the calendar days for big time drinking lost their luster long before I quit juicing. All that commotion just made actually consuming alcohol harder. Now you’re telling me I’ve got to wait in line? And deal with all these amateurs? Screw that. I didn’t play drinking games in college and I sure as hell wasn’t going to do so now.

Yes, I had a long-term relationship with alcohol. We were serious. Getting sloppy with myriad mooks at a nightclub was not my M.O. My pathology –and that’s what it was, a pathology– predicated I use alcohol medicinally: to take the edge off, ease the pain, make like bearable…

I had my last drink when Tiger Woods won his first Masters. And now I don’t think about liquor much at all -only when I’m confronted by it, like on New Year’s Eve. Ah, well, the morning comes soon enough. And while you’re scrounging for Advil and Coca Cola, I’ll be running in the desert, listening to U2’s Joshua Tree. Just another day but I can’t wait for it to come…