Budweiser cancels its LGBT-friendly Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen ads
Bud Light has called an early end to its LGBT-friendly ‘Bud Light Party’ ad campaign in the U.S. amid disappointing sales.
The campaign, starring Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen, celebrated gay marriage and rejected gender labels but apparently didn’t do enough to support the company’s bottom line.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiavhnkrZRU
The first advert launched earlier this year, and saw the two comedians at a gay wedding, noting that it was just like any other wedding, with “cringeworthy speeches,” “the girl who’s super ready to settle down,” and, of course, cake.
Later the ‘Labels’ ad argued that “beer should have labels, not people.”
“Gender identity is really a spectrum and we don’t need these labels,” says Schumer in the ad.
The campaign was nominated in this year’s PinkNews Awards, though lost out to Pride in London’s #NoFilter campaign.
Still, sales of Bud Light declined over the last quarter, leading owner AB InBev to cut its revenue forecasts, and the Bud Light Party campaign was partly blamed.
Bud Light has ended the campaign a few weeks early, and will shift its advertising focus back to safer territory: sports, specifically next year’s Super Bowl.
This isn’t the first time Bud Light has come out in support of LGBT rights. The company publicly backed same-sex marriage in 2013, two years before the Supreme Court legalised it across the U.S.
While the Bud Light Party videos have racked up hundreds of thousands of views online, they’ve received more downvotes than upvotes on YouTube, and amassed comments criticising the progressive messages.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJa3VN_8FAE
