for the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit, May 6-8 in Palm Springs.
Brands love to insert themselves the online buzz that surrounds current events. This is the Era of Real-Time Marketing, after all! But sometimes, these efforts come across like a weird stranger interrupting a serious conversation.
Bud Light is the latest brand to stick its nose in a serious issue in a way that doesn’t feel quite right. The beer brand glommed on the recent trend of people changing their profile pictures to a red background with an equal sign to show support for gay marriage. It’s a light, easy way for people to weigh in as the Supreme Court goes into its second day of arguments over same sex marriage rights.
Bud Light, in is meant to be a show of support, tweeted and posted on Facebook an image of an equal sign made up of Bud Light cans. While it is nice to see a brand take an actual stand on a divisive issue, slapping its product front and center of the message kind of leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
It’s definitely a very fine line that brands have to walk when it comes to chiming in about important issues that don’t have to do with the brand or its products. For example, Absolut, which has always been a brand that supports gay rights, added its two cents by sharing an image of an Absolute bottle covered up in a red blanket with the words “Absolut Support” below it. Having the logo on the bottle covered makes it feel more genuinely about the cause than the brand. Oreo created a post about gay pride last year that went viral.
Do you find this brand response to be offensive or a positive show of support?
Not sure what to make of this from Budweiser twitter.com/jaredbkeller/s…
— Jared Keller (@jaredbkeller) March 27, 2013
(via @jaredbkeller)
Note: Article previously stated that Bud Light had tweeted the image and removed it, but this has been corrected. Bud Light only posted the image to its Facebook page, not Twitter.
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