A toast to the haters

I’m sharing the commercial above mostly because the radical right hates it so much, which is reason enough. But their exploding heads and venting spleens aren’t just funny in themselves—though they are funny—but also because it shows, yet again, how stupid bigots really are. Personally, I think that’s even funnier, but there’s something funnier still about their meltdown.

The commercial for Bud Light features Seth Rogen and Amy Schumer in the “Bud Light Party” ad campaign “supporting everyone's right to marry whomever they want and then throw a huge party for all their friends.” There’s nothing offensive about the ad, nor is it particularly original, and it’s also not moving. It is what it is, an ad geared to younger people who overwhelmingly supported marriage equality long before their parents did (and who are probably still trying to convince their grandparents that marriage equality’s nothing to be frightened of, and they really should move on now).

In the alternate universe inhabited by the radical right and the bigots, anything that is any way supportive of LGBT people—even mildly so, like this commercial—is an attack on heterosexuals and will hasten the collapse of western civilisation and must be loudly condemned. LGBTQ Nation has posted typical reactions, and many of them are unintentionally hilarious, as such meltdowns always are.

What I find hilarious about all this is that the bigots think this is something new from Bud Light. In fact, Bud Light has been advertising in LGBT media for decades. For a time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I worked part-time at Chicago’s LGBT weekly newspaper. Bud Light was a constant advertiser in the paper and other LGBT publications in the city. They also increased their ad spend every year for LGBT Pride, and added sponsorships, too. That was over 20 years ago now.

So, Bud Light having a video ad that supports marriage equality is nothing even remotely new for them, and is entirely consistent with their advertising history. It’s also good businesses, obviously, since their target market supports marriage equality. In light of all that, loudmouthed anti-gay people becoming enraged because Bud Light dares to make ads that aren’t all about prejudiced heterosexuals says more about the privilege of bigoted people, and their obvious sense of entitlement, than it does about Bud Light or its advertising strategy.

But the funniest part of all is that this ad is probably a web ad, not broadcast. If so, by attacking Bud Light and the ad, the bigots’ meltdown helps spread awareness and encourages people to share the video, as I’m doing. It’s true, most of the time there really is “no such thing as bad publicity”, and the anti-gay crowd can be replied upon to prove that over and over and over again.

So, this is a toast to those privileged, entitled bigots, who once again have helped to spread awareness of how much LGBTQ people are still hated, and how some companies support LGBTQ people, thereby increasing sales for those companies. We all thank the bigots for their help.