I had a reply to you, but for some reason, it's not here. Must have glitched. I'm not going to spend the time to type it up again. Basically, I still don't think there's anything inherently wrong with that statement, and I do not believe apologizing automatically makes Bud wrong. Similar to arguing with your wife. You know you're right, but you don't feel it's worth the time and energy to argue thus you apologize.
Bad analogy, because in this case it would require less time and energy to say nothing. Apologizing actually takes more time and energy than doing nothing.
So why do they do it? Because they want people's money. And that's why they're wrong. If you're in a position where you're trying to convince people to give you their money, and if you say something that causes them to stop giving you their money, then there's a big freaking problem with whatever it is that you said.
Of course they want people's money, but they aren't going to defend a piece of advertising that some customers have already made up in their minds as horrible. I'd make a horrible businessman because I'd tell those customers to piss off. I wouldn't want uptight people like that buying my product, because I don't like those kind of people. However, Bud doesn't have that luxury, so they won't bother telling those people, "Hey, we didn't mean anything by it. Here's why you shouldn't take offense." No, they knew there was no convincing them, it would be a waste of time to try and instead of NOT saying anything, which would take only allow more people who can't think for themselves and instead allow themselves to be influenced by someone else's "This means that!" power of suggestion, they cut off the outcry with an apology so they could go back to taking their money.
Two female co-workers I talked to today about this, one I know at least is a feminist. The first one literally went "OH MY FUCKING GOD!" when I told her about this. At first, I thought she was taking offense to the slogan, but instead took offense to the outrage. She thought it was "fucking ridiculous". I like her. She's a good feminist who thinks with her head and doesn't go looking to find offensive interpretations to get easily triggered by. Wanting to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I asked the second co-worker about it and she replied with, "Stupid people need to use their brains."
The problem is NOT with the wording, because if it was then I wouldn't be able to find a woman to talk to who wouldn't take offense to the slogan. The problem is with the overly sensitive people who chose to become upset by it and "the customer is always right" mentality. It's these same damn customers that think they're entitled to everything just because they have money to give; that kind of mentality that got me in trouble with my area supervisor when I refused a free refill back when I was working at McDonalds because it was STORE POLICY to charge for refills. That supervisor didn't want to hear that baby crying for his bottle anymore, so he took his cup and filled it and then berated me for allowing the customer to get upset. Again, businesses don't like their customers complaining, even if it's not their fault.
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