Heineken Slammed by Social Media for ‘Racist’ Commercial

A new commercial for Heineken Light has social media in an uproar, as some viewers — including celebrities — are calling it racist.

There are several version of the ad, all with a similar theme. They show a bartender sliding a bottle of Heineken Light to various people. In one, it slides past a black man at the bar, a black man on stage playing guitar and a black woman walking by before it stops in front of a white woman. The slogan reads “sometimes lighter is better.” The screen then reads “only 99 calories,” however, the double meaning was not missed.

A shorter version of the ad features the beer sliding past a multi-racial group of swimmers and under the body of a black man doing push-ups. A third shows the beer sliding from one bar to another before it reaches a white man on a date with a black woman. On the way, it clinks off the earring of a white woman, and shows the same slogan.

The outrage over the campaign began with Chance The Rapper, who tweeted about it on Sunday, just two days after it first aired. He began by pointing out that the controversy might even be a ploy to get views, employing the idea that “there’s no such thing as bad press.”

“I think some companies are purposely putting out noticably [sic] racist ads so they can get more views,” Chance tweeted. “And that s— racist/bogus so I guess I shouldn’t help by posting about it. But I gotta just say tho. The ‘sometimes lighter is better’ Hienekin [sic] commercial is terribly racist omg”.’

Chance engaged with his followers about the ad for the next day or so as it spread more widely.

“Im not saying [boycott] them or go off,” he wrote, “im just noticing how often it happens and I think they baiting consumers and tweeters and freelancers and s—. Like I didnt wanna tweet about it so bad but its like how can u not”.

Chance later tweeted a link to an article on Complex about his tweet, accusing the journalists of missing the big picture he was trying to address.

“You missed the entire point,” he wrote, “I was pointing out that alot of these marketing agencies are doing willfully so we overreact and tweet about it, and you write an article and tweet, and we all say their brand name 50 times. Thats the first sentence of my s—. And u didnt mention it.”

Many people responded with their view of whether the commercial was racist or not, though few addressed the rapper’s notion that advertisers count on outrage as a form of promotion.

Heineken USA has since removed the first version of the ad from YouTube, though the others still remain. Bjorn Trowery, a spokesman for Heineken, spoke to DailyMail about the controversy, saying that his company had “missed the mark.”

“For decades, Heineken has developed diverse marketing that shows there’s more that unites us than divides us,” Trowery said. “While we feel the ad is referencing our Heineken Light beer – we missed the mark, are taking the feedback to heart and will use this to influence future campaigns.”