The Texas-based Deep Ellum Brewery is under fire from women’s rights activists who say the company’s marketing campaign for its newest beer — called “Dumb Blonde” — promotes a rape culture.
The advertised message: The new beer “goes down easy,” the Daily Mail reported.
Adding to the furor is the can features a picture of a doll dressed in a blonde wig.
“Deep Ellum’s lazy use of this well-worn sexist comparison of women to alcohol is disappointing and insulting to their female customers, but it goes deeper than that,” said one critic, Genevieve Cato, on her political blog, Burn Orange Report. “You need to look no further than the comments on their Facebook picture to see the way advertising like this fuels the acceptability of rape culture in our society.”
She continues: “It is completely unacceptable and unnecessary for breweries to continue to use this kind of language to sell their products.”
The brewery owner, John Reardon, admitted to the Dallas Observer that the play on words was a bit racy but that the rape-culture comment was a stretch.
“We knew the play on words was there,” but it was all in fun, he said. “We’re not saying that all blondes go down easy.”
At the same time, he said in the Daily Mail: “If there are women out there who are offended, then we should apologize.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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