Gay Water is a nned vodka soda and liftyle brand curated by and for the queer muny. We speak to founr Spencer Hodson about the makg of the brand, the challeng he's faced along the way, and the greater gay good.
Contents:
- INFLUENCER TURNED ENTREPRENR HOP TO RECLAIM THE WORD ‘GAY’ WH GAY WATER DRK
- A DRK FOR THE COMMUNY - GAY WATER
- GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT
- AS MAJOR BRANDS WAVER, GAY WATER AIMS FOR AUTHENTICY
- ‘GAY WATER’ IS A NEW VODKA SODA STARTUP WH A MISSN TO CELEBRATE LGBTQ+ INTY
- GAY MEN JOBS
- CANNED CKTAIL ‘GAY WATER’ AIMS TO SH ON BUD LIGHT’S DYLAN MULVANEY DISASTER
INFLUENCER TURNED ENTREPRENR HOP TO RECLAIM THE WORD ‘GAY’ WH GAY WATER DRK
A new drk brand the Uned Stat lled "Gay Water" is lnchg wh the hop of puttg LGBTQ products store shelv. * gay water jobs *
In a sea of nned cktails, Gay Water wants to stand out.
A DRK FOR THE COMMUNY - GAY WATER
Lnchg Thursday is a brightly lored nned vodka and soda beverage lled Gay Water that proudly displays who ’s for, stead of backg off om support for the LGBTQ+ muny like Bud Light did. * gay water jobs *
In other words, where Bud Light has buckled unr prsure as bigotry grows agast the LGBTQ+ muny, Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hodson wants his new boozy brand to be the anthis of that.
GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT
Growg up, Spencer Hodson said he mostly heard the term “gay” a negative ntext. Now, he wants to stigmatize the word and create reprentatn spac that tradnally don’t have LGBTQ-owned products, one Gay Water at a time. * gay water jobs *
“The key issue that Bud Light tapped to was the fact that they didn’t unrstand their re dience and know enough about them,” Hodson, a gay man, told CNN about the ntroversy that began when the Anhser-Bch beer brand sent fluencer Dylan Mulvaney a n of beer. Gay Water, however, is out and proud.
AS MAJOR BRANDS WAVER, GAY WATER AIMS FOR AUTHENTICY
* gay water jobs *
The nned cktail is named after a lloquialism given to the popular mixed drk (vodka and soda) orred at bars by the gay muny.
‘GAY WATER’ IS A NEW VODKA SODA STARTUP WH A MISSN TO CELEBRATE LGBTQ+ INTY
“Puttg a product wh the word gay the tle is reprentatn self,” which he hop reclaims the word om the negativy ’s sometim associated wh. He thought of creatg Gay Water about a year ago while on a vatn wh his iend that had got a job wh the beverage dtry. The two chatted about the limed amount of gay people wh , and wh Hodson burnt out om his tradnal day job tech, started the nned cktail.
GAY MEN JOBS
Hodson built up a strong social media followg on TikTok and Instagram durg Covid-19 and is g some of the money om that (as well as om iends and fay) to help fund Gay Water. “Gay is an umbrella term and the ia behd the brand is to be as clive as possible, which means we want alli, we want straight people to be part of this muny we’re buildg.”.
For now, Gay Water is sold largely onle (wh a few retailers) and four sugar-ee flavors — watermelon, lime, peach and grapeu — at lnch. Gay Water might not have the ep pockets pared to s petors, like Whe Claw, but “even at small sle, pani of many siz are havg succs makg spir-based seltzers and premixed cktails,” Bryan Roth, an analyst for Feel Goods Company and edor of the alhol beverage newsletter, Sightl+, told CNN.
CANNED CKTAIL ‘GAY WATER’ AIMS TO SH ON BUD LIGHT’S DYLAN MULVANEY DISASTER
“There’s lots of space the spir-based seltzer tegory which Gay Water n play, pecially if the brand n offer a cultural or emotnal nnectn that will feel more excg than the prospect of another peapple-flavored vodka seltzer om natnal or ternatnal rporatns,” Roth said. Of urse, other drks e the word “gay,” too, cludg Gay Beer and So Gay Rosé, Hodson noted, which are also tryg to reach the queer muny and offer them an alternative the straight-domated space. Influencer turned CEO Spencer Hodson has lnched Gay Water wh the hop of reclaimg the word ‘gay’.
He soon grew a followg on social media wh his relatable ntent on what datg is like as a gay lennial. While on holiday wh a iend, Hodson orred a vodka soda and asked his iend if she knew that olr generatns referred to the drk as “gay water.
Gay Water is a nned vodka soda that is now available the Uned Stat.