Gay Water, a new nned cktail, wants to be the anti-Bud Light - WTOP News

Contents:

• COMPANY GO FULL-ON BUD LIGHT WH ‘GAY WATER’ RELEASE
• CANNED CKTAIL ‘GAY WATER’ AIMS TO SH ON BUD LIGHT’S DYLAN MULVANEY DISASTER
• HEY BUD LIGHT BOYTTERS, PROTTG BEER IS ACTUALLY REALLY GAY
• CANNED COCKTAIL GAY WATER AIMS TO RIGHT BUD LIGHT'S LACK OF LGBTQ+ SUPPORT
• CHARL BARKLEY FENDS LGBTQIA+ MUNY, BUD LIGHT EXPLETIVE-FILLED RANT: ‘IF YOU’RE GAY, GOD BLS YOU’
• GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT
• KARE JEAN-PIERRE DENOUNC 'DON'T SAY GAY' EXPANSN AND BUD LIGHT THREATS

COMPANY GO FULL-ON BUD LIGHT WH ‘GAY WATER’ RELEASE

One newly lnched pany is releasg “Gay Water” a rponse to the backlash Bud Light suffered after partnerg wh transgenr TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney. Twelve ns of Gay Water n be purchased onle for a total of $36. The pany also sells “Gay Water” tumblers and tcker hats.

CANNED CKTAIL ‘GAY WATER’ AIMS TO SH ON BUD LIGHT’S DYLAN MULVANEY DISASTER

When you really thk about, how many products n you thk about that have ‘gay’ the tle? “gay [sic] water has always been a lloquialism for vodka soda, so surprise, that’s our re product.

However, we see ourselv as a liftyle brand here to brg back the origal fn of the word gay by puttg our products everywhere – your rtrant, your bar, your liquor store, your grocery store, and your home. ” Canned cktail ‘Gay Water’ aims to sh on Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney disaster — New York Post (@nypost) July 21, 2023 The pany’s founr, Spencer Hodson, told the New York Post that the backlash Bud Light suffered after s cisn to partner wh Mulvaney spir him to be more unapologetic his pro-LGBT stance. An entreprenr lnched a nned cktail this week lled “Gay Water” that’s aimed at LGBTQ drkers — and said he’s lookg to palize on Bud Light’s mistak.

HEY BUD LIGHT BOYTTERS, PROTTG BEER IS ACTUALLY REALLY GAY

But “Gay Water” — which adopts a moniker the gay muny has long given to the simple vodka and soda cktail — has been spired by the dtup to bee even bolr about the dience ’s targetg, founr and CEO Spencer Hodson told The Post. Gay Water — a nned cktail brand that plays on the gay muny’s lloquialism for the vodka-and-soda mixed drk — lnched on Wednday and promis to unrstand s dience better than Bud Light.

The 30-year-old Hodson said he is g suggtive — albe playful — msagg and imagery Gay Water’s social media and webse, cludg a provotive nod to the 12-ounce n’s 6. “Our missn is to -stigmatize the word ‘gay’ and start to create reprentatn spac that tradnally don’t have queer-owned products, let alone products wh the word ‘gay’ their tle, ” Hodson told The Post.

“When was the last time you saw the word gay at a rtrant, bar, liquor store, or grocery store? The word ‘gay’ origally was fed as happy, and we’re hopg to remd folks of that by beg prent, ” he add. Founr Spencer Hodson, a gay man, says the brand is about reclaimg the word “gay” as a word that “jt means happy.

CANNED COCKTAIL GAY WATER AIMS TO RIGHT BUD LIGHT'S LACK OF LGBTQ+ SUPPORT

Gay Water’s brandg is full of playful, suggtive msagg. “Part of the pot of lnchg outsi of Pri month is to rerce the msage that Gay Water is here to make the LGBTQ+ muny more visible 365 days a year, not jt a sgle month, ” he said. In a sea of nned cktails, Gay Water wants to stand out.

CHARL BARKLEY FENDS LGBTQIA+ MUNY, BUD LIGHT EXPLETIVE-FILLED RANT: ‘IF YOU’RE GAY, GOD BLS YOU’

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. “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.

The nned cktail is named after a lloquialism given to the popular mixed drk (vodka and soda) orred at bars by the gay muny. “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.

GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT

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. 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.

“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. The new limed-edn bottl will benef GLAAD, the world's largt lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer media advocy anizatn.

KARE JEAN-PIERRE DENOUNC 'DON'T SAY GAY' EXPANSN AND BUD LIGHT THREATS

Bud Light is partnerg wh GLAAD, the world’s largt lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer media advocy anizatn. Amid 2023’s wave of anti-trans hate, right-wg beer drkers are llg for a boytt of Bud Light—a beer that gay people fely love—over s recent brand partnership wh transgenr actrs Dylan Mulvaney. For starters, the mob’s only plat seems to be that Mulvaney is a trans woman—a crime I m every day—but the current movement agast Bud Light don’t seem to know that, historilly speakg, boyttg beer is one of the gayt thgs you n do.

On the heels of the Lavenr Sre, when gay and lbian ernment employe were forced om their jobs 1950, protectns for queer people the workplace were virtually nonexistent (the first statewi protectns for LGBT workers me 1982, shout out Wisns). The vibe of gay panic ntued well to the 60s and 70s, when the Coors Brewg Company ed polygraph tts to screen job ndidat for what scribed as “potential troublemakers.

Bee of the pany’s reputatn for homophobic hirg practic, unn print Allan Baird reached out to iend and LGBT muny anizer Harvey Milk to help grow the boytt. Milk—who later beme the first publicly gay elected official the Uned Stat—put out an impassned ll his Bay Area Reporter lumn wh the headle “Teamsters Seek Gay Help.