This Bud's for You, Mizzou

So far, Mizzou hasn’t added its name to a list of hypocritical schools objecting to Bud Light’s Fan Can promotion.

So yes, for the time being at least, you can buy Bud Light in black and gold cans, as part of what I personally consider a fairly harmless way to celebrate school spirit.

Tom Osborne, athletic director at Nebraska, doesn’t agree that the promotion is harmless, speaking out against the latest threat to the morals of our youth in American society, according to a recent story in the Lincoln Journal Star.

So no red and white Bud Light? Because it somehow reflects poorly on Nebraska more than ordinary red and white cans of Budweiser?

And no black and gold Bud Light cans at Purdue, a school whose Boilermaker mascot just might be confused with a certain alcoholic combination of beer and whiskey?

And no black and gold cans of Bud Light or whatever in Colorado? Hey, wouldn’t want to anger the Coors Brewing Company by allowing a promotion involving another mostly-water beer?

Plus, the Federal Trade Commission has already weighed in on all of this. Don’t want to encourage under-age drinking. Sure, not any more than its encouraged already. I understand. Sort of.

I obtained a statement from Anheuser-Busch InBev that I won’t repeat totally here because it is basically what you would expect.
The beer distributors in various areas don’t have to take delivery on this stuff. And only “roughly half of our wholesalers are participating.”
The bottom line is that climbing on a high horse and doing battle with the perils of beer drinking can be seen by some as somehow politically correct.
Even when it is coming from some of the same folk who don’t mind accepting sponsorship dollars from the beer barons.
Hey, personally, I’m no fan of Bud or Bud Light. Give me a Killian’s Red or a Smithwycks any day (or night).
But don’t you think a brewer - like Anheuser-Busch InBev - that just gave $250,000 to a not-for-profit St. Louis organization that gives money to under-age drinkers (nee, high school students) to enroll in college, has the right to put any color it chooses on its beer cans?
Particularly when none of these blue and crimson or red and white or black and gold cans is emblazoned with any sort of university logo?
I do.
That's the key at Mizzou, according to a statement the school's University News Bureau gave me on Thursday.
"University Trademark/Licensing personnel are aware of the Anheuser-Busch marketing campaign. The current displays do not depict any of our trademarks. We will continue to monitor this and will use our standard procedure in working in conjunction with our licensing agent, The Collegiate Licensing Company, for infringement issues should they occur."
There are plenty of other schools piously protesting the evils of differently colored cans of beer.
But I say let the black and gold cans be stocked, be purchased, depending upon your preference. And let’s worry about something that actually matters.