Bewildered shoppers watched a Bud Light 4×4 park up beside a Subway in Whitechapel this afternoon where staff gifted cans of lager to passers-by as part of a promotional campaign.
The vehicle was quickly told to move by one of the council staff because they did not have any permission to be there.
There were a number of rough sleepers in the area who were excited of the event. One rough sleeper said that he was given quite a few cans and handed some of those out to his friends.
He said: “They were just handing them out to everyone, I ended up with a trolley full.
“I think it was sound. I think its ok giving those out, it doesn’t do any harm does it.”
American beer Bud Light has reappeared in the UK this year, 16 years after failing to make the product take off over here.
The light beer, which went on sale in February, has a much lower ABV than normal Budweiser as well as less calories.
But City Centre councillor Nick Small took a dimmer view of the marketing campaign, describing the actions of Anheuser-Busch – the company behind Bud Light – as irresponsible, aggressive and wrong.
“I’ve had reports from members of the public that they’ve seen street drinkers and other vulnerable residents being handed free cans of beer by Bud Light.