Heineken Admits It 'Missed the Mark' in Commercial Chance the Rapper Calls 'Terribly Racist'

"For decades, Heineken has developed diverse marketing that shows there's more that unites us than divides us," the company said in its statement to The Independent after Chance called out the company on Twitter Sunday. "While we feel the ad is referencing our Heineken Light beer, we missed the mark, are taking the feedback to heart and will use this to influence future campaigns."

As Chance sees it, this is an example of the old adage "There's no such thing as bad publicity" in action. He further admitted that by drawing attention to it, he was giving them that publicity ... but he had to anyway. "I think they baiting consumers and tweeters and freelancers and shit. Like I didn't wanna tweet about it so bad, but it's like how can you not," he wrote.

The artist took issue with the slogan, "Sometimes lighter is better," and also posted a link to a specific commercial that saw that lighter beer bottle slide by a black woman and a black man before reaching its intended lighter-skinned target.

While we couldn't find the TV spot to embed, Chance linked to the commercial in question in his tweet above, but we did find another Heineken commercial, which is part of the same campaign, that could be subject to the same criticism.

Heineken did find itself on the right side of praise a year ago after Pepsi's public relations fiasco following its tone-deaf ad featuring Kendall Jenner apparently solving #BlackLivesMatter all by herself.

Heineken responded then with "Worlds Apart," a simple but effective ad featuring people with politically opposing views simply sitting and talking over a beer. It was inclusive, aware and forward-thinking. Sometimes, simple is better.