Tag Archive for: dylan mulvaney

‘Huge Mistake’: Anheuser-Busch and Other Brands Continue to Face Worldwide Boycott

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The year 2023 has been full of breaking news stories and madcap headlines. So far, it has entailed a bank collapse, four indictments of a former president, an AI revolution, investigations into the weaponization of the federal government, Hunter Biden’s controversial business dealings, and the list goes on.

In the midst of the political frenzy, one story continues to take the front page as more details are uncovered: the national boycott of several woke companies. The most recent development in this saga includes influential heirs and publications pointing out how far these companies have drifted from the values established by their founders.

Anheuser-Busch was the first to face a national boycott after Bud Light partnered with trans-identifying activist Dylan Mulvaney, ultimately costing the beer company $395 million in North America alone. Soon after, Target, Levi Strauss, Starbucks, and Sports Illustrated “decided to follow transgender advocacy straight to financial insolvency.” Although one would say that the ultimate goal of these retailers is to provide goods and services in exchange for currency, some experts argue that their priorities have shifted.

“Nothing big changes quickly. Corporations started caring more about virtue signaling than serving customers when they started to be led by people who cared more about virtue signaling than serving customers,” Joseph Backholm, senior fellow for Biblical Worldview, told The Washington Stand. “It’s just a fixation with feelings caused by a lack of adult leadership.”

With the collapse of Anheuser-Busch still in full swing, Billy Busch — the great-grandson of Adolphus Busch — weighed in on what he thinks his ancestors would have to say about the direction the company has taken.

“I think my family, my ancestors, would have rolled over in their graves,” he said. “They believed that transgender, gays, that sort of thing was all a very personal issue. They loved this country because it is a free country and people are allowed to do what they want, but it was never meant to be on a beer can and never meant to be pushed in people’s faces.”

In an interview with Sean Hannity, Busch noted that his family “wouldn’t have ever gotten as political as this.” He said that his family lived by the motto “making friends is our business,” which entailed bringing people together, making for a fun drinking experience. He later added, “people that drink Bud Light — that drink beer — really don’t relate to that kind of advertising,” calling the Dylan Mulvaney partnership “a huge mistake.”

As Anheuser-Busch sales continue to plummet over their LGBT advocacy, another massive corporation has walked away from their foundational values, also resulting in a financial crash.

Disney was next to be pummeled by the boycott wave, eventually resulting in the entertainment behemoth taking a monetary beating earlier this year. Not only did two of their recent films, “Lightyear” and “Strange World,” cost them $258 million, but Disney’s “crowds are getting smaller” this summer. Management’s ongoing feud with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has also proven unsuccessful, as they recently announced the cancellation of their $1 billion construction complex in Florida. Some are attributing their recent downfall to their woke, political agenda, which contradicts the founder’s values.

“Roy and Walt Disney would be shocked to see how Disney’s values have changed, which I believe is the foundation of Disney’s downward spiral in the last few years,” Melissa Henson wrote in an opinion piece published by The Washington Times. “Disney’s shift over the past few years — from broken promises about keeping R-rated content off Disney+ to content that sexualizes children — may have a lot to do with the company’s dismal performance these last several months.”

While speculations have been made as to why so many corporations have been abandoned this year, Backholm addressed the morality of boycotting from a Christian perspective.

“When it comes to boycotting, I think Christians are prohibited from encouraging evil. It’s hard to know where that line is because we live in a sin-filled world, and you can’t ever escape connections to it. But if we become convinced that one action is likely to lead to evil, we can’t take that action.” Ultimately, Backholm concluded, “We should all have a line that we are unwilling to cross.”

AUTHOR

Abigail Olsson

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Former State Judge And AG Splits From Industry-Sponsored Panelist, Rules Bud Light Violated Code By Marketing To Minors

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One of the Beer Institute’s Code Compliance Review Board members (CCRB) said Bud Light violated code after the beer industry ad panel issued a ruling Tuesday over the brand’s ad campaign with a transgender influencer.

The majority of CCRB decided Bud Light did not violate the Beer Institute’s marketing code prohibiting marketing to minors. However, Paul Summers said Bud Light did violate the code in his dissenting opinion. Summers is a former state court appeals judge and Tennessee attorney general. He is also the only member of the CCRB who is a lawyer. This is the first time CCRB has issued dissent.

Bud Light has faced heavy criticism and lost its spot as America’s top-selling beer in early June after transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney showed off a personalized beer can featuring the influencer’s face. Bud Light’s sponsorship of Mulvaney violated the beer industry’s code prohibiting the marketing of alcohol to underage individuals, according to Summers’ dissent.

“Dylan Mulvaney has a persona wherein the actor looks and acts like a little girl. Mulvaney appeals to little children and often behaves like one,” Summers’ dissent and the CCRB’s decision reads.

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, praised Summers’ opinion in a statement to the Daily Caller.

“This is the first time a review board member — and notably, the board’s only lawyer — has concluded that a brewer violated industry code prohibiting the marketing of alcoholic beverages to underage individuals. I applaud Judge Summers for having the courage to state what is self-evident: Mulvaney’s persona ‘looks and acts like a little girl’ and ‘appeals to little children and often behaves like one.’ It is clear Mulvaney was chosen because he produces content for a younger audience, and therefore, his selection would violate the industry’s self-regulatory code. Judge Summers also rightly noted that Anheuser-Busch failed to provide the ‘reasonable documentation’ I requested about the brewer’s decision to choose Mulvaney, effectively withholding from the board and Congress crucial information about the company’s actions,” Cruz said.

Cruz published a 13-page memo in June with various examples of how Anheuser-Busch’s sponsorship of Mulvaney was allegedly meant to appeal to minors. Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth, who serves as chairman of the Beer Institute, has continuously refused to comply with congressional requests for documents, according to Cruz’s memo.

READ THE REVIEW HERE: 

(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — … by Henry Rodgers
“While I am disappointed but unsurprised with the ruling from the other two panelists on the board, I will continue efforts to shine a spotlight on how Anheuser-Busch chose a spokesperson meant to appeal to children. If marketing tobacco to minors is effectively illegal, perhaps Congress needs to take action to do the same with alcohol in light of Anheuser-Busch’s actions,” he added.

Bud Light also released a can featuring a rainbow design and the words “celebrate everyone’s identity,” with different pronouns printed on the bottle.

The Beer Institute’s Code Compliance Review Board was published on its website Tuesday afternoon.

AUTHOR

HENRY RODGERS

Chief national correspondent. Follow Henry Rodgers On Twitter

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Bud Light Slammed Over New Ad Starring Travis Kelce

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Bud Light released a new commercial Sunday starring NFL superstar Travis Kelce amid declining sales, and critics aren’t holding back.

The commercial, titled, “Backyard Grunts with Travis Kelce,” shows the Kansas City Chiefs Tight End sitting down on a lawn chair and grunting in relief. Subsequent scenes cut to other men grunting as they sit down in apparent relaxation and crack open a Bud Light.

The short ad seems to be Bud Light’s latest attempt to mend fences with culturally conservative consumers amid the ongoing boycott against the brand. In April, Bud Light sent a personalized can to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The decision to partner with Mulvaney immediately ignited a boycott from conservatives and tanked the brand’s sales.

Youtube comments indicate the new commercial has not helped ease relations between Anheuser-Busch and certain consumers.

“So you went from a man pretending to be a little girl to now showing manly grunting people …to swing it the other way? You gotta lock your marketing team in a room with rabid dogs and toss the key,” opined one commenter.

“Man Bud Light is going for the death blow at this point,” one commenter wrote, according to Fox News. “This is what they think of their client base, stupid grunting cavemen.”

“Hey look! ‘Fratty’ and ‘out of touch’ is back in style at Bud Light,” another commenter said, according to the outlet.

“I don’t understand how this appeals to Bud Light’s target market, transgender youth,” another commenter chided.

“The grunting is when you accidentally picked up a bud light and realize you have to get something else…well done AB. Never forget!!!” another commenter said.

Bud Light sales fell 27.9% in the week ending on June 24, according to New York Post. The brand recently lost its position as the top selling beer to rival Modelo.

AUTHOR

COREY WALKER

Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: Beer Industry Insider Has Some Bad News For Bud Light As Boycott Takes Its Toll

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Bud Light Sponsors Raunchy Pride Show After Desperately Trying To Salvage Its Image

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Bud Light sponsored a pride drag show in Toronto, Canada which featured dancers performing with their breasts exposed in leather suits and strange face masks, according to Bud Light Canada.

Video taken by journalist Beth Baisch shows drag performers dancing provocatively in exposed clothing with face masks. A large Bud Light banner can be seen near the stage.

“Bud Light Canada has been a proud partner of Pride Toronto for the last 10 years,” Bud Light Canada’s website reads. “This year, we’re commemorating this milestone with Pride Toronto by featuring them on our can design, as well as continuing as the official beer sponsor of the festival.”

“As a brand, Bud Light Canada is excited to once again celebrate and support the LGBTQIA2S+ community through Pride Toronto’s annual pride celebration and parade.”

Anheuser-Busch — Bud Light’s parent company — sent a can of beer to transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney celebrating his “365 Days of Girlhood.” Mulvaney, a biological male, also posted several videos promoting the beer brand. Mulvaney creates TikTok videos documenting his “Days of Girlhood,” which critics accuse of promoting a demeaning depiction of womanhood.

Bud Light’s in-store sales plummeted during the week of April 17-22, according to a report by Bump Williams Consulting. Sales dropped by 21%, and 11% in the two weeks preceding. Pours in bars and restaurants across the country have also decreased, with servers pouring 6% less Bud Light from April 2 to April 15, per the report.

Bud Light’s year-over-year sales numbers have continued to drop in June, three months after the company’s partnership with Mulvaney sparked boycotts.

Anheuser-Busch is reportedly giving distributors free beer to apologize for their plummeting sales. In an apparent bid to win back customers, the company is reportedly producing camouflage bottles with images of the “Folds of Honor” program, which helps families of fallen service members.

AUTHOR

SARAH WEAVER

Social issues reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

When Corporations Act Like Politicians

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As the 2024 presidential primary begins to take shape, pundits of all descriptions treat their readers to theories of whether this or that candidate can hold onto the partisan base or persuade independents. Strangely, many corporations — all Democrats, apparently — are behaving in the same, partisan way. Their unbusinesslike behavior is hurting their bottom line.

The gravest recent example is Anheuser-Busch, manufacturer of Bud Light, who sponsored an Instagram post by Dylan Mulvaney, a man who pretends to be a girl, during March Madness. Even though senior management apparently never signed off on the decision, the backlash was furious, rapid, and sustained. Bud Light sales fell 21.4% in April and continue to drop, sinking 28.4% lower in the boycott’s sixth week, according to Beer Business Daily, which noted, “nobody imagined it would go on this long. … It struck a nerve.” This, despite Anheuser-Busch’s attempts to re-entice former customers, including a patriotic ad campaign, camo-print bottles, and a statement from the CEO admitting that they “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people.”

Now, Bud Light is basically giving beer away and buying back expired beer from wholesalers in efforts to boost sales. Shares in the company have plummeted nearly 15% since the end of March, a loss of nearly $20 billion (with a “B”) in market value. Oh, and left-wing pundits are attacking Anheuser Busch for its weak attempt at an apology, which NBC News’s Ben Collins characterized as, “Bud Light caves to a mob.” Bud Light was last seen sponsoring Pride parades for the upcoming Pride Month, with all of the revenue they aren’t making.

In the last week of May, retail giant Target joined the fun, rolling out a 2023 “PRIDE” collection that featured Satanic symbolism and trans-specific items like a “tuck-friendly” swimsuit, prompting some conservatives to call for a boycott. Target responded by relocating the unsightly Pride displays from the front of some stores and removing some offensive items from its website, but CEO Brian Cornell doubled down on the decision, claiming that partnering with a Satanist to design pro-trans merchandise was “just good business decisions” and “a great thing for our brand.”

It’s too early to tell if Target’s sales numbers have been affected, but its stock has crashed more than 13% since last Wednesday, a loss of more than $10 billion in market value (for perspective, Target saw a “full-year operating income of $3.8 billion in 2022”). Leftists rewarded Target for its transgressive Pride display and non-apology by slamming it. California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) complained that Cornell was “selling out the LGBTQ+ community,” while National Black Justice Coalition executive director David Johns said Target’s allyship with the LGBTQ community was merely “superficial.” For their part, Target rebounded from the Pride boycott with an email to their employees to “remember the anniversary of the murder of George Floyd.”

The corporate flip-flop is not only for manufacturers and retailers. The Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team planned to award an anti-Catholic group of “queer and trans nuns” — whose D.C.-based chapter was formerly led by former Biden nuclear official Sam Brinton — with their annual “Community Hero Award” at their Pride Night on June 16. Not surprisingly, this provoked Catholics to call for a boycott of the Dodgers. The Dodgers rescinded the group’s invitation, acknowledging their controversial nature. But when they did so, LA Pride, which produces the city’s Pride parade, also dropped out, “forcing” the Dodgers to “offer our sincerest apologies” and reinvite the drag troupe.

You might have noticed a pattern developing here: Company X tries to promote the LGBT agenda without generating any controversy — and generates controversy. First, conservatives get mad at the promotion, leading the company to publish a half-hearted apology or half-step back. Next, progressives get made at the company’s supposed capitulation to conservatives. The company winds up angering both sides. Its effort to boost its image winds up backfiring. From this pattern, other companies should learn to ask: if we proceed with this marketing campaign, what’s the end result? Will there be backlash among our customers?

You also might have noticed that the products for sale — baseball, home furnishings, beer — appeal to broad, diverse customer bases. Everyone needs a rug or lamp or articles to fill their domicile. A large swath of American society drinks beer aplenty. And baseball is an American classic. This makes the promotion of trans ideology — a polarizing and un-inclusive issue — wholly unfitting for these brands. Not only does the ideology alienate religious Americans, but it is so unnatural — to a degree surpassing same-sex marriage — that it even alienates people who haven’t thought deeply about it, but who instinctively abhor transgenderism nonetheless.

The point of marketing campaigns is to make your product appealing to your customer base. If that customer base is broad, the marketing campaign should have broad appeal: lovable characters (Geico), memorable slogans (Capitol One), catchy jingles (Liberty Mutual), enticing visuals (anyone selling a burger). Statistically speaking, the percentage of the population who identify as transgender is tiny, even smaller than the percentage that might be turned off by overt appeals to them. Even if they sell such products, Nike doesn’t advertise shoes over size 20, Allstate doesn’t advertise insurance rates for Lamborghinis, and Chick-fil-A doesn’t advertise the vegan options on their menu. Such niche promotion is not worthwhile — unless the product being marketed is also niche.

Furthermore, these products — baseball, home furnishings, beer — are inherently nonpartisan and are in no way enhanced by association with the Pride agenda. A father-son outing to the ballpark is in no way improved by drag performers competing to disgust Catholics. Men drinking at a bar actually prefer that their beverage of choice not be marketed by a TikTok influencer caricaturing an underage girl. A store’s embrace of transgender ideology adds nothing to the take-home value of a shower curtain or candle or desk lamp purchased there. Even the sliver of the population to whom they’re trying to appeal are already as likely to purchase these ubiquitous products and brands as anyone else.

Way back in the 1990s, basketball great-turned-entrepreneur Michael Jordan resisted pressure to endorse Democrat Harvey Gantt in his challenge to Republican Senator Jesse Helms. “Republicans buy sneakers, too,” he reasoned. More corporations today would be wise to heed his advice.

Somewhere along the way, America’s major corporations have stopped behaving like businesses and started behaving like politicians. A politician succeeds by winning votes — which increasingly involves performative virtue-signaling in our culture obsessed with performative identity. A business succeeds by producing the best product and selling it for the lowest price. But investing in pride campaigns is a dubious method for improving a product, and by raising costs it actually increases the price.

Corporations are busy trying to win votes by performative virtue-signaling, but it turns out that is a horrible way to deliver the best product for the lowest price.

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a staff writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Bud Light Parent Cans Ad Agency In Wake Of Dylan Mulvaney Debacle: REPORT

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Anheuser-Busch told its U.S. beer distributors it had fired the advertising agency responsible for the partnership between Bud Light and transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, according to The New York Post.

Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light’s parent company, recently sent a commemorative can of beer to Mulvaney to celebrate the influencer’s “365 Days of Girlhood” series, sparking swift backlash, boycotts and plummeting sales. Anheuser-Busch told distributors that the specialty can was not designed by Anheuser-Busch and wasn’t created in one of its facilities, and that the company had ended its relationship with the advertising firm behind the idea, according to The Post, who cited multiple sources.

“Ad agencies send out hundreds of influencer kits a year, some of which have a customized can included. This was one of those situations,” one Texas-based distributor told The Post.

The identity of the advertising firm isn’t clear, according to the Post.

Anheuser-Busch has been publicly distancing itself from the marketing effort, and CEO Michel Doukeris walked back the company’s initial defense of the partnership in a Thursday earnings call.

“We need to clarify the facts that this was one camp, one influencer, one post and not a campaign,” he said.

Bud Light Marketing Vice President Alissa Heinerscheid also took a leave of absence from the company following blowback over the Mulvaney ad, along with comments she made disparaging Bud Light’s prior target demographics.

Bud Light sales fell more than 36% the week ending April 22, 21% the week prior and 11% the week before that, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 

Anheuser-Busch did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

LAUREL DUGGAN

Social issues and culture reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: REPORT: Bud Light Plans Heavy Marketing Push After Fallout From Dylan Mulvaney Partnership

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Newsmax Host Uses 12-Gauge Shotgun To Show Bud Light How He Really Feels

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Newsmax host and former Navy SEAL Carl Higbie shared a video Sunday in which he showed Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, how he really feels about its decision to make transgender Dylan Mulvaney its brand ambassador.

The video starts with Higbie approaching his camera holding a can of Bud Light in one hand, and a 12-gauge shotgun in the other. “I’m out,” he says, before launching the can into the freaking stratosphere. Seconds later, he blows it out of the sky with such insane accuracy that its hard to not watch the eight-second clip on repeat. He wraps it up with a “peace” sign to the camera, in true Higbie fashion.

Higbie’s strength, aim and power pretty much go without saying, but his decision to speak out means something more. He joins the likes of Kid Rock in decrying Bud Light’s newest spokesperson.

To this day, I have yet to understand what talent Mulvaney has or what the biological male has to do with what was once real America’s go-to cheap brew. Were Mulvaney good at something other than being a horrifically insulting stereotype of Barbie-esque womanhood, I personally wouldn’t care about this situation.

As it is, Mulvaney is a white biological male who is taking jobs from biological women. And if that isn’t the most privileged thing I’ve ever heard, I don’t know what is. And it certainly doesn’t vibe with a majority of Americans, who seem to be avoiding not just Bud Light, but all Anheuser-Busch products  — or, at least they are where I live.

As I said in a previous article on this topic: it’s hard to truly describe what it feels like to see biological men with mental health disorders be taken more seriously than biological women. Knowing that men like Higbie, Kid Rock and others are out there defending us, is probably the only good thing to come out of this situation.

AUTHOR

KAY SMYTHE

News and commentary writer.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Jean-Pierre Responds To Outrage Over Bud Light’s Partnership With Dylan Mulvaney

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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to the ongoing outrage revolving around Bud Light’s partnership with transgender TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

Bud Light partnered with Mulvaney in early April and created a specialized can depicting the influencer’s face and the slogan, “Celebrate Everyone’s Identity.” This partnership prompted outrage and a widespread boycott by conservatives and opponents of transgender ideology and reportedly caused the company to lose $6 billion.

“When a transgender American posts a video about a brand of beer they enjoy, and it leads to bomb threats, it’s clear that level of violence and vitriol against transgender Americans has to stop,” the press secretary said. “And the president has been very clear, the administration is going to do everything that they can to protect LGBTQI+ people who are under attack and that’s what we’ve been seeing across the country, especially in state houses. So we’re going to fight alongside them to protect their rights, they should be allowed to be who they are, who they want to be and they should be able to speak out, and we should be able to speak out, and others should be able to speak out against hate and discrimination.”

“Look, that type of dangerous rhetoric, that type of vitriolic language and violence, that needs to stop,” she concluded.

President Joe Biden granted Mulvaney the opportunity to conduct an interview about transgenderism in October, in which the president came out in support of irreversible sex change operations for minors. He added that states do not have the right to ban so-called “gender-affirming healthcare,” which includes hormone procedures, puberty blockers, and surgeries including mastectomies and hysterectomies.

The White House also faced backlash for conducting several Transgender Day of Visibility events just days after transgender shooter Audrey Hale killed six people, including three 9-year-olds, inside Covenant Presbyterian School in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 27.

Jean-Pierre has persistently accused Republicans at the state and national level of attacking transgender people by legislatively banning biological males from competing in women’s sports and prohibiting medical professionals from conducting transitioning procedures on minors. Biden promised to veto legislation passed by House Republicans on Thursday that would interpret Title IX to make sports almost completely sex-based, and ultimately ban biological males from women’s sporting competitions.

Bud Light doubled down on its partnership with Mulvaney by saying its parent company, Anheuser-Busch, partners with several demographics and produces “unique commemorative cans for fans” in an April 3 statement. Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth later said the company did not intend to cause any upset, and claimed to be “in the business of bringing people together over a beer.”

AUTHOR

NICOLE SILVERIO

Media reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Marketing Geniuses At Budweiser Forgot One Cardinal Rule

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‘This Bud may not be for you.’

Anheuser-Busch InBev is the largest beer maker in the world, producing six of the top 10 beer brands by volume, and enjoying sales of well over $1 billion a year.

Now, in a marketing debacle that will be studied and written about by MBA students for decades, Bud Light has cratered the company’s reputation.

Bud Light had been pure gold in the advertising industry since the 1980s, long before the Spuds McKenzie, the female bull terrier party animal mascot of the 1980s, and the hilarious “Real Men of Genius” ad campaign of the late 1990s became woven into popular culture. Bud Light brand building has been right up there with the NFL, arguably the most successful marketing organization on the planet.

But that was not good enough for Alissa Gordon Heinerscheid, the newly named vice president of Bud Light. The image of the company was just too “fratty,” she explained in a recent podcast, during which she insulted the customers that have sustained the brand for decades.

The beer’s new mascot would become a man all dolled up like a preteen girl: Dylan Mulvaney.

Heinerscheid believes she is on the cutting edge because the beer label had been in decline. On the “Make Yourself at Home” podcast she explained how she is on a mission to evolve the brand:

“So I have this super clear mandate. We need to evolve and elevate this incredibly iconic brand. And my, what I brought to that, was a belief in ‘OK, what does evolve and elevate mean?’ It means inclusivity. It means shifting the tone. It means having a campaign that’s truly inclusive and feels lighter and brighter and different and appeals to women and to men,” Heinerscheid said.

“And representation is … at the heart of evolution. You’ve gotta see people who will reflect you in the work. And we had this hangover. I mean Bud Light had been kind of a brand of fratty, kind of out-of-touch humor,” she explained.

And that, beer lovers, is how transgender activist Mulvaney came to be the new face of Bud Light. Mulvaney, a TikTok star and transgender personality who has done incredibly well in the famous-for-being-famous space, has brought his version of come-hither trans sexuality into the brand best known for a low-calorie, low-carb buzz, with notes of hops and malt.

The real marketing men and women of genius over at Budweiser forgot one thing: Don’t hate your customer.

When it launched Heinerscheid as its new VP during the Super Bowl, she explained to Forbes magazine that the 2023 Super Bowl ad, featuring people dancing as they are on a phone call hold, was the company’s new shift to showing real people, especially women.

“This campaign is meant to feel different, to be lighter and brighter, with a confidence and magnetism, and it’s really critical to depict real people and real places,” she told Forbes. “What I need to do to help this brand to evolve … this is my passion point.”

Heinerscheid told Forbes that Bud Light has been “everything to everyone, and as a result, we’ve not been (mindful) about where it shows up.”

Then she spoke to the importance of women. Her top strategic priority was to make sure that women were represented: “Female representation is a personal passion point of mine.”

By April 1, Heinerscheid decided that real people were not the market and female representation was not the priority.

Instead, a wholly manufactured TikTok personality, famous for skipping around a little girl’s bedroom like a pre-pubescent girl, is the real person that represents the brand.

Pro-tip: You’ll never be able to replace all the customers you lose at once with your new target market.

It appears Bud Light is targeting pre-teens, and Dylan Mulvaney does play-act the role of an underage girl. But that is a targeting blunder for another column.

If you’re one of the most successful brands in the history of marketing, and if you’re hating on your existing customer while you search for a better customer, maybe this Bud blunder is on you.

Real Men of Genius and Spuds McKenzie, the campaigns that built the brand, spoke to America with humor and storytelling.

Perhaps it is not just the customer that Bud Light has decided to hate. Perhaps the corporate geniuses, looking for that ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) preferential scoring for investors, have simply decided to hate Americans because they are not woke enough or trans enough for the “evolving” brand.

Good luck with that strategy, geniuses. As for Americans, this Bud may not be for you.

AUTHOR

SUZANNE DOWNING

Suzanne Downing is publisher of Must Read Alaska.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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