Contrast the Bud Light wuss commercial with this one:
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The ESG score is the most laughable metric of performance yet!
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@unreal24278 Your conceptions of American politics all seem to stem from leftist narratives you’ll hear across the globe, along with a built-in moral equivalence between progressives and conservatives. This false moral equivalence seems to inform your belief that there is some middle-ground that’s the best path for society.
There’s no middle ground with teaching children that they might be, can be and should be members of the opposite sex, then guiding them into a lifetime of deeply disabling medical procedures, all before they can consent to sex or a tattoo.
The notion is either true, and should be encouraged, or false, and chased out of public life.
At no point in living American history have homosexuals been severely persecuted, and Americans most definitely have not been…
That’s on the people choosing to congregate and have sex in dingy bathrooms, 100 percent.
The pendulum does indeed swing over the decades, but in America things always tend to go better when it swings to the right. What is the Republican extreme you’re so concerned about?
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I’ve worked in digital brand marketing for a significant portion of my career (albeit in retail, not CPG). The Bud Light marketing team fucked up big time, but the biggest issue here is the onward communications and poor damage control. Here’s my take on what happened.
Bud has paid sponsorships / affiliations with hundreds of influencers. All big brands do, these are managed through networks of partnerships with management companies that will work with these influencers to post content through social networks (it you want to get really outraged about moral fabric, that’s how the vast majority of the IG THOT / OnlyFans accounts operate too, its a farming process for these ‘modelling agencies’ to promote and then capitalize off girls and basically the new porno industry). Anyway, that to the side, they may or may not have had a good degree of visibility to the trans person at a line level, but the fact that the social post blew up is more likely result of playing fast and loose with their brand in seconding its promotion to these channels and a network of influencers, versus a pointed campaign to undermine its core demographic. The funny thing about this to me is that any brand marketer worth their salt knows that Bud Light’s core demographic is ‘asleep at the wheel, don’t question anything, follow what the TV tells you to do’ audience, cause it tastes like garbage (and also very similar to miller, coors and other basic lagers), but the brand affiliation has long been 'merica for those who drink it, and its the choice that basically needs the least amount of thought put in when walking down the aisle (it was always the least likely to create any disucssion, as its just… basic). Even Miller Light or Coors Light will evoke a conversation about what’s betteer between them (though they’re both the same)… Bud Light has always been, just Bud Light.
The VP of Marketing who green lit this campaign and then spoke out about it after decrying the frat-culture that Bud Light had, and wanting to change that, she fucked up royally in those statements. The moment that something like this starts gathering steam, any good mar-comm staff knows rule one of damage control, which is “shut the fuck up and let it blow over”. The only communications after that point should’ve come from the CEO. Without the statement of the Marketing VP that she was trying to change the brand image, it would have been relatively easy for Bud Light to play off this and state that its 1 social post out of hundreds of influencers that they work with, and rattle off a number of the corporate sponsorships (ex: NFL) that they maintain. This might not have completely fixed things, but it would’ve definitely calmed the storm and make people stop sharpening their pitchforks.
The Catch-22 that Bud Light now faces is that if they fire the Marketing VP, there’ll be concern it makes them look transphobic, and the small but extremely outsized voice of wokeness will attempt to cancel them. However, not canning the VP makes them look both weak and pandering, and will anger their regular customers
It appears that they’re trying to re-center on their core demographics (their ‘yay america’ ad that they just started airing is pretty bad, but clearly is aimed at doing just this). IMO, the best chess move would acutally be to do a shitload more of paid social sponsorships now, and just saturate that space as much as possible. Reason being that the social influencers (apart from possibly very top echelon) will do anything for money, and it will offset in that people will see the Bud brand all over social media and more normalize it against the one polarizing reel/story that ran and blew up. They should make sure when they do that though… just no more trannies.
Another thing they should gear up for and invest a shit load in is July 4th. Get the cans all in USA flag colors everywhere, run some promos, etc. Try to re-appeal to patriotism. Its hard though, sometimes these bridges get burnt and can’t be rebuilt. That’s how I am with Gillette, i will never buy another Gillette product due to their company stance against ‘toxic masculinity’. This is not quite as bad IMO, since it feels like a rogue marketing person that’s done this and CEO probably didn’t have full line of sight, and is now having to deal with the shit-storm. He needs to grow a pair and fire her though ASAP.
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I’ll admit a bit of schadenfreude here.
Great write-up from an industry point of view.
I boycott Budweiser for the same reason I boycott all big-name foods, they are deliberately designed to cause overconsumption and obesity and they all have a history of fraud: deceptive labelling and, lobbying the FDA to circumvent limiting their aggressive marketing targeting children and poorly educated, and counterfeit academic journals publishing claims denying the harm their products do to the body.
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Think about that for a moment! Assuming you are a hardcore atheist, you would buy products that advertise religious connotations? Of course NOT! So why would you buy a product that advertises a contradiction in your life style?
I wonder what would have happened if Bud Light decided to just partner with Blaire White. I’m not tapped into the trans community enough to know her standing, but, that seems like it could’ve been a win-win for them.
I would have described myself as that for my 20’s and 30’s.
I had no problems giving openly religious people money because I didn’t perceive normal religious people as being harmful to society. Few people do.
Besides, if you are atheist, you don’t have to believe in the power of the words written on the packaging at In 'n Out to believe in the power of a double double.
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IDK how that got flagged for inappropriate content?
I agree with you though. I think plenty of atheists celebrate religious holidays, and buy items associated with the religious holiday for example.
I’ve donated at churches when attending. Donated to religious charities that are helping people.
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I’m surprised it’s only the second time I’ve had a flagged post. The first one was years ago when I linked a black guy’s social commentary youtube video that had a Klan flag depicted in the video preview. While still a silly thing to flag, I can at least understand why someone found it offensive.
But yeah, you aren’t much of an atheist if you can’t tolerate being around religious people while enjoying the benefits of a society built by religious people.
Cuba is just a short raft ride away, after all.
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Kind like putting a cold wet metal dick up to your mouth. To each there own but not my thing.
I agree with most of your analysis, but I think the easiest way out is for them to shit can the marketing VP who set this up. Much of the ongoing anger stems from the fact that most working class people know they would have been fired for far, far less, but there is an elite class at the top our current economic system that only ever seems to fail up and is never held accountable for their fuck ups. Consequences are only for the little people.
Sure Whoopie Goldberg and her ilk will be mad for 5 minutes, but the chattering class have the attention spans of gold fish, and they will be on to the next Current Thing in no time.
That poll turned out interesting. The fact that most of you picked that Brian Stelter is a sex god is impressive!
Nah, but interesting results. Thanks!
Pitching a fit? I see, I get it. So, you say I am pitching a fit, which is supposed to make me mad and stomp my feet that you said a mean thing to me, so I should now retaliate by saying a mean thing to you. As you have you defense prepared with the stock ticker showing that BUD stock hasn’t moved all that much. Maybe knowing or not knowing that these sorts of things do not reflect in the stock price for several weeks. And if, perhaps manage to right the ship, when the actual numbers come out, the damage will appear to have been minimal.
Noted.
My go to cheap/summer beer. I do like Busch light, but have been buying it less lately.
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I have bought 1 AB product in the last 14 years. It was the Michelob Pure Gold. Opened one and told my mom I bought a very expensive case of water.
I have worked for Coors and for Miller. The local AB distributor would not hire me because I am female. (In all the years, they have not hired one single female to run the route) Which I find incredibly ironic in light of the current debacle. So… yes! The boycott will continue.
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What AB did was not woke. It may have been ESG, but woke has been rebranded to mean something it doesn’t.
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AB made a stupid branding decision. They could have easily created a new brand, instead of putting the last nail in the coffin on this one.
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What’s “Mainstream Media?” MSNBC? Fox News? Those are entertainment channels. Don’t compare them to Walter Cronkite. The old school evening news still tries to get it right. You may not like what they say, but their job is to report the news – not pander to viewers.
I’m boycotting all the woke bullshit companies. Budweiser, Nike and Disney to name a couple. They want to pander to this woke agenda and they will never receive my support.
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