I’ll say this much for Dylan Mulvaney, the transgender influencer most of us were blissfully unaware of until about a month ago: he’s accomplished something that 40 years of making bad beer couldn’t.
He’s turned everyone against Bud Light.
It all started when the trans influencer took part in a promotional campaign for the brand, which was a big step for a beer that prided itself on a Middle American, blue-collar image.
It was not only divisive, but it was a tonal shift that might be explained by pompous, rude comments made by the brand’s VP of marketing, who told a podcast she wanted to discard the beer’s “fratty” image in favor of one that promoted “inclusivity.”
Bud Light’s marketing Vice President Alissa Heinerscheid slanders her customer base as “fratty and out of touch” as she defends the decision to hire a tranny to promote their products.
Who the hell hires these people? 😂https://t.co/Lv3LW4OKs4
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 10, 2023
That meant the “fratty” drinkers were no longer welcome. According to Beer Business Daily, despite several apologies and amusing “Murcia”-tastic advertising, sales of the beer had decreased by more than 26 percent in retailers by the week ending April 22.
And now, after alienating the “fratty” crowd, it appears that the beer has now alienated the “inclusivity” crowd.
From Block Club Chicago on Friday: “A slew of Chicago gay bars have stopped selling Anheuser Busch InBev products after the beer giant distanced itself from transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney’s Bud Light marketing campaign amid anti-trans backlash.”
Ah, yes, the pernicious anti-trans backlash; according to the story, 2Bears Tavern Group, which runs four homosexual bars in the Midwestern city, was the first to discontinue the brews.
“Anheuser-Busch’s decision to drop its support of Mulvaney in response to ignorant and hateful objections by some of its customers shows how little Anheuser-Busch cares about the LGBTQIA+ community, and in particular transgender people, who have been under unrelenting attack in this country,” the statement said.
“Its CEO’s statement, in which he all but erased transgender people in favor of anti-trans vitriol, was cruel and hurtful. CEO Brendan Whitworth’s excuse that Anheuser-Busch ‘never intended to be a part of a discussion that divides people’ was tantamount to saying that the rights of transgender people are topics worthy of debate. They are not.”
Another Chicago gay bar called Sidetrack also joined the boycott: “We must also hold brands accountable if they take active steps against LGBTQ+ equality, visibility, and safety,” the bar posted.
Never mind the absurd notion that transgender people’s “safety” or “rights” include the opportunity to participate in an advertising campaign. Anheuser-Busch isn’t officially rejecting Mulvaney, which would be long-term brand suicide with the ESG movement.
Instead, they’ve been distancing themselves from it, with Anheuser-Busch CEO Michel Doukeris insisting on Thursday during an earnings call “that this was one can, one influencer, one post, and not a campaign,” according to Fox Business. He called anything else “misinformation.”
He went on to say that the firm was “providing direct support” to sales staff, delivery drivers, bar owners, and anyone affected by the boycott and that it planned to treble its media spending on brand advertising.
Yes, media investment resulted in damage control advertising such as this:
https://twitter.com/budweiserusa/status/1646958880654516226?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1646958880654516226%7Ctwgr%5E63e2fd9a261ada5be807dd172ffb70bbde9b56d4%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.westernjournal.com%2Fbud-light-boycott-gets-much-worse-gay-bars-join-fray%2F
See? Look! Horseys! The horses are from Murcia!
Country music is as well!
Middle America, do you like country music? Here you have it!
https://youtu.be/Yvuj-OBQCP4
The pandering was so evident that comments on that last advertising had to be disabled.
That isn’t making anyone forget the Mulvaney fiasco — and it’s bringing in a new group of people who have discovered a reason to boycott Bud Light, this time LGBT wokeistas. Which, to be fair, the brand also deserves.
I’m not even going to try deconstructing the senseless, fanciful accusations that Anheuser-Busch InBev is compromising the “safety” or “rights” of the transgender community by withdrawing from the entire Mulvaney campaign.
However, I believe the LGBT community is correct in assuming that the beer conglomerate’s CEO views them with the same contempt that they did the “fratty” Bud Light buyers that the Mulvaney campaign was intended to separate from the brand.
They proved to be completely detrimental to the company’s image, so they, too, are getting the cold shoulder.
A transgender spokesman has been replaced with a deep-voiced narrator who talks about America, freedom, and other things as a CGI Clydesdale glides through American monuments.
Almost everyone who isn’t employed by the corporation now has a cause to despise the brand.
We can all agree on two things, whether we are conservative, liberal, independent, straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, blue-collar, or activists. First and foremost, the corporate elites at Anheuser-Busch InBev despise us.
Two, Bud Light is pretty mediocre anyway. We can all do without it, especially since the firm appears to believe they can do without all of us.
