Ha! It’s ’cause they’re losing that money.
It looks like Anheuser-Busch (AB) is starting to admit the partnership between Bud Light and trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney was an utter mistake.
Both the Anheuser-Busch brand and its Bud Light beer have been getting slammed with criticism ever since the marketing decision to use Mulvaney in a March Madness promo in the beginning of April.
Not only has it been a firestorm with declining sales week-by-week (have you been to your local Wal-Mart lately?), but there also appears to be no end in sight. A ton of people have seemingly given up Bud Light, and have no interest in going back after the company decided to go “woke.”
Well, AB InBev’s global chief marketing officer, Marcel Marcondes, admitted on Monday that Anheuser-Busch was wrong, saying the following via AdAge:
“It’s tough to see the controversial and divisive debates that have been happening in the U.S. in the last couple of weeks involving lots of brands and companies, including and especially Bud Light,” Marcondes said at the Cannes Lions festival. “It’s tough exactly because what we do is all about bringing people together…Companies and brands must be driven by their values. We are a beer company. Beer is for everyone.”
Marcondes went on to say the Dylan Mulvaney situation has been a huge “wake-up call.”
“In times like this, when things get divisive and controversial so easily, I think it’s an important wake-up call to all of us marketers first of all to be very humble,” he said. “That’s what we’re doing, being very humble, and really reminding ourselves of what we should do best every day, which is to really understand our consumers. Which is to really celebrate and appreciate every consumer that loves our brands—but in a way that can make them be together, not apart.” (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Leaked Social Media Pics From Bud Light Ad Exec Who Slammed ‘Fratty’ Culture Seem Pretty Fratty)
“That’s what Bud Light stands for—it exists to make beer easy to drink and easy to enjoy. That’s what we all, as a team, will be doing moving forward as a group. That’s what leaders do. Bud Light is coming back. It’s going all around the country, reconnecting with consumers, moving forward. That’s what you can expect from Bud Light in the U.S.”
Bud Light’s struggles have been a ‘wakeup call,’ says AB InBev CMO at #CannesLions: https://t.co/1dynTwlMtB pic.twitter.com/GGO7VUG3gc
— Ad Age (@adage) June 19, 2023
My whole thing … Anheuser-Busch didn’t think this through beforehand?
The “woke” nonsense has been going on for years now, and with company after company losing profits because of it, you would have thought the umbrella company and/or the Bud Light executives would have realized it would’ve been a bad direction. But no, let’s go ahead and make the same mistake, and lose money just like all of the other “woke” corporations. It’s just dumb. The Dylan Mulvaney move never made any sense to me. (RELATED: Study Names Virginia And Montana As The Most Patriotic States In America)
And now here they are admitting they were wrong, that it was a “wake-up call” — yeah, those lost profits definitely were.