I’m uniquely placed to offer comment on Bud Light using Dylan Mulvaney to advertise their beers as I ran an artisan craft beer business which was bought by ABI, who owns Bud Light, and worked for them for a few years.

What was clear within ABI was a desire to be as ‘inclusive’ as possible. We were all encouraged to put pronouns on our emails and there were regular online meetings celebrating the diverse hires within the business. Lots of rainbows, lots of public demonstrations of their wokeness.  

It was a nice place to work but this culture is a million miles away from the Republican, middle-America consumers who drink Bud Light.

Some history for you. ABI was created by a merger between Anheiser Bush (American mega-brewery) and the European company In-Bev. It’s fair to say that In-Bev dominated the merger and the gun slinging, super macho powerhouse that was Budwesier got taken-over by the systems, processes and culture of the Europeans. This Democratic, socialist viewpoint led brands like Bud Light to look like dinosaurs. Advertising using bikini wearing women was faded-out and mirrored the change in general society.

However, it’s fair to say that many of the Bud Light drinkers are not reconstructed, metrosexual men and the idea of their brand being associated with someone ‘transitioning’ from a man into a woman was a step too far. It was clear the Bud Light Marketing team felt the brand was failing and needed some reinvention. Overall, the mainstream beer market in the US is decreasing as people move towards hard seltzers and craft beer so this isn’t a surprise. The bewildering part is that they believed that there was a market in the super-woke, transitioning-friendly consumers who were going to want to buy Bud Light after they put Dylan’s face on the can.

The Marketing Exec who masterminded the campaign commented that she felt the Bud Light brand needed a new direction. Like so many, Nike, Adidas, Levi’s, North Face etc. they’ve chased the rainbow dollar and largely succeeded in presenting themselves as progressive, modern businesses. It’s clear the Bud Light team wanted to add their beer to this category.

Marketing 101 is to identify your consumer and give them what they want or never knew they wanted (and now can’t live without). Bud Light ignoring this entirely and imposed a completely new angle to their existing customers in the belief that something needed to be done to lift the brand into the 2020’s and away from the ‘deplorables’ who were their core demographic.

The reaction was huge. Videos posted online of empty lines at ballgames with people boycotting Bud Light stands and choosing to queue at other vendors for their beer. Celebrities destroying cans of Bud Light and sales dropping nationwide in unprecedented numbers.

Bud’s reaction? Try and wiggle-out by saying it was never really supposed to be an actual campaign. Then suspend the team behind it and release a super-macho advert with all the bells and whistles of Americana to show they’re just the same old brand they used to be. However, people didn’t buy it and the public backlash was immense.

Is Bud Light dead? No. Has it been hit by a nuke? Yes. Drinkers who had decades and generations of allegiance to the brand have moved elsewhere given there are plenty of other beer choices out there. Both Miller and Coors have seen sales increase in the wake of the campaign and, in my opinion, Miller Genuine Draft and Coors Banquet are much more enjoyable beers so hope the Bud Light exodus has made those moving to the new brands happier drinkers overall.

The phrase ‘Go woke or go broke’ has been used a lot in recent years. Maybe, we’ve seen the first swing of the pendulum back in the other direction with the Bud Light fiasco.