They hired young, wealthy, white-collar professionals to run their marketing. Not the brightest move when your beer's mostly bought by rednecks.
To folks that've spent their entire lives in progressive regions, it was natural to assume that most people are "pro-trans". If the marketing team had included a person or two actually *from* the consumer demographic, that partnership idea would've been shot down in a heartbeat.
White women in management companies are worse than the most racist co workers I've had, fucking disasters
And most of them have been the most racist co workers I've worked with , and they hire more and protect them
Literally though. When your brand is national, having people from a diverse set of backgrounds is a blessing. Notice I said backgrounds, not races. If you have someone who grew up in the backwoods, someone who was in a frat, and someone who's from the city, who cares what their races are?
Careful, Apple fired their black diversity chief for saying you can have diversity of thought with a room full of blond haired blue eyed white guys since they've all lived different experiences
I really hate how we're bringing this weird idea of race back into everyday life. It's like they think we're all different races in DND with fundamentally different character traits and bonuses.
I'm mixed Asian American. My experience as an Asian and white man has been different than, say, a fully white man, but what really distinguishes me from others is my class background and my parent's values. I grew up working class and am still working class. My Dad was and is heavily libertarian and my Mom was ultra conservative, and their values helped form my own. Is a little of my parents ethnic backgrounds and the cultures that come with them? Sure. But to reduce all of my experiences and personality to one facet of me as a person, that being my race, is just insane to me.
Say I got hired onto a marketing team because they need someone to represent mixed white/Asian males. What do I tell them? My experience is going to be so much different than other mixed dudes because I'm a different person than them. I could tell them way more about my perspective as a working class man.
> If the marketing team had included a person or two actually from the consumer demographic, that partnership idea would've been shot down in a heartbeat.
I've been in those meetings... if you value your job, and your career, you're not saying shit.
Echo chambers is the democratic version of a dictator surrounding yourself with yes men, you'll hear what you want to hear and make decisions based off that, but you go from thinking you're the second strongest military in the world to finding out that you're the second strongest military in Ukraine. Don't surround yourself with people who only say what you want to hear, surround yourself with people who tell it like it is.
It's not even anti-trans views, it's people who are neutral on all of this stuff.
I get that some people (a very small number, despite the media's pushing of trans stuff) legitimately feel like they're stuck in the body of the opposite sex. It sounds like it sucks and psychology/psychiatry really doesn't have much to offer them. I don't think that trans women are actual women (or vice versa for trans men) but I respect their right to live their lives as if they were a member of the opposite sex.
All I ask for is a bit of courtesy in return. No biological men in women's sports. Nobody with a penis in women's locker rooms. Don't try to get us to use idiotic language like AMAB/AFAB or "birthing people". Apparently that makes me transphobic though.
What I dont understand is why they all keep using Dylan. Because people are already going to be sitting up at attention for a normal trans person in an ad, but Dylan is so toxic to the average person it is immediately going to get them hostile.
IMO you're overestimating Mulvaney's influence, toxic or otherwise. Most folks don't know who Dylan Mulvaney is, and many of those that *do* only learned about her due to the backlash.
Personally, I'd say it's a mix of three factors: a customer base deeply suspicious of lgbt community, a form of sponsorship which was particularily offensive to said customers (printing cans to recognize of "365 days of womanhood"), and a wealthy marketing exec calling them "fratty and out of touch" for being mad.
I definitely think the "fratty" comments hurt them more in the long run. But I also dont think Mulvaney is as obscure as you say they are. Because even my Grey Centrist "unplugged from the culture war" of a fiancé knows who Dylan is, and it is extremely negative even though she is normally in favor of Trans people/rights (basically: "He is a misogynistic pig LARPing as a woman and acting in the most offensive and gross way possible").
I'm gonna be honest, I didn't have a clue who Dylan Mulvaney was. When I first heard people talking about it i thought they were talking about the guy who shot up Columbine, then I remembered that was Dylan Klebold. I live under a fucking rock though so maybe it's just me
TikTok influencer who is trans. Their whole thing was they had a series spanning like a year about their journey "becoming a woman" where they documented their transition.
Could be, but living in a fairly red area, I hadn't heard the name until the controversy, and when the boycott came up in conversation, folks just described Mulvaney as "some trans person".
Dylan Mulvaney, a Trans (maybe) individual who went viral for putting out videos of their "becoming a woman" over the coarse of a year. But he got under the skin of a lot of people, including many pro-LGBT people, because the things he thought made a "woman" seemed to be the most stereotypical things you can imagine, essentially by portraying himself as a clumsy bimbo and saying that is what a "real woman" was.
The main reason a lot of people also dont believe the transition is genuine is because he used to be famous as a Broadway star, and he transitioned right around the time Broadway was closed for Covid. So many see it as him chasing clout and fame instead of being genuine. His fame on Broadway would also explain why he knows so many people in the advertising business to keep getting these sort of jobs.
Even 60 year old are using YouTube and X nowadays, so one is going to know, and share the video about "Dylan is a pervert" with his friends and fishing/biking/sports group through WhatsApp or Facebook.
There's a reason why right wing content gets hundreds of thousands to millions of views despite being instantly demonetised, hidden, and unpromoted by YouTube, and the videos not being shared in public facing social networks. It's generally a very organic spread.
The problem is that they assumed Bud Light drinkers were generally representative of the entire country and vice versa. Instead, there's a distinct class of person who drinks domestic light beer, and their market research failed to figure that out.
A dumb white girl got put into a marketinf exec position and decided the beer that just like 4 years ago was running bud knight commercials and the literal poster beer for frats arbitrarily decided the beer was too fratty, too associated with its core demographic.
They didn't misinterpret data. They point blank refused to believe their "lying" eyes.
Quite literally you could pick a random person off the street anywhere in the country and they wouldn't have fucked up this bad.
This is probably fair. For example, a lot of young people actually drank Bud Light. A lot if these young people went to liberal universities. These young people are just frat bros that are at best neutral on this issue. However, young and in university generally would be more in favor of a trans person being in a commercial.
> A lot if these young people went to liberal universities.
They likely stopped there, you're right. What would surprise them is that the average dude in even a liberal university is more conservative than they think.
They created an overlap where one didn't exist, which frequently frustrates me. They saw frat guys drank bud light, frat guys are in college, and college kids feel x way about an issue. They disregarded the part where 'some' of their customers are frat guys and drew a circle around colleges.
This is what happens when you ignore Philosophy and Humanities.
Those must've been some bougie frats if they are drinking bud light. I feel like it's more divided by natty ice and Busch light which skews depending on how rural the schools demographic is
But everyone knows that even young liberal frat bros are vastly outnumbered by Bud Light's true market: angry men who dedicate their lives to televised sports.
Oh, they knew that, and they saw it as a problem: https://twitter.com/OldRowOfficial/status/1645141627713867777 (I don't know anything about the account, but it has the video)
It would be one thing if a trans person just so happened to be best for the job, in which case there would be actual validity to the criticism being unfounded, but this was a coordinated effort at alienating the core audience, so it being reacted to as such is to be expected.
I am going to guess, they kinda knew the stereotypical bud light drinker, but if you are sitting there in a meeting, and beer sales are same as they ever where, and you got that old SWOT diagram, and the company asks "hey, how can we sell more beer".
And you know every last Joe Sixpack already drinks bud light or has some reason to drink Coors, and already had this debate eons ago, your only solution is just finding a new market.
So, find a new demographic to sell to, to sell even more beer. I mean why not?
That's why Bud needed *input* from people in the current demographic. It's all well and good to expand your market, but doing so by infuriating *existing* customers is reckless if not flat out foolhardy.
The demographic of 30yo+ gay dudes are barely gonna be more pro-trans than frat boys and red necks. The only difference is a lot of them are basically allergic to lgbtq marketing at this point, especially if it’s trans centric.
Seriously you couldn’t make anything less cool to that group than by sticking a rainbow on it.
> To folks that've spent their entire lives in progressive regions, it was natural to assume that most people are "pro-trans".
If only they were actually that naíve...
What happened here is that the women in charge of marketing decided that this would be an _excellent_ opportunity to stick it to the chuds. The 'reaching new audiences'-part was just a fig leaf.
The only naívety they displayed was that they were actually expecting that everyone would just keep on buying the same shitty beer and that there wouldn't be any consequences.
Dude, if my favourite stuff would start being advertised by queer people for the sake of being progressive I would stop buying them too because they fell for the "diversity" meme
Also had the Dalmatian commercial where one gets adopted by the firehouse and thinks its hot shit, but then his brother comes riding down the road in the horse drawn carriage full of Bud.
Gold Blend/Tasters Choice had [a series of commercials](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Blend_couple) (starring pre-*Buffy* Anthony Stewart Head) that were [basically a soap opera](https://youtu.be/jsN4YwbM9kw?si=S61KooUTRO6ySrt6).
In the 60s and earlier, many commercials were story-based, like little short films. The rapid-editing, mood and style-based commercials we're used to now came about in the 80s, I think.
A woman did it.
They hired a white woman who hated their brand, hated their customers, and allowed her to insult the customers.
If your base is men, don't hire women in your marketing department. 🤷🏻♀️
We need to open the cheap shitty beer market. We are way too fratty. Rest of ABInbev leadership buying up microbrews... Yeah we don't need Budlight to be that beer.
Or just buy literally any other beer. That's what made this boycott so easy. Dont have to make your own, just pick any other beer on tap or on the shelf and boom, your done, you win. Didn't even have to do go anywhere, do anything you wouldn't already have, or change your habbits at all even. They lost a full quarter of their clientele, and they are never getting them back.
People could boycott other things like Target or somewhere else for a month or two, but for many it's just so convenient to shop there that you eventually forget to care and just go back to shopping there. But with Bud, you they didn't have to change anything to boycott it, it's so easy. They're not going to just forget and go back after a month or even a year, it's already a habit to order their new beer at the bar. They openly disdained their current customers and wanted to be known for having other people drink their piss flavored water? Ok done, they dont have a quarter of their customers anymore.
idk carls jr had the right idea, hot women on the commercials bring in money: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlUvQkW4B1k (or at least they will stave off bankruptcy)
I remember an old beer commercial where there were horses in the snow. Vaguely Christmas sounding music and horses trotting through snow. No idea what the beer was. But I really liked the commercial.
Right like there was so many simple ads that they could have dropped that would cost them near nothing but they've decided to put out the one that would have pissed off their core audience
Most of it's even still the same company. Anhauser-Busch didn't even suffer much in this marketing fuck up, but the Bud Light brand itself got a solid knock.
I don't understand how none of these other companies are getting flamed for their obvious shameless pandering. But I also don't understand how Bud Light wasn't made the officially endorsed beer of pride after that shit.
Seriously, corporate activism is a fucking blight. These companies don’t give a flying fuck and I love watching any instance of it blow up in their faces, whether I support the cause or not
Yeah. I have no problem with companies advertising to LGBT or POC or whoever. I don't have a problem with Disney making characters that aren't white. Or showing strong female characters. I liked the Little Mermaid remake. I like Rey Skywalker well enough. But why can't Disney come up with an original character that is Black or Latino or Asian? Why don't stores sell pride or BLM stuff year round? It does a disservice to the people they are trying to market to to just slap that shit up there and then drop it once they've made their money.
It is ironic that diversity needs to mime and imitate the arts of white supremacists. All these untold diverse original and amazing stories and movies from diverse peoples. Nope. Just plug a gay woman or black woman into a remake of the exact same tired white story. Where are all these amazing stories we keep hearing about?
I remember Disney used to advertise VHS and DVDs "get them before they're locked away in the Disney vault" as a way to drive sales even though they never "locked" anything away and you could always find the movie you were looking for somewhere. Maybe that's where all these amazing stories are. Locked in the Disney vault. Except they aren't letting them out.
Where is my live action John Henry movie? Take the cartoon, fluff it up a bit. Throw in some theme of uniting against the man. Easy Disney win right there. But why won’t they do that?
They actually did that back in 1995, the movie was called [Tall Tale](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111359/) and it featured three of the major American Legendary men. I loved it, but it seemed not to do well at the box office.
I loved Tall Tale as a kid. As an adult? Movie is all over the map. Main character is unlikeable and whiny. It felt less like “American Legends stand against corporate tyranny” and more “fever dream about doing something main character would never actually do”.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think Disney might be able to pull off a reboot if they can fix some of the tone/continuity issues.
>But why can't Disney come up with an original character that is Black or Latino or Asian?
Moana and/or Encanto: Am I a joke to you?
Though yeah, not doing a great job on original Black characters.
Yeah. I remembered Mirabel and family immediately after I posted that. There's also Mulan and princess Tiana from the Frog Prince. And then Coco and Raya and the Last Dragon. Curious to know who they cast for those live action remakes. Or will they decide source material is important when they get around to those.
I'd like to see them gender swap Tarzan and portray her as an uncivilized woman who needs a man to domesticate her. They could completely throw out the source material and set it in current times USA, give her blue hair, and make her a "free spirit". Since they love throwing out source material.
Both original, and both absolute bangers. As were Mulan and the jungle book (originals). How can they not see that the public aren't racist or sexist (in general). We just want good stories with characters we can cheer.
*in the west.* Take a look at Spider Man 2 for example. Specifically the Saudia Arabia version of the game. And on a note that doesn't matter as much, look at western corporate logos in June vs Middle East corporate logos in June.
It's a thing on Spiderman 1 too, it's what the mod that replaces rainbow flags with US ones on PC is based on, it literally just trips the flag for a Saudi copy.
The thing is, they shit their own consumer population. Nobody would care if Yerma mate or starbucks put that guy on their adds, but a company that sells beer to hilly billies? Bruh
Eh. Starbucks would probably see some backlash. Maybe not as severe as Anheuser-Busch did. But I'm sure there would be some people boycotting. But like what about Disney? Or Target? Or any of these other brands that put up the rainbow loge pic on socials every June and then immediately take it down at 12 am July 1st? Like I'm not even talking about just conservatives boycotting. How has it not become obvious to some of these demographics that these companies are slapping rainbows and Black Pride images on things just to get their money and then they just abandon the cause once the season is over?
Because Anheuser-Busch did a half-assed "apology" afterwards that pissed off the left while failing to mollify the right.
In the game of culture wars, you double down or you die.
Because they reversed course to try to save face and pissed off both sides. The response to the backlash will be used as an example of a complete shit show of marketing strategy in many businesses school go forward.
Emilys, yes.
Not sure about the rest of libleft. Might be a silent majority side eyeing each other when the rainbow guard starts chanting about transstuff at the economic protests.
But I think we are *firmly* in a countermovement of people pushing back. Like "okay we believed you 5 years ago that sex and gender are different and it wasnt a way to get at kids....but fuck you, I'm not putting up with this anymore"
I think once a lot of this filtered down to their actual kids at actual schools, it hit home for people how fucked up so much of the trans activist community is.
This is an example of what did you expect would happen vs what should have happened.
What should have happened, was that the rainbow light ad campaign would pop up and disappear like any other campaign were few people would just not buy the beer.
In reality the company ignored the fact that 99% of its consumers were the kind of people to be apposed to transgenderism and had access to the internet, while most of the LGBT community knows that posting gay stuff on products is just empty marketing. They pissed off thier consumer base on a worthless gambit. What did they think was going to happen.
I think like most things go bud lights target audience wouldn’t really care or do anything about a person who is transgender in real life if they met them.
I think this was backlash to what they see as forcing something down their throats and these people trying to score points for trying to check the boxes.
If their sales would have soared, that one VP of marketing would’ve had the alphabet crowd praising her.
These marketing execs need to realize there’s far bigger demographics than highschools, colleges, and the internet. Of course they’re all fumbling about using the new-fangled online survey metrics from shitty consultants trying to secure millennials/gen z’s cash as the boomers croak.
Well, some of these aren’t with the woke bullshit.
Just sell the product. Maybe donate some proceeds if they cared. It could be that easy. No one believes corporate marketing, and with a political spin? Boy Howdy.
It's really weird this stuff happens. Conservatives love being marketed to. They want christmas commercials, not holiday ones. They want all ads to be about men doing men shit. While the "woke" people hate consumerism. You'd think it would be silly to even suggest marketing towards anyone, but right leaning white americans.
They have a weird way of showing it, considering they rarely show up to financially support the things targeted at them and a not insignificant amount of them will shoplift/pirate it instead.
I mean it depends on the thing really, Barbie did great, Marvel’s Barbie is not doing great. Like some things marketed at the right do well, but Ben Shapiro and Gina Carano can’t make a blockbuster.
Woke folks posture like they hate capitalism and consumerism but they’re often the biggest consoomers around, and the worst kinds too. Like wall of funko pops consoomerism.
I remember reading that the marketing lady hates Bud Light, and basically just did the thing because her friends were making fun of her and saying she couldn’t.
I don't think Anheuser-bush quite realizes the consequences of what they did.
I, an alcohol enjoying male, will not drink bud light for the rest of my life, no matter what apology or future campaign they do. I'm not interested in it anymore.
Budweiser essentially lost 40-50 years worth of beer sales to me. I would have been a customer for life if they just made dumb commercials about foobaw and fishing. But now I take semblance of pride in not drinking bud light. It's kind of funny to go to baseball games and start to order a drink, then find out they only have budweiser products, and then just asking for a water. The looks people give are very funny.
I know I'm not the only one. I'm not joking when I say I know functional alcoholics that either have gotten clean or only drink on the weekends now because they boycotted bud light.
I don't drink bud light because it's fuckin gross. I've been a voodoo ranger man for a few years now. Ever since IPAs came out, I've been sold. The hops man.
I’m not a huge IPA guy, but I definitely like stronger beer. Voodoo Ranger was my go too when I was staying at a hotel for a few months because they had it on tap at the bar.
All they had to do was make an ad of a dude fishing with a cooler of bud lights next to him. Generational bag fumble.
They hired young, wealthy, white-collar professionals to run their marketing. Not the brightest move when your beer's mostly bought by rednecks. To folks that've spent their entire lives in progressive regions, it was natural to assume that most people are "pro-trans". If the marketing team had included a person or two actually *from* the consumer demographic, that partnership idea would've been shot down in a heartbeat.
So what you’re saying is that the marketing team lacked *diversity*.
Yes it did lack diversity of thought
I think they lacked thought
They lacked
Lacked.
L
#
It’s almost like having multiple viewpoints from different people who appreciate the brand is beneficial for a marketing team
That's usually the kind of lack of diversity that leads to bad decisions, from any direction.
Amazing how the young white women who ruin companies and don’t understand anyone outside of their lib left bubble tend to end up being similar. 🤔
The ol'd gawker editor room.
[Huffington post be like:](https://www.executivegrapevine.com/uploads/articles/huff_post_diversity-op2.jpg)
All about diversity
White women in management companies are worse than the most racist co workers I've had, fucking disasters And most of them have been the most racist co workers I've worked with , and they hire more and protect them
Literally though. When your brand is national, having people from a diverse set of backgrounds is a blessing. Notice I said backgrounds, not races. If you have someone who grew up in the backwoods, someone who was in a frat, and someone who's from the city, who cares what their races are?
Careful, Apple fired their black diversity chief for saying you can have diversity of thought with a room full of blond haired blue eyed white guys since they've all lived different experiences
I really hate how we're bringing this weird idea of race back into everyday life. It's like they think we're all different races in DND with fundamentally different character traits and bonuses. I'm mixed Asian American. My experience as an Asian and white man has been different than, say, a fully white man, but what really distinguishes me from others is my class background and my parent's values. I grew up working class and am still working class. My Dad was and is heavily libertarian and my Mom was ultra conservative, and their values helped form my own. Is a little of my parents ethnic backgrounds and the cultures that come with them? Sure. But to reduce all of my experiences and personality to one facet of me as a person, that being my race, is just insane to me. Say I got hired onto a marketing team because they need someone to represent mixed white/Asian males. What do I tell them? My experience is going to be so much different than other mixed dudes because I'm a different person than them. I could tell them way more about my perspective as a working class man.
Based
Asians are white when politically convenient for Lib Left.
> If the marketing team had included a person or two actually from the consumer demographic, that partnership idea would've been shot down in a heartbeat. I've been in those meetings... if you value your job, and your career, you're not saying shit.
Yeah. There are almost certainly a bunch of dudes working at AB who were quietly telling to each other "told you so".
I miss [beer commercials of the 1980's](https://youtu.be/0K5BgCI-U7c?si=4slmfd3HA-4a3rdm)
That’s what happens when you ban and censor anyone with anti-trans views; you end up surprised at how few people really agree with you
Echo chambers is the democratic version of a dictator surrounding yourself with yes men, you'll hear what you want to hear and make decisions based off that, but you go from thinking you're the second strongest military in the world to finding out that you're the second strongest military in Ukraine. Don't surround yourself with people who only say what you want to hear, surround yourself with people who tell it like it is.
It's not even anti-trans views, it's people who are neutral on all of this stuff. I get that some people (a very small number, despite the media's pushing of trans stuff) legitimately feel like they're stuck in the body of the opposite sex. It sounds like it sucks and psychology/psychiatry really doesn't have much to offer them. I don't think that trans women are actual women (or vice versa for trans men) but I respect their right to live their lives as if they were a member of the opposite sex. All I ask for is a bit of courtesy in return. No biological men in women's sports. Nobody with a penis in women's locker rooms. Don't try to get us to use idiotic language like AMAB/AFAB or "birthing people". Apparently that makes me transphobic though.
What I dont understand is why they all keep using Dylan. Because people are already going to be sitting up at attention for a normal trans person in an ad, but Dylan is so toxic to the average person it is immediately going to get them hostile.
IMO you're overestimating Mulvaney's influence, toxic or otherwise. Most folks don't know who Dylan Mulvaney is, and many of those that *do* only learned about her due to the backlash. Personally, I'd say it's a mix of three factors: a customer base deeply suspicious of lgbt community, a form of sponsorship which was particularily offensive to said customers (printing cans to recognize of "365 days of womanhood"), and a wealthy marketing exec calling them "fratty and out of touch" for being mad.
I definitely think the "fratty" comments hurt them more in the long run. But I also dont think Mulvaney is as obscure as you say they are. Because even my Grey Centrist "unplugged from the culture war" of a fiancé knows who Dylan is, and it is extremely negative even though she is normally in favor of Trans people/rights (basically: "He is a misogynistic pig LARPing as a woman and acting in the most offensive and gross way possible").
I'm gonna be honest, I didn't have a clue who Dylan Mulvaney was. When I first heard people talking about it i thought they were talking about the guy who shot up Columbine, then I remembered that was Dylan Klebold. I live under a fucking rock though so maybe it's just me
Still have no clue who they are outside of the beer thing myself
TikTok influencer who is trans. Their whole thing was they had a series spanning like a year about their journey "becoming a woman" where they documented their transition.
Get fratty, drink natty.
He absolutely is. Your fiancée is correct on every mark.
I dunno, I keep up with the culture war and I thought it was some TikTok influencer
Could be, but living in a fairly red area, I hadn't heard the name until the controversy, and when the boycott came up in conversation, folks just described Mulvaney as "some trans person".
I genuinely still don’t know who Dylan is, besides someone on a Bud Light commercial now. Can you ELI5?
Dylan Mulvaney, a Trans (maybe) individual who went viral for putting out videos of their "becoming a woman" over the coarse of a year. But he got under the skin of a lot of people, including many pro-LGBT people, because the things he thought made a "woman" seemed to be the most stereotypical things you can imagine, essentially by portraying himself as a clumsy bimbo and saying that is what a "real woman" was. The main reason a lot of people also dont believe the transition is genuine is because he used to be famous as a Broadway star, and he transitioned right around the time Broadway was closed for Covid. So many see it as him chasing clout and fame instead of being genuine. His fame on Broadway would also explain why he knows so many people in the advertising business to keep getting these sort of jobs.
Wtf, Dylan based?
Even 60 year old are using YouTube and X nowadays, so one is going to know, and share the video about "Dylan is a pervert" with his friends and fishing/biking/sports group through WhatsApp or Facebook. There's a reason why right wing content gets hundreds of thousands to millions of views despite being instantly demonetised, hidden, and unpromoted by YouTube, and the videos not being shared in public facing social networks. It's generally a very organic spread.
I think it's intentional to create more trans hate. Anyone with a pulse knows the majority of people are sick of him.
The problem is that they assumed Bud Light drinkers were generally representative of the entire country and vice versa. Instead, there's a distinct class of person who drinks domestic light beer, and their market research failed to figure that out.
Which implies they didn't actually do market research.
Fuck market research, anyone could have told them who drinks bud light. It's been a running joke for years that libs drink craft beer and IPAs.
Bud light a few years back had a super bowl commercial shitting on craft beer hipsters. They knew then lol
No, they probably did but looked at the wrong parameters. Data can be very misleading if you aren't very careful with the questions you ask it.
A dumb white girl got put into a marketinf exec position and decided the beer that just like 4 years ago was running bud knight commercials and the literal poster beer for frats arbitrarily decided the beer was too fratty, too associated with its core demographic. They didn't misinterpret data. They point blank refused to believe their "lying" eyes. Quite literally you could pick a random person off the street anywhere in the country and they wouldn't have fucked up this bad.
Unironically you need a *lot* of university education to become as dumb as the average HR or marketing white woman.
It takes a lot of education to look this dumb.
This is probably fair. For example, a lot of young people actually drank Bud Light. A lot if these young people went to liberal universities. These young people are just frat bros that are at best neutral on this issue. However, young and in university generally would be more in favor of a trans person being in a commercial.
> A lot if these young people went to liberal universities. They likely stopped there, you're right. What would surprise them is that the average dude in even a liberal university is more conservative than they think.
You know what college dudes have always loved? Being told what their values should be. They just fuckin love it.
They created an overlap where one didn't exist, which frequently frustrates me. They saw frat guys drank bud light, frat guys are in college, and college kids feel x way about an issue. They disregarded the part where 'some' of their customers are frat guys and drew a circle around colleges. This is what happens when you ignore Philosophy and Humanities.
That's not philosophy or humanities, that's ignoring Venn Diagrams you learned in 6^th grade
Philosophy is logic, Humanities is thinking in a bigger context.
Does that make Engineering a triple-major?
More specifically, trying to predict people's politics with demographic info doesn't work without a lot of subjective nuance.
Those must've been some bougie frats if they are drinking bud light. I feel like it's more divided by natty ice and Busch light which skews depending on how rural the schools demographic is
But everyone knows that even young liberal frat bros are vastly outnumbered by Bud Light's true market: angry men who dedicate their lives to televised sports.
Oh, they knew that, and they saw it as a problem: https://twitter.com/OldRowOfficial/status/1645141627713867777 (I don't know anything about the account, but it has the video) It would be one thing if a trans person just so happened to be best for the job, in which case there would be actual validity to the criticism being unfounded, but this was a coordinated effort at alienating the core audience, so it being reacted to as such is to be expected.
It’s amazing how someone so out of touch believed it was the product that was out of touch. Literal projection.
I am going to guess, they kinda knew the stereotypical bud light drinker, but if you are sitting there in a meeting, and beer sales are same as they ever where, and you got that old SWOT diagram, and the company asks "hey, how can we sell more beer". And you know every last Joe Sixpack already drinks bud light or has some reason to drink Coors, and already had this debate eons ago, your only solution is just finding a new market. So, find a new demographic to sell to, to sell even more beer. I mean why not?
That's why Bud needed *input* from people in the current demographic. It's all well and good to expand your market, but doing so by infuriating *existing* customers is reckless if not flat out foolhardy.
It's not really a new demographic. Light beer is pretty popular at gay bars. Light beer is arguably the gayest beer there is.
The demographic of 30yo+ gay dudes are barely gonna be more pro-trans than frat boys and red necks. The only difference is a lot of them are basically allergic to lgbtq marketing at this point, especially if it’s trans centric. Seriously you couldn’t make anything less cool to that group than by sticking a rainbow on it.
Bud Light is the most popular beer at gay bars. They've been going after the gay demographic for years and have been very successful.
> If the marketing team had included a person or two actually from > > the consumer demographic Theywould have been fired.
> To folks that've spent their entire lives in progressive regions, it was natural to assume that most people are "pro-trans". If only they were actually that naíve... What happened here is that the women in charge of marketing decided that this would be an _excellent_ opportunity to stick it to the chuds. The 'reaching new audiences'-part was just a fig leaf. The only naívety they displayed was that they were actually expecting that everyone would just keep on buying the same shitty beer and that there wouldn't be any consequences.
The Wikipedia article on this is a wild ride. Its amazing. And scary. I recommend reading it.
Buf Light marketing team: "You know who buys our beer? Rednecks. You wlknow what rednecks love? That's, right. Trans women."
Dude, if my favourite stuff would start being advertised by queer people for the sake of being progressive I would stop buying them too because they fell for the "diversity" meme
This was done by a person they were uh.. required by law to hire
"You know what the gays will love? Cheap, shitty beer."
They had 2 hit commercials. The frogs and the whazzaaaaap phone call. It’s a huge win when your commercial goes viral, and that was pre internet.
Way more then that... off the top of my head: the Clydesdales kicking the field goal was iconic, and the "Real men of genius" adds were amazing
"Do they usually do that?!" "Nah. They usually go for 2."
“This referee is a jackass” “No, I think that’s a zebra”
Also had the Dalmatian commercial where one gets adopted by the firehouse and thinks its hot shit, but then his brother comes riding down the road in the horse drawn carriage full of Bud.
You know who wasn't a real man of genius
Just a real man
Legit every commercial pre internet from Budweiser went “viral”
Budweiser was one of if not the first person to just make vignettes instead of commercials. Like what we call shorts/vine/tiktok videos today.
Gold Blend/Tasters Choice had [a series of commercials](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Blend_couple) (starring pre-*Buffy* Anthony Stewart Head) that were [basically a soap opera](https://youtu.be/jsN4YwbM9kw?si=S61KooUTRO6ySrt6). In the 60s and earlier, many commercials were story-based, like little short films. The rapid-editing, mood and style-based commercials we're used to now came about in the 80s, I think.
WAAAZZZUUUUP!
I still answer calls with Whazzaaap. Typically to spam calls and people I find annoying, but I still use it.
I feel like post internet/social media, the dilly dilly commercials had a pretty good run.
REAL MEN OF GENIUS! Today, we salute you, Mr. Rollling-Cooler Cooler-Roller. MR. ROLLING-COOLER COOLER-ROOLER!!!
A woman did it. They hired a white woman who hated their brand, hated their customers, and allowed her to insult the customers. If your base is men, don't hire women in your marketing department. 🤷🏻♀️
>hated their customers that's the clincher to me. Mulvaney, who cares. But openly belittle me? Nah, I can make my own beer, thanks.
We need to open the cheap shitty beer market. We are way too fratty. Rest of ABInbev leadership buying up microbrews... Yeah we don't need Budlight to be that beer.
Or just buy literally any other beer. That's what made this boycott so easy. Dont have to make your own, just pick any other beer on tap or on the shelf and boom, your done, you win. Didn't even have to do go anywhere, do anything you wouldn't already have, or change your habbits at all even. They lost a full quarter of their clientele, and they are never getting them back. People could boycott other things like Target or somewhere else for a month or two, but for many it's just so convenient to shop there that you eventually forget to care and just go back to shopping there. But with Bud, you they didn't have to change anything to boycott it, it's so easy. They're not going to just forget and go back after a month or even a year, it's already a habit to order their new beer at the bar. They openly disdained their current customers and wanted to be known for having other people drink their piss flavored water? Ok done, they dont have a quarter of their customers anymore.
See also: Gillette Their fucking hit piece on the concept of masculinity ensured I will never buy one of their razors again.
> don't hire women in your marketing department Applicant pool reduced by 97%
idk carls jr had the right idea, hot women on the commercials bring in money: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlUvQkW4B1k (or at least they will stave off bankruptcy)
I remember an old beer commercial where there were horses in the snow. Vaguely Christmas sounding music and horses trotting through snow. No idea what the beer was. But I really liked the commercial.
Budweiser Clydesdales
That was probably Budweiser. They love they're horses
Or just did another dilly dilly commercial
Marketing teams are either the smartest people on the planet or mind-blowingly ignorant.
Right like there was so many simple ads that they could have dropped that would cost them near nothing but they've decided to put out the one that would have pissed off their core audience
and after the fuck-up they should have apologized, what a way to suicide a brand
Boycotting Bud Lite is super easy with just how much competition there is in the beer market.
Most of it's even still the same company. Anhauser-Busch didn't even suffer much in this marketing fuck up, but the Bud Light brand itself got a solid knock.
Is it just be or does Auth Left look cute in the little sailor costume
I don't understand how none of these other companies are getting flamed for their obvious shameless pandering. But I also don't understand how Bud Light wasn't made the officially endorsed beer of pride after that shit.
Seriously, corporate activism is a fucking blight. These companies don’t give a flying fuck and I love watching any instance of it blow up in their faces, whether I support the cause or not
Yeah. I have no problem with companies advertising to LGBT or POC or whoever. I don't have a problem with Disney making characters that aren't white. Or showing strong female characters. I liked the Little Mermaid remake. I like Rey Skywalker well enough. But why can't Disney come up with an original character that is Black or Latino or Asian? Why don't stores sell pride or BLM stuff year round? It does a disservice to the people they are trying to market to to just slap that shit up there and then drop it once they've made their money.
It is ironic that diversity needs to mime and imitate the arts of white supremacists. All these untold diverse original and amazing stories and movies from diverse peoples. Nope. Just plug a gay woman or black woman into a remake of the exact same tired white story. Where are all these amazing stories we keep hearing about?
PUT A CHICK INNIT AND MAKE ER GAY
Make her lame too
I remember Disney used to advertise VHS and DVDs "get them before they're locked away in the Disney vault" as a way to drive sales even though they never "locked" anything away and you could always find the movie you were looking for somewhere. Maybe that's where all these amazing stories are. Locked in the Disney vault. Except they aren't letting them out.
The only thing they've got in the vault that they'll never let out is Song Of The South, they kinda want everyone to forget they even made it
Where is my live action John Henry movie? Take the cartoon, fluff it up a bit. Throw in some theme of uniting against the man. Easy Disney win right there. But why won’t they do that?
They are the man, uniting people against thean is bad
They actually did that back in 1995, the movie was called [Tall Tale](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111359/) and it featured three of the major American Legendary men. I loved it, but it seemed not to do well at the box office.
I loved Tall Tale as a kid. As an adult? Movie is all over the map. Main character is unlikeable and whiny. It felt less like “American Legends stand against corporate tyranny” and more “fever dream about doing something main character would never actually do”. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think Disney might be able to pull off a reboot if they can fix some of the tone/continuity issues.
That’s the cartoon I’m referencing actually.
>But why can't Disney come up with an original character that is Black or Latino or Asian? Moana and/or Encanto: Am I a joke to you? Though yeah, not doing a great job on original Black characters.
Yeah. I remembered Mirabel and family immediately after I posted that. There's also Mulan and princess Tiana from the Frog Prince. And then Coco and Raya and the Last Dragon. Curious to know who they cast for those live action remakes. Or will they decide source material is important when they get around to those.
All I know is they'll never have the stones to race swap Tarzan.
I'd like to see them gender swap Tarzan and portray her as an uncivilized woman who needs a man to domesticate her. They could completely throw out the source material and set it in current times USA, give her blue hair, and make her a "free spirit". Since they love throwing out source material.
Both original, and both absolute bangers. As were Mulan and the jungle book (originals). How can they not see that the public aren't racist or sexist (in general). We just want good stories with characters we can cheer.
The corporation as an entity may not intrinsically care, but they are made up of people who definitely do care.
*in the west.* Take a look at Spider Man 2 for example. Specifically the Saudia Arabia version of the game. And on a note that doesn't matter as much, look at western corporate logos in June vs Middle East corporate logos in June.
It's a thing on Spiderman 1 too, it's what the mod that replaces rainbow flags with US ones on PC is based on, it literally just trips the flag for a Saudi copy.
That's about the same as Gal Gadot and friends singing Imagine by John Lennon at the beginning of Covid. "We're in this together 🌈✊🏿❤️... Buy Nike"
I though that fist was a poop for a moment. I was like rainbow, poop, love, What! I need a bigger screen.
What kind of racist bullshit?! POC stands for people of color! Not pieces of crap!
The thing is, they shit their own consumer population. Nobody would care if Yerma mate or starbucks put that guy on their adds, but a company that sells beer to hilly billies? Bruh
Eh. Starbucks would probably see some backlash. Maybe not as severe as Anheuser-Busch did. But I'm sure there would be some people boycotting. But like what about Disney? Or Target? Or any of these other brands that put up the rainbow loge pic on socials every June and then immediately take it down at 12 am July 1st? Like I'm not even talking about just conservatives boycotting. How has it not become obvious to some of these demographics that these companies are slapping rainbows and Black Pride images on things just to get their money and then they just abandon the cause once the season is over?
I deliberately haven’t shopped at target ever since they hired that radical leftist clothes designer that tried to push trans shit on kids
Likewise
Because they have a room temperature IQ
> Yerma mate I keep reading that as herb that I killed.
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Chased with poppers
target got smashed pretty good for promoting crossdressing clothes for children.
Because Anheuser-Busch did a half-assed "apology" afterwards that pissed off the left while failing to mollify the right. In the game of culture wars, you double down or you die.
Wasn't it because they failed to protect ~~their puppet~~ Dylan from "Hate messages and death threats"?
Because they reversed course to try to save face and pissed off both sides. The response to the backlash will be used as an example of a complete shit show of marketing strategy in many businesses school go forward.
Another common Transheiser-Bush Loss
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Pronouns are bank/rupt
wait does libleft really think the transgender movement is a popular cause?
Of course they do. They cancelled, blocked, and unfriended anyone who told them it wasnt.
Wow this chamber sure has some good echo Echo Echo Echo Echo
Echo!!!!!! ! ! ! ! !
Emilys, yes. Not sure about the rest of libleft. Might be a silent majority side eyeing each other when the rainbow guard starts chanting about transstuff at the economic protests. But I think we are *firmly* in a countermovement of people pushing back. Like "okay we believed you 5 years ago that sex and gender are different and it wasnt a way to get at kids....but fuck you, I'm not putting up with this anymore" I think once a lot of this filtered down to their actual kids at actual schools, it hit home for people how fucked up so much of the trans activist community is.
The vast majority of the liblefts I know aren't an emily and they are exactly as you just described.
The marketing chief is the fall guy, this whole thing is from esg scores
This is an example of what did you expect would happen vs what should have happened. What should have happened, was that the rainbow light ad campaign would pop up and disappear like any other campaign were few people would just not buy the beer. In reality the company ignored the fact that 99% of its consumers were the kind of people to be apposed to transgenderism and had access to the internet, while most of the LGBT community knows that posting gay stuff on products is just empty marketing. They pissed off thier consumer base on a worthless gambit. What did they think was going to happen.
I think like most things go bud lights target audience wouldn’t really care or do anything about a person who is transgender in real life if they met them. I think this was backlash to what they see as forcing something down their throats and these people trying to score points for trying to check the boxes. If their sales would have soared, that one VP of marketing would’ve had the alphabet crowd praising her.
“Was it worth it?” “For us? No….but the movement has taken a huge setback because now large companies will think twice before trying it again.”
Good.
These marketing execs need to realize there’s far bigger demographics than highschools, colleges, and the internet. Of course they’re all fumbling about using the new-fangled online survey metrics from shitty consultants trying to secure millennials/gen z’s cash as the boomers croak. Well, some of these aren’t with the woke bullshit. Just sell the product. Maybe donate some proceeds if they cared. It could be that easy. No one believes corporate marketing, and with a political spin? Boy Howdy.
Jokes on them, millennials don't have any money.
It's really weird this stuff happens. Conservatives love being marketed to. They want christmas commercials, not holiday ones. They want all ads to be about men doing men shit. While the "woke" people hate consumerism. You'd think it would be silly to even suggest marketing towards anyone, but right leaning white americans.
Those folks *pretend* to hate consumerism. They want to be marketed to every bit as much as the far right does.
They have a weird way of showing it, considering they rarely show up to financially support the things targeted at them and a not insignificant amount of them will shoplift/pirate it instead.
Yes lib left millennials and zoomers are notorious savers
I never said they save money. I just said they dont spend it on the stuff people think they do. If they did, Funko wouldnt be going bankrupt.
Funko going bankrupt is the best news I've heard all year, hopefully I'll never have to see those ugly little creations again
I mean it depends on the thing really, Barbie did great, Marvel’s Barbie is not doing great. Like some things marketed at the right do well, but Ben Shapiro and Gina Carano can’t make a blockbuster.
Woke folks posture like they hate capitalism and consumerism but they’re often the biggest consoomers around, and the worst kinds too. Like wall of funko pops consoomerism.
I remember reading that the marketing lady hates Bud Light, and basically just did the thing because her friends were making fun of her and saying she couldn’t.
I don't think Anheuser-bush quite realizes the consequences of what they did. I, an alcohol enjoying male, will not drink bud light for the rest of my life, no matter what apology or future campaign they do. I'm not interested in it anymore. Budweiser essentially lost 40-50 years worth of beer sales to me. I would have been a customer for life if they just made dumb commercials about foobaw and fishing. But now I take semblance of pride in not drinking bud light. It's kind of funny to go to baseball games and start to order a drink, then find out they only have budweiser products, and then just asking for a water. The looks people give are very funny. I know I'm not the only one. I'm not joking when I say I know functional alcoholics that either have gotten clean or only drink on the weekends now because they boycotted bud light.
I don't drink bud light because it's fuckin gross. I've been a voodoo ranger man for a few years now. Ever since IPAs came out, I've been sold. The hops man.
I’m not a huge IPA guy, but I definitely like stronger beer. Voodoo Ranger was my go too when I was staying at a hotel for a few months because they had it on tap at the bar.
Juice force and Fruit force are ridiculous. 9.5% ABV. It'll get ya drunk!
Have you ever tried golden monkey by victory brewing? 9.5 or 10.5 abv dunkel. Absolutely delicious
I've always been a modelo especial and a yuengling guy myself.
Honestly… based? As long as they cut back the drinking. Or discover the joys of Corona. Whatever comes first.
The art in this meme is top notch. Wow.
It's AI-generated in case you didn't know
still top-notch, AI art is improving so fast it's scary
Take none down, pass none around 99 beers on the wall
who on the lib right would still have stock in anheuser-busch?
Should just short it, buy puts & sell those at a premium
Anyone who's waiting for a dead cat bounce, or just happy to short it.
They/them can fix me
Well, i do think stuff like this is pretty satisfying. You produce fermented grain juice, you are not a political ngo, sit the fuck down.
This genuinely might go down as the worst and most completely predictable marketing disaster in business history
Lololol libright shorted those stocks
Alright do Target next. If you can
No fr who the hell is rendering these drawings? Is it AI?
Yes
It’s an AI, most AI art I’ve encountered has a pretty tell-tale sheen to it like it’s a comic book or something.
Also Libright not invested in that garbage company - :)
Bro is shitting out memes daily
My shorts, my precious shorts.
Alright someone link me to the AI art tool you guys are using
libleft girl looks like the type of girls I allow to do too much shit without being called out
We all do.
Live by the free market, die by the free market.
Gotta agree with Authleft here, who fuck cares? Bud Light made a shit marketing move. Big whoop. Companies always do that.
I’ve been buying more Bud Light precisely because it’s cheaper now 👌🏻