Despite desperate attempts to move on from its recent mistakes, Bud Light seemingly cannot repair its image.
By now almost everyone is familiar with the story. Just to recap, however, a few months ago, Bud Light partnered with transgender influencer and activist Dylan Mulvaney for an advertising campaign, with Mulvaney’s face pictured on their beer can in a social media video.
The move led to a massive backlash against the brand and its parent company Anheuser-Busch, with the company losing revenue and finding itself forced to part ways with the executives responsible for the fiasco.
Bud Light seems to have gotten the message, however, and its latest ad promoting summer beer sales is an attempt to return to the classic advertising that people loved about the company.
The new ad posted to Twitter on Sunday shows two women with a pack of Bud Light walking outside on a sunny summer day.
Summer Sunday made easy pic.twitter.com/Q2o8q7RxMy
— Bud Light (@budlight) July 16, 2023
Despite the innocent, fun nature of this ad, people still took the opportunity to express their frustration with the company for its decision to get involved with Dylan Mulvaney.
Some people responded to the post with pictures and videos of people throwing packs of Bud Light into dumpsters.
The uncropped version of the photo pic.twitter.com/80kqJpF23k
— NautPoso 🇮🇪☘️ (@NautPoso) July 16, 2023
This is how I make my summer easy. pic.twitter.com/29NsUZBDop
— ♠️Audsauce♠️ (@Audjuice9989) July 16, 2023
One Twitter user simply wrote, “I’d rather drink Urine.”
I’d rather drink Urine
— Stevie Stacks 🇺🇸🇮🇱🐋 (@StevieStacks84) July 16, 2023
These are some pretty harsh words for the company, but not unexpected, given the recent firestorm. What is fascinating, however, is that it is now nearly four months since the controversy erupted, and the story has not gone away.
Conservatives are used to boycotting woke companies, but these boycotts are usually small and last only a week or two.
In the case of Bud Light, however, the story has been going on for four months and it still shows no signs of going away anytime soon. Bud Light even took major losses during the Fourth of July holiday, traditionally a big money-maker for beer companies.
Do you think Bud Light will ever recover?
Yes: 0% (0 Votes)
No: 100% (3 Votes)
The phrase “Get woke, go broke” is a cliche at this point, but there seems to be an aspect of truth to it.
Bud Light might be the first company whose business is permanently scarred by the consequences of its woke decision-making.