One man’s empty beer keg is another man’s unfilled treasure … or something to that effect.
If you’re even nominally invested in America’s beer consumption culture, you’ve likely heard that Anheuser-Busch drove away swathes of loyal customers and cost itself billions of dollars in market value by working with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
To put it bluntly: The move has gone disastrously for the brand and the executive who reportedly pushed for the campaign.
But all that loss also represents an incredible opportunity for another brand to fill the vacuum left behind by Bud Light’s dwindling support.
Enter: D.G. Yuengling and Son, the wholly American-owned, Pennsylvania-based brewer.
Yuengling — which is also the oldest brewery in America — has seen a resurgence in the cultural zeitgeist, due in no small part to millions of beer drinkers looking elsewhere to get their fill.
This April 14 tweet, which simply stated that “we make good beer,” came out after much of the Anheuser-Busch brouhaha had taken place. It’s easily the most liked tweet the company has ever put out, currently sitting at over 62,000 likes:
Yuengling, The Oldest Brewery In America. Independently Owned and Family Operated since 1829 because we make good beer. pic.twitter.com/5TdmGiUc5R
— Yuengling Brewery (@yuenglingbeer) April 14, 2023
Have you tried Yuengling beer?
Yes: 60% (3 Votes)
No: 40% (2 Votes)
In fact, Bud Light’s blunders have been such an effective advertisement for Yuengling that people are discovering a year-old marketing campaign and appreciating it anew.
In a separate bit of social media virality, the South Carolina-based “Fairfield County Republican Party” Facebook page recently put out a post that has quickly garnered over 25,000 likes and 2,000 shares — and it’s again thanks to Yuengling’s resurgence.
That post simply stated “WELL PLAYED” and included a screen shot of this tweet:
Well played @yuenglingbeer take that @budlight pic.twitter.com/Urx1LGvTnU
— Kevin Thomas (@kevinsthomas) April 19, 2023
That tweet told Yuengling, “Well played,” while telling Bud Light to “take that,” and included an image of a case of Yuengling with three patriotic words on it: “Let’s Go USA.”
According to Yuengling, those cases first were announced in 2022 as part of its “Stars & Stripes” program, which is designed to honor and support America’s veterans.
Despite being a year-old campaign, the special commemorative cases (the cans are also “emblazoned with a unique desert camouflage print”) carried such a simple, pro-America message that they still resonated strongly in 2023.
While the original tweeter responded to a doubter by stating that he bought the case “this week,” the veracity of the tweet’s claims are almost irrelevant. It’s besides the point.
The point is that even a year-old marketing campaign has proven to be wildly more effective than the gender ideology-driven campaign that Bud Light peddled recently.
And the secret sauce to that formula isn’t even that secret: Most beer drinkers are patriotic, everyday Americans who don’t want to be lectured to that up is down and men are women.
It’s really not that complicated.
Anheuser-Busch and Yuengling are both learning that in real-time.
