It wasn't about inviting in new customers, it was about making a political statement. Had they been thinking about total sales they would have considered the pros vs cons of any move they made.

ESG is such a big driving force that companies need to posture publicly. That's why they did it in a big way on tv during a major sporting event. They thought they were going to get praised for being so woke.

I guess revitalizing Spuds McKenzie never crossed her mind. It would have fit right in with the woke agenda - a female dog playing a male, and trying to appeal to children.

Spuds McKenzie

“It Took Me 20 Years to Build This Brand, They Dismantled it in a Week,” Says Man Behind Bud’s Iconic Ads
by Will Jones

The marketing guru behind Budweiser’s famed ‘Whassup!‘ and ‘Talking Frogs‘ advertisements has slammed the company for destroying its reputation. The Telegraph has the story.

Robert Lachky, whose adverts in the 1990s helped Budweiser become America’s most popular beer, said two decades of work had been ruined over Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney fiasco.

“It took us 20 years to take Bud Light beer to the No 1 beer in the country and it took them one week to dismantle it,” Mr Lachky, Anheuser-Busch’s former chief creative officer, said.

Bud Light has faced a revolt by conservative activists after partnering with transgender social media influencer Mulvaney.

Sales have plummeted since Mulvaney, 26, shared videos of himself drinking from customised Bud Light cans with his own face depicted on them.

Mr. Lachky told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Bud Light had no one but itself to blame for its drop in popularity.

“It’s self-inflicted,” he said, adding that Anheuser-Busch suffered from “a complete lack of corporate oversight”. …

Executives have tried to bat away criticism by saying that Mulvaney was never actually partnered with them, despite his video including the hashtag #budlightpartner.

Michel Doukeris, Chief Executive of Anheuser-Busch Global, on Monday blamed “misinformation and disinformation” for spreading rumours that cans with Mulvaney’s face would be sold nationwide.

Mr Lachky told the New York Post that Bud Light was fanning the “flames on their own with their defensive comments”.

During his tenure at Anheuser-Busch, Mr Lachky created numerous Superbowl commercials that gained world-wide recognition.

The advert in which three frogs croak “bud,” “weiss” and “err”, was called “one of the most iconic alcohol campaigns in advertising history” by Adweek.



https://dailysceptic.org/2023/...ind-buds-iconic-ads/

Who knows what effect all this hub bub will have.

The media, broadcast and social got what they wanted .
Drama to exploit.

I don't know about transgender forums (if they exist)
Do you suppose they were "on fire" ?

With demand for booze the way it is in this country,
No one at A.B. is very concerned.

Not that I drink A-B products, except for when the wife and I toured the brewery in St Louis while on a vacation, but it seems to me that Bud Light is beyond redeeming as a brand name now.

A-B will probably drop the brand name totally, and just rename it, as something else that is “new and improved” that appeals to a certain segment within society.

quote:

A-B will probably drop the brand name totally, and just rename it, as something else that is “new and improved” that appeals to a certain segment within society.

Seriously? Before this, it was the #1 selling brand in their portfolio, and the #1 selling brand in the entire US market.
Even if it drops to #3, it's still huge.

quote:

No one at A.B. is very concerned.

They are planning to triple their ad buys for Bud Light this year.
They seem concerned.

quote:

No one at A.B. is very concerned.

They are planning to triple their ad buys for Bud Light this year.
They seem concerned.[/QUOTE]

I can assure you that they are very concerned- they just don’t know what to do. They stepped in it, but I think they are afraid of angering the woke crowd, so are afraid to apologize.

These guys could run the gov't. Ignore the real problem, refuse to acknowledge their mistake, throw money at it and truly believe that will fix things, while it fixes absolutely nothing.

Well, to be fair, AB actually has to provide a service/product. The Govt...not so much.

Yeah, I'll bet the marketing people at AB are absolutely making a show of how concerned they are...probably having meetings to discuss the previous meeting! Bud Light has actually had some memorable promotions over the years, but this one will be the one that's remembered.

Yeah, they're having pre-meetings, post-meeting, to discuss the strategy for the upcoming pre-meeting pre-meeting.

All that money wasted for tution. All that time wasted in the echo chamber of the American university.

You don't have to go to college these days in order to be completely full of shit, but it certainly seems to increase your output of manure.

^^^^^

I was in Costco in Iowa City on Friday,
The U of Iowa is graduating 5500 youngsters this last weekend,

I saw a half a dozen orange flat carts with many dozens of cases of AB products being pushed to the registers.

But Jo Co Iowa is pretty darn Biden friendly.

quote:

quote from the post by Chellim1:
“It took us 20 years to take Bud Light beer to the No 1 beer in the country and it took them one week to dismantle it,” Mr Lachky, Anheuser-Busch’s former chief creative officer, said.

Bud Light has faced a revolt by conservative activists after partnering with transgender social media influencer Mulvaney.

Sales have plummeted since Mulvaney, 26, shared videos of himself drinking from customised Bud Light cans with his own face depicted on them.

Wrong. There was no organized revolt led by “conservative activists,” there was just a large number of men who said, “Fuck this, I’m not buyin’ it.” Whoever interviewed Lachky interjected their own bias into the article.

I have seen several mail in manufacturers rebates in last 2 days from $6 to $15 for AB. The sell by date is creeping up and it’s cheaper to subsidise And drop the net price then truck it back and properly dispose of the beer. We will see how this goes.

I was at Costco in Mobile AL on Saturday 5-13 and there was quite a bit for sale and the price per can for a suitcase wasn’t that fabulous. And where I live the Walmart and other supermarkets still have it full to the brim in to their beer aisle… full as in either constantly restocked or nobody is taking any to the register.

The public denial these executives is astounding. Integrally at AB they have to be seriously concerned this is going on 45 days + now.

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:

quote:

quote from the post by Chellim1:
“It took us 20 years to take Bud Light beer to the No 1 beer in the country and it took them one week to dismantle it,” Mr Lachky, Anheuser-Busch’s former chief creative officer, said.

Bud Light has faced a revolt by conservative activists after partnering with transgender social media influencer Mulvaney.

Sales have plummeted since Mulvaney, 26, shared videos of himself drinking from customised Bud Light cans with his own face depicted on them.

Wrong. There was no organized revolt led by “conservative activists,” there was just a large number of men who said, “Fuck this, I’m not buyin’ it.” Whoever interviewed Lachky interjected their own bias into the article.

Once again, like many of the articles/links posted, the writer/author injects their own bias by framing those who are opposed to what A-B did and their reaction, as being 'an organized effort', 'led by radical extremists', they can't process there's just a lot of people who find their actions distasteful.
But, but, we've been supporting LGBTQ+ groups in ad and events for decades and this was no different
Maybe so but, you failed to read the room and crossed the line, now you're paying for your error in judgement. Hope it hurts.

This, of course, was the market they were trying tto appeal to. However I bet they didn't want to lose they majority of their legacy market in order to do so.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
I was in Costco in Iowa City on Friday,
The U of Iowa is graduating 5500 youngsters this last weekend,

I saw a half a dozen orange flat carts with many dozens of cases of AB products being pushed to the registers.

But Jo Co Iowa is pretty darn Biden friendly.

quote:

Once again, like many of the articles/links posted, the writer/author injects their own bias by framing those who are opposed to what A-B did and their reaction, as being 'an organized effort', 'led by radical extremists', they can't process there's just a lot of people who find their actions distasteful.

Yes, of course...

quote:

Mr. Lachky told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Bud Light had no one but itself to blame for its drop in popularity.

Any time you're talking to anyone who writes for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, you're talking to a leftist-activist.

I was at Total Wine Friday. They have huge racks of beer, moved by forklift and the bud and budlight was stacked tall racks high, coors light and miller light were all running low and yeungling was almost sold out.
20% down is BS it's when all is said and done, I bet they are down 60-70% in the US market.

I was a marketing major in college so this is something I have tried to stay tuned into, for fun if you will.
I think there are a lot of take aways here. First off marketing and advertising degrees are often if not always in the "Arts" college. Even when I went to school in Dallas there were a lot of progressive and yes gay teachers and students. I think a much higher percentage than in the business school. So these folks with marketing degrees tend to buy into this progressive stuff. I think that is a major pitfall that we are seeing play out. How the hell did maybeline go full dylan AFTER the bud light fiasco? That just seems stupid.

Secondly, I recall when In Bev bought AB. There were a lot of people, myself included, who for a short time refused to buy Bud. We came back to the brand because it didn't really change. The ads were the same, mostly, and there didn't seem to be a brand hijacking.

There are millions of loyal bud light drinkers, I was one of them. But how does the INBev sellout and the Dylan thing compare? I look at it this way. Bud and Bud light were selling American ideals as much as they were selling beer. When the Dylan thing hit essentially Bud broke its promise to stay normal american middle of the road.

That was the promise you couldn't break. You stopped handing me 12 ounces of America and starting giving me 12 ounces of lefty bullshit.