Posted on 05/04/2023 9:36:05 AM PDT by Red Badger
One of the iron rules of wokeism that corporations and CEOs have absorbed is this: You never turn your back on the LGBTQ. No matter the backlash, no matter the criticism, if you embrace a transgender influencer or gay advocate or someone similar, you have to stick with them no matter what they throw at you. It's just part of the game now.
So this is really quite incredible, and underscores the success of the Bud Light boycott:
Anheuser-Busch CEO Michel Doukeris addressed the Bud Light controversy on an earnings call with investors Thursday, downplaying the brand's partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney that prompted a boycott from conservatives. ...
"We need to clarify the facts that this was one camp, one influencer, one post and not a campaign," Doukeris said.
Dude is down on his knees like:
So why is he doing this? Why is this guy violating one of the basic principles of woke corporate management in the 21st century? Why would he do such an insanely risky thing?
Well, need I remind you that his company is absolutely and completely hemorrhaging money right now:
Sales are down over 25%. That kind of collapse is just catastrophic, especially for the highly competitive, low-margin beer industry.
Moreover, in this one specific instance, there's little reason for him to try and cozy up to the transgender lobby. Dylan Mulvaney is creepy. He's a weird, obviously unwell dude. He's (hopefully) got people in his life who love and care about him, but the only people with any professional allegiance to him at this point are his doctors and Drew Barrymore. Nobody wants to stand by him.
So yes, Bud Light is running for the hills on this. You can't blame them. And you can pretty well hear the jaw-clenched, grim, joyless resolve in Doukeris's voice:
"We believe we have the experience, the resources and the partners to manage this. And our four-year growth outlook is unchanged," Doukeris said.
Good luck, Bud Light. You will need it, cuz I'm still not drinking your beer.
Save the Clydesdales!!!!
They’re trying to say it was just one can. Right. I can’t imagine how much they would have to spend to design ONE can and make it when the factories are geared for chugging out millions of cans.
You are not gonna sell something to regular guys that is now known as
Tranny Fluid
Queer Beer
Butt Like
Ooops.
FU Budweiser!!!
So, an outside marketing firm has the ability to somehow imprint an image - any image - on one of your products, and no one authorized it or knew about it?
I might believe that if the image was taped on the can.
“Anheuser-Busch is (finally) throwing Dylan Mulvaney under the bus in a desperate attempt to reassure investors.”
______________________________________________________
Dylan doesn’t care...he got his money and the attention
he desperately seeks.
Marko
It wasn’t us; it was a low-level staffer/clerk who did it.
The point is, this was a good call, earnings were 65 cents per share vs and expectation of 59 cents. Investors were thrilled and the stock is up $2.50 a share today. No change to end of year guidance, life is good at BUD.
Today.
Now we have to wait and see how next quarter looks, and the summer months are good beer-drinkin’ months so they not only have a chance to feel the Bud Light pain but also to make it up by selling their other brands. All that matters to the investor community is EPS, how they get it is irrelevant. Even financial magik can be done to make the next quarter look wonderful regardless of how much Bud Light is sitting on shelves, corporate beancounters always keep a few tricks up their sleeves for exactly this kind of situation.
It’s a war not a battle, and the only time that victory can be declared is if and when you see BUD revise earnings guidance. That will mean they have admitted defeat and are trying to get ahead of bad news. Only time will tell, unless that happens this will be another tempest in a .. beer bottle.
Does that mean Shinyhiney is history?
It ain’t only Bud Light that is being boycotted. Bet it is the entire brand.
JCPenney embraced the LGBQ+ community. I’m sure they feel better without their heterosexual customers.
“I’ve heard there has been a lot more competition in beer markets in recent years, and that local microbrew beers have become very popular”
That and the seltzer drinks are red hot. Whiteclaw, Corona and a ton of others put a hurt on beer sales even before this mess with AB.
As did Fox Lite.
It’s still not a boycott. It’s a total rejection. Most people who have reacted to this controversy don’t really care if Bud Light repents. I know I am enjoying the schadenfreude way too much. It is not the point to get bud to do anything but to warn other companies of what can happen to them. The warning won’t get across if people start drinking bud light again.
“Zima”
now there’s a blast from the past ... zima’s problem, though, was that it was simply 30 years ahead of it’s time ... today’s children seem to be drinking nothing BUT zima-like canned flavored fizzy alcoholic beverages ...
👍
“warn other companies of what can happen to them”
The warning will not be effective unless A-B cleans house and fires all senior executives.
That is a message senior executives of other companies will understand. They will then understand that they must actively crush wokeness in their organization—just saying “it is not my job” won’t cut it. The war on wokeness is everybody’s job.
For instance, there’s a story on WSJ today after the earnings call saying that Budweiser would be tripling it’s marketing/advertising spending this summer and is providing “financial support to front-line teams and wholesalers who have taken the brunt of a backlash to the (promotion)”.
In other words, they’re planning to ride out the storm, knowing people will be back to buying Bud Light like nothing ever happened in a month or two. And that they’re going to see pretty Clydesdale and Mom/Apple Pie commercials on TeeVee and remember how good (!) a cold Bud Light would taste right now.
Well, that’s exactly what they’re thinking.
So it’s up to the public to show them they’re wrong, or sit by and watch that scenario happen.
😆
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