I’ve seen comparisons of this to the New Coke.
Now the problem with this is really simple; Coca Cola sales SPIKED after that mistake. It took a proposed change in formula to make people realize they really did love the product that may have been going away. The protest was in favor for the company not changing anything.
The head of marketing stayed on and wrote a book about it. However this is one time in marketing history a mistake was turned into a positive.
The other crisis mentioned was Tylenol as a textbook example of how to save and rehabilitate a brand in the worst of circumstances.
Bud Light has done absolutely nothing to rehabilitate the brand or enhance or make people love the product more that they may have liked previously.
This is about the worst corporate decision making I have ever seen.
Exactly right! They've now aptly and unconsciously re-named themselves as "BUTT-LIGHT.. The QUEER BEER!"