Bud Light poured decades of LGBTQ allyship down the drain—and now everyone’s mad (over target/they just blinked alert)

Fast Company ^ | April 29, 2023 | Jeff Beer

[DoodleBob]

...Most of the focus and headlines these past few weeks has been on how much the promo with Mulvaney has cost Bud Light in sales, customers, and brand value among people who disagree with the company aligning itself with a trans person. What the brand should really be worried about, though, is the longer-term impact among the much, much larger audience it was coveting in the first place.

Beer sales overall have been on a steady decline for years, and beer brands have been forced to navigate the palates of younger generations steering increasingly toward spirits, cocktails, hard seltzer, and nonalcoholic options. Bud Light has long talked about the need to expand its brand audience to be younger and more diverse, especially given that this cohort is drinking less than previous generations, and identifies as LGBTQ much more.

In a podcast interview from March, just before this controversy erupted, Bud Light’s VP of marketing Alissa Heinerscheid spelled it out plainly. “If we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand,” she said, “there will be no future for Bud Light.”

So what changed over the past few weeks?

My colleague Rob Walker wrote last week that these past few weeks have shown how brand protests and boycotts have evolved into something that’s less a critique of a brand, and more about serving as a promotional event for its critics. An event, as Washington Post political reporter Philip Bump wrote, “in which conservatives use Bud Light as a foil for their own demonstrations of their right-wing bona fides.”

...

Instead of worrying about the impact on its sales of right-wing media and commentators, Bud Light should be considering the unintended impact of its silence.

[DoodleBob]

This article demonstrates that the Other Team is lying when they say it's about inclusion and harmony.

Don't be fooled. They don't care about trans people, just like they don't care about minorities. This was no boating accident.

They care about the destruction of individualism and vaporizing America's founding principles.

Most Americans are live-and-let-live folks. We don't have to be besties with everyone. For a long time we went about life with a mindset, to quote James Baldwin, that we can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.

Somewhere along the line, we went from live and let live, to You Shall Not Commit Mindcrime or else.

And The Other Side was winning.

Not now. They're on the run. The Other Side sees surrendering on Bud Light as a de facto Landing at Inchon, Normandy, or Midway. It is possibly the Turning Point.

If they fold on Bud Light, then MAYBE we will get back our Deplorable cultural swagger and get back to defending life, liberty and property.

The Others' reaction to Bud Light isn't about trans. It's way bigger.

[ComputerGuy]

The only reason this one doesn’t become a textbook example of business stupidity is because it’s woke.

[SaveFerris]

Get Woke, Go Broke

[MountainWalker]

There is a huge opening for corporations to actually appeal to normal men who are the primary consumers for certain products, and corporations deliberately go out of their way now to avoid it. It’s nuts.

[Gay State Conservative]

If we had known that Budweiser was always allied with depraved perverts we could have started the boycott long ago!

[joe fonebone]

What scares the crap out of them is that we DO have a say.
Our say is with our pocketbooks, and where we choose to spend our money.
Companies are in business to make money.
WE have the money.
We can easily bankrupt a woke company, and all we have to do is not purchase their product or service.
This means that they are basically powerless.
And this scares the crap out of them.

Now they are throwing out the shade in an attempt to make us fail. Do not fall for it.
We are over target and taking flak.
Do not swerve.
Stay on target.

[Neverlift]

From the article: “The Trevor Project estimates that each year, more than 1.8 million LGBTQ youth in the United States seriously consider suicide.”

Drinking beer helps?

[RoosterRedux]

The question arises, "Who stood to gain from the destruction of Bud Light (AB-InBev)?"

Did someone (like Alissa Heinerscheid's husband) short the stock?

[FlingWingFlyer]

I just can’t visualize sexual deviants being big Bud drinkers. Most of them are artsy fartsies. They more than likely prefer those designer beers made in bath tubs.

[SaveFerris]

I saw somebody had refused a Bud Light that was delivered to their table (this was several days ago)

It didn’t hit me at first, what had just happened and then I was ..... OH!!!

LOL

[Varda]

Live and let live was always a lie. Buying a lie by normal people is why we’re where we are.
Destructive insane behavior is never neutral. Thinking that homosexuals are just an alternate normal isn’t reality.

[Codeflier]

This article is so damn stupid I almost hate to say anything. It seems to imply its largest market is the very market that doesn’t even drink Bud Light at all, while disrespecting the entire market that does drink Bud Light.

The stupidity...it burns!

[ConservativeDude]

i almost started drinking bud light so I could stop.

but i was way to nervous to go into my redneck honky tonk and order a bud light and then have to nervously explain myself...

[Crusher138]

The situation will not change until there is a large financial company that offers lines of credit to major corporations that rejects ESG.

Most of these “woke” companies are no such thing. They have to play along to keep their line of credit. ALL major sources of corporate credit are insisting companies meet ESG guidelines before they will extend them credit. This is what must change.

[StAnDeliver]

"Beer sales overall have been on a steady decline for years, and beer brands have been forced to navigate the palates of younger generations steering increasingly toward spirits, cocktails, hard seltzer, and nonalcoholic options. Bud Light has long talked about the need to expand its brand audience to be younger and more diverse, especially given that this cohort is drinking less than previous generations, and identifies as LGBTQ much more."

What a dopey, delusional assertion, if it could be charitably maligned. That's absurd. A-B InBev is one of the largest sellers of hard seltzer, malt-based RTD cocktails-in-a-can, and non-alcoholic options. They have a whole division dedicated to it called Beyond Beer. They couldn't care less where the money comes from.

[dware]

AB Inbev stock has finally begun reflecting the poor sales. It started last Friday, when the stock dipped below $62, I believe, since the beginning of the whole fiasco. Until last Friday, their stock bounced between $62-63. Today, the stock is down 1.20% from yesterday at $58.98. That said, the 52 week low is $44, so they have some wriggle room yet.

[DoodleBob]

A technical note - A-B’s parent is based in Belgium. Thus the USD stock movement reflects FX movements as well as the underlying. Focus should be in their EUR-denominated movements.

Since April 5, the USD-based stock is down 10.78%. The EUR-based stock is down 11.50%. The 78 basis point differential is meaningful.

Also the NYSE composite is down 1.33% during this time. The FTSE 100 is UP 0.91% during this time.

It’s worse than they want us to think, Jim.

[hanamizu]

I see the article pushing the idea that the alphabet people are the real majority and the real future and that normal people are the minority. If you don’t embrace their values, there is something wrong with you.

Reminds me a bit of the trick the Bolsheviks pulled. Although a distinct minority, they labeled themselves as the majority group and assigned the name Mensheviks (minority) to the actual majority group.

[CFW]

Thanks to the author for letting consumers know that Bud has had “decades of LGBTQ allyship”. The boycott will continue, only now with even more enthusiasm.

[Chgogal]

Just an observation, Disney stock is down over 50%. People are voting with their pocketbooks.