What was Budweiser thinking with this new advertising campaign?

I've heard from various sources that this decision to have a trans activist as a spokesperson has resulted in a near $6 billion loss in the overall value of the company and while this is a drop in the bucket as far as the overall worth is concerned of the company, nobody just shrugs off a loss of that magnitude.

I don't really care and even though I am conservative if Bud wants to have trans people, gay people, bisexual or bipolar people, whatever people as their representatives, I don't really give a shit. There are a lot of people in the conservative community who do care though and while I think it is dumb to base your purchasing decisions on things like this, Budweiser certainly had to know there was going to be some sort of backlash.

src

I'd never heard of Dylan Mulvaney before because I am not involved with youth culture and I've never even had a TikTok account and my involvement with Twitter is extremely limited as well. Apparently Dylan is quite famous with millions of followers and Budweiser thought it would be a good idea to engage with a more youthful audience.

I don't know what it takes to work in advertising but certainly there must have been someone in the ranks at Budweiser who might have brought up the point that nearly ALL Bud Light's existing customers are blue collar and probably quite conservative.

At the Elks Lodge, which is the only bar that I regularly go to, the boycott is very real. Nobody will order a Bud Light and they are contemplating not carrying it anymore. This isn't because the Elks Lodge necessarily wants to boycott But Light or Budweiser products in general, but because their customers wont order it now. Bud Light tastes basically exactly the same as anything else does and all of those folks that would have blindly ordered a Bud Light are now blindly ordering any lager other than Bud Light.

I've noticed that there is now a big push for people to buy Yuengling, which I've never much cared for aside from the fact that it is one of the cheap beers in the supermarket. Apparently the owner of Yuengling was a public Trump supporter and now everyone is gravitating towards that. I have to sigh a bit when I see things like this happening because honestly folks, does everything that we do in our lives have to be politically-oriented?

I will be honest, I am a little afraid to order a Budweiser product at the Elks Lodge because of the looks of disapproval that you are going to get from everyone else. It's not like I am afraid of my pals down there but I don't want to get in a discussion with one of them about Dylan Mulvaney because I know they will approach me as if I didn't already know about it. I don't live in a cave boys! I know!

src
_{Kid Rock shot up some cases of Bud Light with an "assault rifle." Which is about the most conservative thing you can do I guess}

What is astounding to me about this whole thing is that Budweiser would be so stupid. I get that they want to reach out to a new audience but the hipsters aren't going to start drinking Bud Light just because some influencer says they should. So let's say that they actually do get some new customers because of this... but at what cost? There are tons of politically motivated conservatives that are going to completely boycott Budweiser because of this and particularly in conservative areas like mine, we are going to start seeing people that will never drink it again unless they have no other choice. People are not going to forget this is what I am trying to say and even though I think it is stupid, they are going to keep this butthurt going for a long time, perhaps forever.

Years ago when Coca-Cola got political a lot of people said they will not ever purchase Coke products ever again unless they don't have a choice. Of all the people that I know that said that, most of them are still sticking to this years later. Pepsico's birthplace is in North Carolina so I guess that gives us in North Carolina two reasons to do that.

I'm not going to avoid Bud Light but this is easy for me to say because I never bought it anyway. I do know a lot of people that did though and now all of them are staying away from it. What a stupid decision on the part or Bud. They are in a bad situation now because they can't walk it back and apologize because if they do they will face the wrath of the liberal community.

As a small business owner I keep my personal feelings, especially about politics, and professional life separate. I think that any smart business, particularly in the United States, would be wise to do the same.