Bud Light has released a new, more traditional advertisement showing young people drinking beer in the rain at a country music festival as the brand seeks to move beyond the Dylan Mulvaney disaster, but the negative feedback resulted in the disabling of comments on YouTube.
In the 30-second spot that first aired during Thursday’s NFL draft, four evidently heterosexual friends pop the tops on the familiar blue and white cans while the Zac Brown Band’s song “Chicken Fried” plays in the background, holding the cans in the air as they walk off and rain pours down.
In the days since the ad was posted to YouTube, it drew more than 8 million views but only about 250 likes, indicating how difficult it will likely be for Bud Light to win back the customers it alienated by wading into the culture wars.
One Twitter user called out the ad’s blatant pandering, “A commercial that shows cowboys & cowgirls at a rodeo where it’s started to pour down rain while the Zac Brown Band plays ‘Chicken Fried’ is Bud Light’s latest commercial. Real smart, piss off that demographic, then cynically try to lure them back with this. Don’t fall for it.”
“Just saw your new throwback commercial showing the good old days. Cowards,” said another. “The good old days are gone until you address the womanface situation. You underestimate our memory, further insulting us. 1 solid month of insult, and now you think we are coming back. Get lost.”
The criticism is similar in nature to that received by a Budweiser ad from last month that trotted out the famous Clydesdale horses along with stirring, old-fashioned patriotic themes but it fell flat as anger and disgust over the foisting of the transgender TikToker on beer drinkers ignited a backlash against the company and its products, the Bud spot only served to add insult to injury.
“We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer,” said Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth in an April 14 statement put out on the same day as the new Clydesdales ad.
The Mulvaney debacle has led some to derisively refer to the company as “Transheuser-Busch” and memes and parody ads have proliferated, a sign that the trans lifestyle may already be stuck like glue to the brand in the minds of consumers.
Even though the company ousted the “woke” Harvard-educated marketing exec who had the genius idea that featuring a transgender weirdo was part of a necessary revamp of the brand which she said had a “fratty” image, it has found that it isn’t easy to simply put the toothpaste back into the tube with alienated customers boycotting the brew and the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ lobbying group demanding a public statement of “solidarity” with Mulvaney and the trans community.
“At this moment, it is absolutely critical for Anheuser-Busch to stand in solidarity with Dylan and the trans community,” wrote Human Rights Campaign senior VP Jay Brown to the head of human resources at Anheuser-Busch.
Also in the letter, Brown demanded that Anheuser-Busch executives meet with Human Rights Campaign leadership with one of the “recommendations” being that the company is to put out a public statement “reaffirming its full support for its transgender customers, shareholders, and employees,” which ought to do wonders to quell the boycotts and ease the feelings of customers who have been alienated by the beer giant’s tacit endorsement of the transgender lifestyle.
Prior to the debut of the Bud Light country rain shower ad, Bloomberg advertising and brands columnist Ben Schottblasted Anheuser-Busch for what he described as setting a “new low in corporate courage.”
“Kicking a political hornet’s nest for clicks and giggles before running away is no way to elevate a brand or promote a cause,” he wrote.
Original Article: https://americanwirenews.com/bud-light-seeks-to-move-past-dylan-mulvaney-fiasco-with-countrified-ad-disables-youtube-comments/
