When it comes to failed corporate marketing campaigns, Bud Light’s peculiar decision to alienate its own customer base with ads featuring creepy transgender TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney has been an unmitigated disaster.
Public relations experts are already chiming in on the raging dumpster fire that has engulfed alcoholic beverage titan Anheuser-Busch and threatens to do lasting damage to one of the company’s most popular beers that stemmed from a poorly thought-out plan by a “woke” exec to overhaul its branding to appeal to a certain demographic while not considering the impact that featuring such a divisive figure would have on longtime customers.
The major reason that the Mulvaney ads have had such a negative effect on Bud Light is that it “goes against their DNA,” according to Strategic Vision PR Group CEO David Johnson, who told Fox News Digital that the campaign “goes against its brand identity.”
(Video: The Daily Mail)
The CEO, an expert in crisis communications, told the outlet that a major reason why the ads with a biological male who dresses in women’s clothing have cost Anheuser-Busch billions of dollars in market value and untold damage to its once golden brand while other companies that have crafted an appeal to the very special demographic haven’t similarly been affected.
According to Johnson, Starbucks, and Nike – which also partnered with Mulvaney to hawk its women’s sports bras- weren’t subjected to such damaging backlash because their consumer base is much more progressive than Budweiser’s allowing them to “soldier on after pushing woke marketing schemes or making woke statements.”
The decision to go against its brand has resulted in boycotts that have left retail sellers and distributors with a boatload of unwanted beer that if not sold by its good thru date, will have to be dumped with even celebrities coming out against “Transheuser Busch” with country music superstar Travis Tritt deleting the company’s products from his tour while encouraging others to do likewise and Kid Rock blasting cases of Bud Light to oblivion in a viral video.
(Video: The Daily Mail)
“Their brand identity is Midwest, southeast, southwest, rural purchasers, conservatives, sports fans as well. And the Mulvaney endorsement, the partnership seems to go against that brand,” Johnson said.
The CEO also called into question the wisdom of Harvard-educated Alissa Heinerscheid, Bud Light’s vice president of marketing who seems to have based the decision to bring Mulvaney onboard due to her opinion that the brand was too “fratty” and “out of touch” and that it needed to be more diverse and inclusive.
“Now I know, of course, the VP of Marketing is saying she’s trying to expand the brand, trying to lure young, upper-class females to liking Bud Light and that just doesn’t seem to make sense,” he said, noting that the data shows that Bud Light lacks the appeal with that demographic as it does to middle America.
“Those people, that demographic, is never gonna be your Bud Light fan. They’re not a big beer drinker – we’ve seen this in surveys after surveys,” he told the outlet. “They’re not gonna go to Bud Light, no matter whether it’s Dylan Mulvaney, Jennifer Lopez, whoever is endorsing the brand.”
“Consumers have fixed ideas about various brands, like Bud Light for example. And even going with Dylan Mulvaney, it seems craven, and it doesn’t seem sincere or honest… That’s why they’re suffering in comparison to Nike, who also teamed up with Mulvaney,” Johnson added.
“Nike has that reputation of being progressive. Look at Colin Kaepernick for example,” referring to the sneaker giant’s partnering with the militant former NFL quarterback who became a messiah for the “woke” movement over his kneeling during the national anthem during the Trump presidency.
“I remember when he didn’t want the Betsy Ross sneakers with Nike and they pulled that right before the Fourth of July. So, yes, there’s been some backlash among female athletes, but it hasn’t been as intense towards Nike,” he said.
Johnson noted how the athletic apparel colossus’s “partnering up with Dylan Mulvaney seems consistent with the brand DNA, whereas Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light, it just seems inconsistent and fake.”
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