The Brouhaha at Anheuser Busch

My typical beer consumption is from local breweries. Yet I find the current excitement at Budweiser to be fascinating.

That’s because Budweiser partnered with transgender actor Dylan Mulvaney to help open new markets. Her 10.8 million TikTok followers (plus 1.8 million on Instagram) makes her an influencer potentially capable of expanding the brand’s visibility.

Budweiser has a single objective with the hundreds of influencers they work with; selling more beer. As countless corporations have shown in every category, maintaining your focus on the goal of expanding sales will, over the long run, have a significant positive impact on the bottom line.

Mulvaney has openly shared her journey as a trans woman, which runs counter to much of the current political atmosphere. She recently did an ad for Bud, showing a custom beer can with her face on it, and is promoting a sweepstakes for them.

Kid Rock filmed himself shooting cases of the beer in protest. Others have called for a boycott of Bud Light. The stock dropped over two weeks, though it’s recovered half the loss at this writing.

Why would Budweiser subject themselves to this torment? Alissa Heinerscheid, Bud Light’s VP/Marketing, said; “This brand has been in decline for a really long time, and if we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand, there will be no future for Bud Light.”

She calls Bud Light’s previous branding efforts “frosty, out-of-touch humor.” Her solution: show more of the types of drinkers they want in their advertising.

If critics are complaining because they don’t like Bud Light, 3 billion cases of beer are sold in the US annually, and so alternatives are aplenty.

Don’t like the spokesperson? Again, A-B just wants to sell beer. They don’t care what body parts you have when you’re drinking it.

This move has generated gobs of publicity for A-B. Everyone is talking about Mulvaney, and a new patriotic Clydesdale commercial has also gotten lots of free visibility.

And the timing? Summer is prime beer drinking season, and it’s just over the horizon. Expect multiple promotional campaigns over the next six weeks to lure us back to Bud Light.

Because ultimately, capturing customers at the point of sale is all that matters. The rest of it is just noise.

With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.

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