Recently, Anheuser Busch has faced severe backlash after their brand partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. However, a resurfaced commercial from the 90s shows a time when Bud Light ironically used men dressed up as women for a comedic punchline.
The ad in question is from 1994, which depicts a group of men dressed up as women so they could inconspicuously play in a women’s pool tournament to win Bud Light. Watch the funny commercial below.
The ad shows men in dresses, not even hiding their masculine features such as mustaches and facial hair, playing against biological women in the pool tournament, where they destroy the competition. The women they compete against seem unaware they are losing to men. Hilariously, the men in drag make it to the finals in the tournament, where they meet the defending champion who is also another male imposter pretending to be woman to wind Bud Light.
Bud Light made it clear that they were trying to shift their target audience away from “fratty” and “out of touch” individuals who carried the brand for years. Marketing VP at Bud Light Alissa Heinerscheid discussed her plans to change the company’s brand strategy to be more “inclusive”.
She said, “I’m a businesswoman. I had a really clear job to do when I took over Bud Light and it was, this brand is in decline. It’s 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. So I had this super clear mandate, like we need to evolve and elevate this incredibly iconic brand and my what I brought to that was a belief in okay, what is what are we what does evolve and elevate mean?
“It means inclusivity it means shifting the tone. It means having a campaign that’s truly inclusive and feels lighter and brighter and different and appeals to women and to men and representation is it sort of the heart of evolution, you got to see people who reflect you in the work and we have a hangover.” Heinerscheid continued, “I mean, Bud Light had been kind of a brand of Friday. Kind of out of touch humor, and it was really important that we had another approach.”
Endless boycotts led by famous country singers, political figures, and everyday Americans has sent a pretty clear message to Bud Light and Anheuser Busch. Over the years, conservative boycotts have typically amounted to nothing where woke companies have walked away unaffected. However, Bud Light going woke was apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back. If sales figures come out and confirm the anecdotes of massive boycotts, perhaps other companies may think twice about alienating the conservative audience.
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