Bud Light’s latest commercial geared toward normal beer drinkers has garnered various reactions from viewers. Some have interpreted the ad as mocking weird and woke commercial, trying to return to its roots and win back customers who have boycotted the beer. However, others have argued the beermaker is attempting to “play both sides.”
The popular X account, American AF, shared a clip of the new commercial, writing in the caption, “Bud Light has released a commercial mocking the woke culture… Thoughts? 👀.” The question sparked thousands of comments, with varying takes on the ad featuring the famous comedian Shane Gillis.
One person remained skeptical of Bud Light, arguing, “This doesn’t mock woke culture. It embraces them both. It only makes light of the fact that both guys are out of place. Bud Light is trying to play both sides. They should have never allowed woke ideology to intrude on and threaten conservative tradition, culture, history, and space to begin with.”
While others may be warming back up to Bud Light, some have claimed it may be too late to undo the damage the company did to its brand. “To Di For” podcast host Kinsey Schofield recently argued that Bud Light’s recent efforts to claw back customers with normal advertising may be “too little, too late.” Schofield said “the content is great, but their customers, our former customers, are asking, why can’t they apologize?”
She maintained, “Translation, too little too late. Others are asking if they are allergic to apologies. The execution was great. Shane was the right personality, but it’s going to take some time for these people to come back around.” Sky News host Rita Panahi then said, “Oh, absolutely. And the parent company has lost more than a billion dollars, they just showed you, when you go, woke you can go broke.”
Alyssa Heinerscheid, Bud Light’s vice president of Marketing, was accused of being the driving force behind the company’s shift toward woke advertising. The executive was recorded slamming the beer’s brand reputation as being “fratty” and “out of touch.” Furthermore, she argued that, for the sake of Bud Light’s future, the company should become more inclusive.
Heinerscheid 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. I mean, Bud Light had been kind of a brand of fratty. Kind of out of touch humor, and it was really important that we had another approach.”’
Watch the latest Bud Light commercial below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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