The Vice President of Marketing at Bud Light, Alissa Heinerscheid, is responsible for the disastrous brand partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney. According to reports, Heinerscheid has been replaced by a Budweiser executive while she takes a leave of absence.
Heinerscheid was hired in June 2022 to take over Bud LIght’s marketing and overhaul the brand image associated with the beer. She graduated from the prestigious Wharton business school and bragged about being the first female leader at Bud Light in its history. Heinerscheid expressed a palpable disdain for the beer’s traditional target audience calling it, “fratty” and “out of touch”.
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.”
She continued talking about making the brand more “inclusive”, stating, “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.” Completely alienating Bud Light’s target audience, she said, “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.”
Meet Alissa Heinerscheid, Bud Light’s VP of Marketing. She explains her strategy of using “inclusive” marketing to promote the brand to young people. pic.twitter.com/hFpe8YnbBc
— Catch Up (@CatchUpFeed) April 9, 2023
Following the brand deal with Mulvaney, endless conservative boycotts against Bud Light ensued. Since the beginning of April, Anheuser-Busch’s market value has declined an astounding $6 billion. Seeing the fallout from Bud Light’s disastrous marketing venture, Budweiser scrambled to protect its brand image. The American Tribune reported:
Budweiser released an advertisement that was overtly patriotic and pro-America. The ad, which circulated on social media last week, features the famous Budweiser Clydesdale horse traveling across the United States’ various landmarks, such as the Grand Canyon. The ad’s narrator says, “This is a story bigger than beer. This is the story of the American spirit.” The horse gallops through locations such as the New York City skyline, the Gateway Arch in Missouri, and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The horse also can be seen running through small towns and farmland.
It may be too late to save Bud Light’s reputation as anecdotes pile up of millions of conservative Americans vowing not to drink the beer again. Especially when another famous lager, such as Yuengling, is unashamed of its conservative roots and respects its target audience. It will be interesting to see the sales figures for Bud Light this past month.
Note: featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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