Do you think Anheuser-Busch screwed the pooch?

[SandyKandy]

I grew up on a farm. I thought all teens had to buck bails of hay. What a back breaking thing to do. My brother and I had to milk two cows. The milk went to our kittens. On the rare occasion we were allowed a beer, it was bud.

Our grandma had one of those triangle bells. When we rang the bell, the sheep would come a running, they knew it was oat time! Yummy. Life was so simple on the farm. Times have changed.

[MrOracle]

Yes. And Dylan is only a part of the problem.

AB hired a Woke, female VP of Marketing, who declared that Bud Lite's clientele were attracted to "fratty and out-of-touch" marketing and what was needed to "elevate" the brand was "inclusivity and representation." This is what all Woke people think: they can market towards a small niche of people, and that their existing client base will come along for the ride. This despite the financial performance of Woke products being down across the board for the last 5 years, because people simply voted with their feet and wallets, and stopped buying.

Bud Lite's existing client base is overwhelmingly male, and overwhelmingly blue-collar. But this is exactly the customer that Woke people DESPISE, and think are irrelevant. The VP specifically said that she wanted to target women and "marginalized people". The problem is: this demographic largely isn't interested in Bud Lite - if they drink beer at all, they're much more likely to be the craft beer crowd.

When you completely disrespect your existing customer base, and strongly imply that they're irrelevant, you have to be completely stupid to assume that you'll still be selling your product to them.

Then, there is Dylan. She picked Dylan as an Influencer partner because he's the pinnacle of Woke ideology, and because HIS followers are teens - the other group of people she was targeting. Dylan is, in the opinion of many, NOT transgender - rather, he's PERFORMING a ridiculous caricature of what he thinks a female is. All he's ever wanted is FAME and INFLUENCE, and he's found a way to exploit the current Woke culture to get it. He's an insult to women, and abhorrent to men - ESPECIALLY the working-class men who make up most of Bud Lite's client base.

THEN, you've had AB issue a mealy-mouthed non-apology, then play the blame game ("it wasn't us - it was an outside marketing company"). They think they're going to just run out the clock and this will blow over, but it won't. I live in a very BLUE county in California, and yet most restaurants in my town have stopped buying AB products, and a number of convenience stores have stopped buying AB products completely, while others have just cut their orders by 80% or so. I've been stopping into stores just to look around, and I've spoken to a number of owners, many who had no idea why AB products suddenly stopped selling. I also talked to several grocery store managers, and at least two are discussing discontinuing AB products, after massively reducing their order volumes and still not being able to sell what they've got. Right now, my closest grocery store has had Bud and Bud Lite on 50% off clearance, and after a week, most of it is still in the store.

Tons of people have simply switched to other brands and have gone on with their lives. No drama - they just won't buy AB products anymore. That's not temporary - it's permanent.

AB *could* have taken accountability, made a REAL apology, and publicly distanced themselves from Dylan, but of course, they won't do that - they're too worried about their ESG scores. So, their brand is going to die. It's just that simple.

[nolabels]

I think they'll be fine in the long run.

All, or at least, most, corporations chase money where they think they can get it.

Some of that money-chasing is coming up behind these corporations to bite them in the ass.

I'm a lifelong St. Louis area resident, the home of A-B.

For approximately 150 years, the Busch family has done many wonderful things for my city.

Though they are now part of In-Bev, I still consider them to be a hometown company.

Yeah, I think they'll weather this little hiccup OK.

[abc3643]

Yes, Budweiser's marketing team really screwed this one up.
This is almost as bad as "New Coke" in 1985.

[LiamJHayden]

At this point firing the Board, rebranding Bud Light, and making Chuck Norris the spokesman might not be enough.

[PolkSallad]

I hate Chuck and Arnold in movies, but I get your point. lol
It would be like if Winchester came out and said guns are stupid.

[Wise4myage]

Sales are down 26% for the month of April, so I say yes.

[Danny_dan92]

Yep. Good riddance