This Bud’s for you, unless you identify as a they/them, in which case this Bud’s for… thee? Thus? Y’all? No one knows what to call anyone anymore but one thing’s for sure, Anheuser-Busch really stepped in some clydesdale horse sh#% when famous transwoman Dylan Mulvaney announced that Bud Light made a can with a Dylan face on it. The can isn’t available to the public, it was just a commemorative one-off to help Dylan celebrate the 365th day as a woman. Meanwhile, actual women have been women for their entire lives… where’s their special can, Bud!?
Someone will probably get canned for this and I don’t mean their face on a beer can. Nor do I mean “in the can” like these ironic Bud Light ads that haven’t aged well. Of course, CEO Brendan Whitworth won’t lose his job because apparently top execs didn’t know about anything about it! Someone in lower level marketing made the mistake. Riiiiiiiiiight. OK. In other words, people who make six figures at Anheuser-Busch don’t want to make no figures at Anheuser-Busch so they’re playing dumb. Real dumb.
I guess those high level managers really DO care because there’s already a new ad out calling attention to Budweiser’s old-fashioned roots and, of course, there’s a clydesdale horse to make us feel all warm and fuzzy and not transphobic.
As as stand-alone ad, nothing’s wrong with it. I love horses and this is a beautiful spot with gorgeous backdrops. But releasing it within weeks of the Dylan disaster and after Bud Light reportedly lost a trillion billion dollars seems like a beggar begging for mercy, groveling at the feet of customers they apparently underestimated. I don’t think this commercial (which also probably cost a few hundred thousand) will do anything to erase the memory of Dylan’s face on their can. As it’s often said about things we wish we never saw, “We can’t unsee that.”
Bud Light isn’t losing my business because I didn’t buy their product to begin with. So I don’t have a dog in the fight but it’ll be interesting to hear updates about this story as it continues to unfold. I’m guessing there might be a few sacrificial martyrs adding their resumes to LinkedIn soon.
I wonder how this is affecting Bud Light seltzer sales, too, after Bud released this colorful commercial a while back. Not to mention, they had one of the better Super Bowl commercials with Top Gun actor Miles Teller.
Horses are beautiful creatures so here are a few favorite photos from my travels around the country. And for anyone who just got fired from Budweiser, you’ve got plenty of time on your hands to check out more horses and other animals in my Wildlife Gallery!
-Out of the Wilderness
Out of the Wilderness 