“I cry a lot lately.” You might think that’s something the Marketing VP of Bud Light said recently but it’s not. It’s probably a true, but the line is from one of my favorite romantic comedies, Elizabethtown. In the movie, a shoe designer (Orlando Bloom) comes up with a design that’s supposed to be the next big evolution in sports footwear. The company he works for is akin to a Nike or Adidas, so the expectations of this shoe were very, very high. Then the shoe totally bombs. Take a look at this great scene with Orlando and Alec Baldwin, who plays the part of the boss in the movie.
“…and now meeting a growing international roar of laughter and rejection.”
Again, that’s a line from Elizabethtown but Bud Light executives could’ve said that about these 1990s Bud Light commercials that haven’t aged well… AT ALL. Bud Light’s million-dollar mistake is reading more like a horror story for them, but it’s been nothing but a comedy for the rest of us. All this chaos surrounding their endorsement by Dylan Mulvaney was explained in a letter from Anheuser-Busch recently:
“This was one single can given to one social media influencer. It was not made for production or sale to the general public. This can is not a formal campaign or advertisement.”
I can almost hear the sniffles all the way from St. Louis. I can also almost hear Alec Baldwin’s satirical delivery of that line and it cracks me up. Bud Light is trying to downplay the Dylan Mulvaney can as much and as best as they know how. Why can’t they figure out that it would be better for them to just do nothing? Get together in a board room somewhere, come up with a list of 10 ideas on how to fix the situation and then do none of them. Literally… do nothing. Doing nothing is better than every single thing they’ve done since the fallout of their trans beer can. They tried horses. They tried country music. Actually, maybe they need to have one brilliant idea, then do the opposite. Seinfeld reference there for ya.
Orlando Bloom’s shoe design disaster might make an entire generation return to bare feet and Bud Light’s big blunder might make alcoholics sober. Silver linings, I guess.
-Out of the Wilderness
Out of the Wilderness 