Bud Light brewer confident it can win back US drinkers, but sales are still down after backlash

[CdnFox]

Anheuser-Busch InBev said Tuesday that revenue growth in most of its global regions was offset by a drop in North American sales in the third quarter, in a sign of continuing fallout from a promotion with a transgender influencer.

The world’s largest brewer and parent company of Bud Light said its revenue climbed 5% to $15.6 billion for the July-September period. That was in line with Wall Street’s estimates, according to analysts polled by FactSet. But revenue in the United States tumbled 13.5%.

https://apnews.com/article/bud-light-anheuser-busch-inbev-earnings-9de40c5189f9e8d11c142dc3961dde46

 

This is STILL HAPPENING!?!?!?  Damn - even i wouldn't have guessed this would drag out this long.  This has cost them hundreds of billions of dollars.  This could go down in history as the biggest single marketing mistake thus far in history.

 

[NAME REMOVED]

I never fully understood the backlash. 

[OftenWrong]

I actually drink Bud Light now. I switched to light beers recently. Started drinking Coors light. Because of the kafuffle I thought I'd try Bud. Ordered it in a pub, and gave my wife a wink and a nod as I took the first sip.

Actually tastes pretty goof. Good, I mean.  

 

[Guest]

They have just partnered with the UFC. So a desperate push, but that may be enough. 

Apparently they paid a heavy price to be a main sponsor to the sport.

Win win for Dana for the cash generated, and Bud Light for trying to grow its balls back.

Sad when the trans woman representing you, has bigger balls than you do, in that she called you out. I know,  a highly unfortunate choice of words.

1 hour ago, OftenWrong said:

I switched to light beers recently. 

I prefer light beers, personally. I don't care for the brand, as long as it tastes great.

[impartialobserver]

15.6 Billion in revenue is better than 99% of brewing operations will ever do. Yes, it has cost them sales but my guess is that it will recover. Folks will forget about it and move back to drinking widely available, relatively cheap, yellow colored water (otherwise known as Bud or Bud Light)

[WestCanMan]

TBH, most of the beer in the store is from Anheuser Busch, so unless people switch to wine or spirits they're probably not boycotting Bud Light anyways. 

Also, Bud Light just signed a 5- or 6-yr deal with Bud Light, I'm sure they're gonna do just fine. 

At best this was a lesson in putting woke-jokes into advertising, but A-Busch won't suffer much from it.  

[Nexii]

Beer is gross anyways, bitter swampwater. Never saw why it was so popular. Lots of ad money making it 'cool' I guess

Hard liquor is much better, or wine

[CdnFox]

33 minutes ago, WestCanMan said:

TBH, most of the beer in the store is from Anheuser Busch, so unless people switch to wine or spirits they're probably not boycotting Bud Light anyways. 

Also, Bud Light just signed a 5- or 6-yr deal with Bud Light, I'm sure they're gonna do just fine. 

At best this was a lesson in putting woke-jokes into advertising, but A-Busch won't suffer much from it.  

Its the scope of it that i just can't get my head around.

I mean - it wasn't even an ad campaign or anything.  One trans person drinks a bud with their picture on it which was sent to them unrequested and they were unpaid - and while nobody's going out of business over it there's no doubt it's caused anheuser billions even with people choosing other anheuser brands, and bud lite specifically a whole lot of billions.  And months later it's still having a strong impact.

I always said this wasn't just about a trans issue, but a backlash to the whole culture wars so it was expected it would  be bigger and longer than the single event warranted but DAAAAAMN - There was some VERY SERIOUS pent up frustrations out there and this seems to have been an outlet valve for a lot of them.

[WestCanMan]

4 hours ago, CdnFox said:

I always said this wasn't just about a trans issue, but a backlash to the whole culture wars so it was expected it would  be bigger and longer than the single event warranted but DAAAAAMN - There was some VERY SERIOUS pent up frustrations out there and this seems to have been an outlet valve for a lot of them.

Bingooooo.

I think that people who couldn't take out their frustration on the teaching issue, vax-fascism, and a whole host of other issues finally found something they could sink their teeth into. 

No doubt leftards tried to rally around Bud Light to keep the sales up, but you can't add enough fruit juice to it to make it taste like a sangria. 

[CdnFox]

5 hours ago, WestCanMan said:

Bingooooo.

I think that people who couldn't take out their frustration on the teaching issue, vax-fascism, and a whole host of other issues finally found something they could sink their teeth into. 

No doubt leftards tried to rally around Bud Light to keep the sales up, but you can't add enough fruit juice to it to make it taste like a sangria. 

well we all know the old joke about bud lite and sex in canoes    

But yeah. And this seems to be well beyond simply conservative voters or 'morality' or any one thing. It's like people were just pissed off and here was something they could punch.

[Guest]

13 hours ago, CdnFox said:

I always said this wasn't just about a trans issue, but a backlash to the whole culture wars

Exactly. Bud Light unfortunately was an easy target, due to its strong conservative roots.

It always felt like the anger of all of the people frustrated at being silenced by the left (or feeling dismissed), was being taken out on this company. It just felt like an insane overreaction otherwise if you didn't see that.

Even Dylan Mulvaney knew this had nothing to do with her, but she nonetheless used it to her advantage to advance her own brand.

I don't think people have an issue with Mulvaney. Most probably couldn't care less.

That's the funny part.

Its just the confusion as to how you could go from manly and stoic, to trans woman on her first year of girlhood. No buffer ads in between, like Rupaul doing a drinking contest to at least warm up the palate. 

It would literally be like Porsche going from fun driving machine that has long distanced itself from its past, to touching back on its years supplying vehicles to Adolf Hitler.

The timing of it, no less.

Anyone who okayed this in marketing should be fired. Know your market, should be the most basic skill that you should have. 

Telling a conservative what they better believe in, is akin to trying to sell salt to a shark.