New in PJ Media:
Tranheuser-Busch — oh, sorry, that’s Anheuser-Busch — is panicking. Sales of Bud Light have been in the gutter ever since it presented the ubiquitous fingernails-on-chalkboard fake woman Dylan Mulvaney as the new face of the brand, and there is no sign that the alleged beer will break out of its nosedive anytime soon. And so now, Anheuser-Busch’s obediently woke but desperate marketing wonks are giving the stuff away, offering a $20 rebate on a $19.98 case of Bud Light. Can patriots be bought for two cents and some watery beer? We shall see.
Meanwhile, if a couple of pennies isn’t inducement enough to get the guys who used to drink Bud Light to go back to what has now been dubbed the “tranny fluid,” Anheuser-Busch has decided to have Bud Light imitate Mulvaney and make its own transition: its familiar blue bottles will soon give way to camouflage packaging. One can picture the cynical millennial marketing team saying, “That’ll bring those redneck rubes back. They love the military and war.” Bud Light might as well put up billboards nationwide saying, “Please, patriots, don’t be angry, even though we haven’t apologized, and buy our beer again!” But the beer baron’s cynicism and desperation are palpable.
The New York Post reported Wednesday that “a Bud Light seller apparently stuck with too many cases of the unsold brew in the wake of the company’s Dylan Mulvaney fiasco is offering $20 rebates on purchases of a $19.98 case of beer.” The Post added: “A photo posted to social media shows stacks of 24-can cases of Bud Light with a promo taped to them touting a full rebate from the unidentified beer vendor.”
One Twitter user, former heavyweight boxer Ed Latimore, tweeted a photo showing how beer drinkers could get paid two cents by Anheuser-Busch for taking a case of Bud Light off their hands. Latimore observed: “Things can’t be going great if they’re basically giving it away…” Another Twitter user responded: “Judging by the stock on that shelf, they can’t even do that.”
Indeed. The Post noted that “nationwide retail sales of the brand were down 23.6% versus a year ago in the week ending May 6 — its fifth straight week of declines, according to Bump Williams Consulting and NielsenIQ data.” And it’s not only Bud Light. Budweiser is “down 9.7% versus an 11.4% drop a week earlier; Michelob Ultra, down 2.9% versus 4.3%; and Natural Light, down 2.5% versus 5.2% the previous week.”
Meanwhile, the Post reported Tuesday that panicked Anheuser-Busch top dogs last week “held a meeting at its US headquarters in St. Louis with distributors to discuss its strategy for dealing with the backlash.” One plan these geniuses came up with was “a temporary redesign of its Budweiser and Bud Light aluminum bottles.” This will involve producing bottles “with a camouflage print and images of the ‘Folds of Honor’ program, which provides educational scholarships for children and spouses of fallen and disabled American military service members and first responders.”
There is more. Read the rest here.
Airborne 1962 says
BA Moui BA (33) beer in Vietnam was better than Bud Lite.
Dan says
I have NEVER liked beer.
Just couldn’t get used to the taste, and with things like EVERYTHING else to drink, I just figured, why bother?
I can have been working all in a hot sun, dying of thirst, offered a beer with everybody else, TRIED to drink, and after one sip, I give back the beer, and say I’d rather die of thirst.
I want to send Anheuser-Bush an email, explaining this, with the following:
But A-B, after all the stuff that’s been going on, with Mulvaney, I’m seriously considering MAKING myself learn to drink beer…
JUST SO I CAN SUPPORT ALL OF YOUR COMPETITORS.
You guys messed up big time, basically alienating I’d bet, AT LEAST 95% of your customers.
One thing “RED-NECKED RUBES” can do, is HOLD A GRUDGE.
Hatfield and McCoys ring a bell?
It’s you SHEEPSKIN CITIOTS who are too thick headed to understand a friggin’ degree doesn’t mean squat, if that, and a snoot, are the only knowledge acquired during a lifetime.
Intelligence is measured by how knowledge can be applied when you’re forced to think outside the box.
Us hicks call it “Common Sense.”
All Common Sense is, is the ability to think, “What can go wrong if we do this?” “Maybe this is going to be train wreck, and we better rethink this.” “If we have to go through with the plan, as is, can we keep the damage to a minimum.” “And can we at least learn from the mistake?”
It’s why, when some idiot keeps messing up, we say, “Thet boy jus en’t got go Common Sense.”
As in MILLER.
They’re the ONLY reason your decision probably won’t be the WORST in history, because the SAW what happened, and STILL repeated your mistake.
Dan says
And this was too long a rant for me to bother editing so, if you’re so smart, YOU figure out what I was trying to say.
Emmie says
It was crystal clear, Dan, and on point.
Keith O says
After a few visits to the US when I was in the army, our saying was that drinking Bud Lite was like making love in a canoe, fucking close to water.
I can easily believe that that are having trouble giving it away, but actually having to pay people to drink the crap?? Now that’s a whole new level of low.
OLD GUY says
Corporate America, pay attention to who your customer base is made up of. First rule in marketing, don’t piss off your customer base. Second rule, don’t piss off your customer base.
James Lincoln says
Just came home from the local supermarket.
24-packs of Bud Light stacked floor to ceiling – with no buyers.
Hmmm…
somehistory says
A few days ago, James, I was walking the puppy and saw a bud light bottle on the sidewalk in from of my house. The puppy tried pulling me toward it (she’s 3 months and as large as some adult dogs). I pulled back until I could get where I could kick it further away from her. A lot of beer spilled out on the ground. Guess whoever bought it, didn’t really like it…for some reason.
I have been wondering how much money they paid the creepy guy to advertise. Perhaps they should ask for the money to be returned.
They should return to the ads with the little puppy like they once had.
James Lincoln says
somehistory,
Went back and looked at a Budweiser ad from Super Bowl XLVIII (48).
Great ad, one of the ones that featured puppies!