2023 has, so far, proved a challenging year for Bud Light (a well-known American beer brand with a mostly conservative audience). And it all started with a social media campaign that the brand ran back in April.
In this campaign, Bud Light chose to partner with the now infamous TikTok transgender star, Dylan Mulvaney on a sponsored social media post promoting Bud Light’s “Easy Carry Contest”.
This post (Mulvaney’s second post in collaboration with Bud Light) shows a can of beer with his face on it that reads “Cheers to 365 Days of Being A Woman,” a reference to the TikTok series documenting his transition.
Since going live, the post has drawn much criticism, especially from conservatives, Bud Light’s main audience, with some users taking to social media to post videos of themselves pouring out Bud Light beer on the ground and calling for an outright boycott of the brand.
In response to this, Bud Light’s leadership has tried to distance themselves from the Mulvaney partnership. A move that drew more backlash from the LGBTQ+ community, causing some LGBTQ+ bars to stop serving Bud Light.
All of this resulted in Bud Light’s sales seeing an eye-popping 28.5% drop in sales compared to the previous year and a significant drop in stock price.
Image Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bud-light-sales-keep-slipping-in-another-very-weak-week-155036783.html
This series of events has consequently been dubbed the “Bud Light effect” which will most likely make companies think twice about weighing in on controversial topics.
Bud Light tries to save face with new summer ad
In an attempt to overcome the controversy, the brand decided to release a new ad called “Easy to Summer” which has amassed a total of 288k views in just over a week. But according to the comments, they may have missed the mark once again.
Snippets of the ad show people spilling beer and falling off of hammocks, while others are walking through screen doors and spilling snacks everywhere.
Image Source: Bud Light’s Easy To Summer YouTube Ad
As a result, users are actively expressing their anger and disdain for the brand in the comments section.
Saying things like: “Five thousand dislikes, one hundred likes. You know, some brands would rather die than apologize. Bud’s making it happen! Good bye forever Budweiser.” and “Bud thinking up new ways of losing customers: Nailed it!”
Obviously not the conclusion that any business wants a viewer to come to after seeing their ad.
Here are a few lessons businesses can learn from Bud Light’s missteps.
Lessons learned from Bud Light
1. The importance of not alienating your existing audience
Choosing Mulvaney as a social media partner to attract a younger, more woke audience was short-sighted, to say the least.
Bud Light completely abandoned its brand values and missed the mark in terms of what the brand initially stood for. Without thinking it through, they jumped on a trend to sell more beer to younger people.
As a result, they faced backlash from the bulk of their audience and responded by downplaying the partnership with Mulvaney, successfully alienating the LGBTQ+ audience they were trying to attract.
2. Know your audience
In an attempt to backpedal, Bud Light scrambled to make its latest video ad “Easy to Summer” which sent the wrong message once again.
The comments on the video from once fans further highlight how crucial it is that businesses understand their audience before rushing to implement half-baked marketing campaigns.
Bud Light’s audience was already on high alert (thanks to the Mulvaney incident) by the time this ad was released on YouTube. And the “comedic” and insensitive tone didn’t help things. Rather, it further alienated Bud Light’s original audience by making them feel like they were the butt of the joke.
What the audience really needed was a sincere apology, not a video depicting them being made fun of.
Conclusion
Whether or not this Bud Light boycott will have much of a lasting impact on sales remains to be seen. But if history is any indicator, their reputation might be left in tatters from all the negative press and media coverage.
The takeaway? If you’re leading a brand or organisation, it’s best not to get caught in the middle of controversial issues unless it is really key to your brand positioning or key to what your organisation stands for.
