Bud Light made some PR noise in 2022 by hiring it's first ever female V.P. of Marketing and within a year the Harvard educated progressive was fired. Alissa Heinerscheid explained her role as a "business woman" to promote inclusivity, which is code for pursuing a woke agenda, that ridiculed women and enraged the brand's core customer base causing a boycott that cost the parent company Anheuser-Busch, Budweiser, Bud Light and InBev revenue. #AlissaHeinerscheid, #BudLight’s VP of Marketing, strategy (go to the 21.56 mark in the video interview below) was to promote the declining #beer brand to young people (1) through a campaign called #365DaysOfWomanhood AKA: #girlhood (what's the legal age allowed to advertise alcohol to American's?) which featured a transgender Tik Tok influencer who openly mocked women with over-the-top behavior and condescending female stereotypes. (9) #DylanMulvaney was not producing comedic humor based work, they were pushing a very serious political agenda that the Democratic Nation Committee supported by posing with Bud Light in a staged photo op. (7) Even the Joe Biden White House came out against the Bud Light boycott. (10) Why? To soe division and anger in society. The Trans agenda is intentional and not inclusive, but these Marketing Executives are most likely ignorant of this. Anheuser-Busch’s new CEO is former CIA with no previous package goods or alcohol category experience. Brendan Whitworth does know quite a bit about the WEF "Sustainable Development" Agenda 2030 though. (17) Why would a "local and highly focused in the communities" brand push the Globalist agenda? Fmr. Anheuser-Busch Executive: Corporate Leftism Is Driven by Investment Firms Who Are Pushed by Officials according Anson Frericks said that asset managers like BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard impose things like ESG and DEI onto companies because the asset firms are pressured into doing so by government officials. (25) Which is detailed a bit later on.
The campaign started with Bud Light putting Mulvaney's, an unknown but long time Hollywood actor, picture on a can as a “Easy Carry Contest” promotion and sent it to him. (11) This sponsorship or 'placement' was the result of an eight-year-old influencer marketing firm out of San Francisco called Captiv8, that pairs social-media influencers with major consumer brands. The Belgian-based conglomerate told distributors that Mulvaney’s beer can was not produced by Anheuser-Busch or in any of its facilities, and that it had fired the “third-party” ad (not a real ad agency) agency that was behind the Mulvaney video. (27) At the end of "365 Days of Womanhood," Bud Light did not offer to pay for 'gender reassignment surgery' (12) for Mulvaney's gender dysphoria though the Trans movement is pushing it on underage children globally. Alissa Heinerscheid's condescending analysis of Bud Light's "fratty" customer base and past advertising, some of the most awarded adverts in the industry, is clearly at fault for the brands debacle and as of 04/22/2023 she was terminated. (15)
Insulting your core customer base and denigrating your product is not a successful brand strategy. A skilled marketer would have seen this coming.Bud Light's stated Heinerscheid took a "leave of abscence" with Todd Allen, VP of global marketing for Budweiser, replacing her as V.P. of Marketing for the brand. Anheuser Busch CMO Benoit Garbe certainly shares the blame, as well as, Harvard alumni CEO Brendan Whitworth whose response on the matter was scorned by the masses and did more harm than good. (3)
Keep in-mind, for the week ending on April 8, off-premise dollar sales for Bud Light declined by 7 percent, while dollar share and volume declined by 3.7 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively, according to Brewbound. (6) For a brand the size of Bud Light that's a sales hit which isn't slowing down. The latest sales data from NielsenIQ and Bump Williams Consulting shows that Bud Light sales fell a staggering 17% in dollars, while volume dropped a whopping 21% in the week ended April 15. (18) Roughly a $8 Billion market value loss. (13) Meanwhile, Coors Light and Miller Lite, saw an 18% spike in their sales following the Anheuser-Busch-owned brewer’s transgender controversy. So consumers just switched products which could mean an extensive longterm downtrend for Bud Light. (19) As of 05/2023 Bud Light sales have dropped a shocking 26%. (21)
Many believe Bud Light went woke to receieve preferred treatment from LGBTQ lobbying groups and ESG-driven portfolio managers, which goes way beyond that of an incompetent or ignorant V.P. of Marketing pushing her personal progressive ideology. While others like blogger #Z-Man offered a different analysis: "Budweiser went woke to woo the regulators." (4) The U.S. Government is Anheuser Busch's largest client and then there are the banks.
Banks, like Black Rock, use a Corporate Equity Index (CEI) system to "force" brands to endorse trans actors like Dylan Mulvaney. #CEI sounds very similar to the CCP social equity index, At stake is their Corporate Equality Index score, which is overseen by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+P political lobbying group in the world. At 27:45 into the interview below with Blackrock's Larry Fink he describes his approach to "forced behavioral change."
AKA: Blackrock Equity Based Blackmail. Author James A. Lindsay defines this as simple racketeering. After A-B made a $200,000 LGBTQ+P Pride donation, Lindsay said, "the fact that a company would rather further upset customers than get a lower social credit rating shows “how this extortion racket works and how serious the extortion racket is.” (28)
HRC, which has received millions from George Soros 'Open Society Foundation' among others, issues report cards for America’s biggest corporations via the CEI: awarding or subtracting points for how well companies adhere to what HRC calls its “rating criteria.” Businesses that attain the maximum 100 total points earn the coveted title “Best Place To Work For LGBTQ Equality.” Fifteen of the top 20 Fortune-ranked companies received 100% ratings last year, according to HRC data. More than 840 US companies racked up high CEI scores, according to the latest report. (2) The main categories are: “Workforce Protections,” “Inclusive Benefits,” “Supporting an Inclusive Culture,” “Corporate Social Responsibility and Responsible Citizenship.” Now that is well beyond a virtue signaling inclusive beer campaign and it has absolutely nothing to do with how to successfully market a brand or product. Ironically, because of the Bud Light woke debacle Anheuser-Busch is now being sued for discrimination as their employment and hiring practices allegedly are discriminatory against white people. (8) How inclusive of them.
So there were multiple influences as to why Bud Light and their Senior Leadership team made the decision to go woke, but external pressure and government bribery should never be a reason to go "off-brand." Strategically staying true to whom your customers are, what value your product brings and what differentiates both your product and brand are the basic tenets of a successful marketing campaign. (Let's not forget creatively unique.) Anything less will be received as fake and inauthentic. There's nothing wrong with being a woke beer if that is what your brand and audience is. Attempting to force Bud Light and it's massive blue collar customer base to be inclusive was just plain arrogant. The grassroots #BudLightBoycott is completely organic and should serve as a lesson for decades to come. Being a lazy marketer does not make for a successful marketing campaign or a successful brand.
Perhaps if Bud Light celebrated young biological women, they would have accomplished their goal of targeting a younger audience. Re-working their past award winning campaign "Real Men Of Genius" to "Real Women Of Genius" or "Real People Of Genius" or even "Real Humans Of Genius" would have been on brand and positive, but they didn't. Of the thousands of negative "Earned Media" posts, Memes, videos Bud Light's 365 Days Of Womanhood received, Kid Rock may have summed up the Bud Light debacle best by banning the beer at his sold out National concert tour and his protest video destroying the beer, with a rifle. (5) Or maybe Awaken With JP's video below.
Politics used to be kept out of marketing. As personal ideology limited potential reach and sales so it didn’t invade the commercial space. The woke agenda stands in the face of how professionals market and sell products, though values and a point-of-difference. Let's unite and go back to relevant, creative advertising or the boycotts will continue. Maybeline and dozens of other companies, hold my beer.
UPDATE: 04/24/2023
Anheuser-Busch’s Group Vice President of Marketing, Daniel Blake, was placed on leave. Blake was Alissa Heinerscheid direct boss. (14) As of 04/30/23 Bud Light is in deep trouble as their the #budlightboycott is still trending and their consumer base is not afraid to let them know.
UPDATE: 05/02/2023
“Bud Light sales have collapsed by 26% according to new weekly data released today,” wrote Clay Travis. “This kind of collapse has never occurred to a beer company in history.”
UPDATE: 05/16/2023
“Citi analyst Simon Hale examined the latest US Nielsen data through May 6: Bud Light volume declines accelerated to -27.4% compared with -26.6% in the week ended April 29, while sales worsened to down 23.9% from down 23%, he writes. “Moreover, there continues to be contagion to the wider ABInBev brand portfolio, with Budweiser, Busch and Michelob all weak,” while competitors like Coors Light “continue to see share gains accelerate,” Hales says. (23)
UPDATE 05//18/2023
"Senator's Ted Cruz and Marsha Blackburn requested that the Beer Institute and Anheuser-Busch furnish all documents related to the brand partnership, including copies of all materials in the possession of Anheuser-Busch showing the age demographics of Mulvaney's audience." #girlhood
UPDATE 05/22/2023
"In the week starting on May 8, U.S. retail sales tumbled 28% compared with the same period a year ago"
UPDATE 05/25/2023
"Anheuser-Busch InBev Market Value Has Collapsed $15.7 Billion Since Dylan Mulvaney Partnership"
UPDATE 05/30/2023
Sales are down 29.5 percent. Knickname spreading online is "Transheuser-Busch."
UPDATE 06/08/2023
"Modelo Especial dethrones Bud Light as America's NUMBER ONE selling beer after 22 years: Sales up 15% on last year" (29)
UPDATE 06/27/2023
Bud Light Obliterated In Latest Sales Data, Down Nearly 30%. (31)
UPDATE 07/21/2023
Bud Light's Popularity At Bars And Restaurants Is "Almost Non-Existent"
UPDATE 07/27/2023
Bud Light To Lay Off Hundreds Of Employees In Wake Of Disastrous Pro-Trans Marketing" (33)
UPDATE 08/03/2023
Revenue in U.S.A. declined by 10.5% or $395 million April-to-June period year-on-year.
UPDATE 08/09/2023
Anheuser-Busch is selling 8 of its beloved brands as Bud Light drama plagues its business
UPDATE 09/22/2023
Budweiser Still Pushing Transgender Cause Despite Dylan Mulvaney Disaster (34)
UPDATE 10/26/2023
'Boycott UFC' Calls Soar After Mega-Sponsorship Deal With Bud Light (35)
UPDATE 11/06/2023
Anheuser-Busch Studio Head Exits Company Amid 'Bud Light Situation' (36)
UPDATE 01/01/2024
"Beer sales still haven't recovered since Bud Light "incident" lol" (video)
UPDATE 02/02/2024
"Bud Light teams up with comic Shane Gillis in full Dylan Mulvaney reversal" (37)
UPDATE 03/01/2024
"Bud Light beer boycott may now have a price tag, as AB InBev notches a $1.4B drop in U.S. sales following transgender influencer row" (38)
One would have thought and rightfully so, that Miller Lite would be celebrating their new sales revenue and stay far away from the woke CEI (Corporate Equity Index) and ESG manipulation, but ... Elizabeth Hitch, senior director of marketing, just threw them into the swirling cesspool of stale beer with a new ad. Hitch said "that Miller Lite wanted to "recognize that without women, there would be no beer" for Women's History Month, which takes place in March." (22) Hitch launched a "woke" advertising campaign about the role of women in beer making throughout history."
Miller Woke Time?"We wanted to acknowledge the missteps in representation of women in beer advertising by cleaning up not just our s***, but the whole industry's s*** while benefiting the future of women and beer," added Hitch, who appears to have deleted her LinkedIn and Twitter profiles. These people are truly incompetent. See UPDATES section for sales.
It get's worse for Miller Lite. The Daily Caller revealed the chief marketing officer of Molson Coors Beverage, which owns Miller Lite, appears to be a hardcore liberal. The Caller found Sofia Colucci has deleted several social media posts, such as this one:
Sofia Colucci also hates the NRA, an institution that teaches firearm safety and many of Molson Coor's patrons are members of. Should it matter the Miller Lite's CMO is a radical Leftist? No it should not. Her political opinions should be her own, in-fact we shouldn't even know here political ideology, but that is not how the Woke live. They spread their hateful rhetoric into everything and condemn all those that do not agree. A blue collar, male dominated working class brand such as Miller Lite., Molson Coors, should not have people lkke Sofia Colucci in charge of it's image or brand as they openly hate their customer base, target audience and their product itself. Brand's do not continue to strive, scale or become successful based on political ideology. They are successful because they serve a need, a point-of-difference in a category or break through by disruption. Political ideology is not a brand characteristic if it is not authentic or true. Turning against your customer base is not marketing or branding. It's product suicide, but let's not forget the Biden Administration was knee deep in this agenda too. If that was not enough, the Miller Lite Mother's Day ad actress has now been found on the Leftist "The Late Show’s” telling Stephen Colbert that he’s one of the “good” white people. A repugnant racist statement.
Regardless of what the radical Marxist Left say, voting with your wallet is not and never has been violence and is certainly not "literal terrorism" as a Michigan Economics teacher Justin Wolfers has declared over the Target grooming backlash. (26) It is in-fact, consumer power as activism.
If you're a company looking to target a new audience or create a new marketing campaign, contact Kevin Amter. His internationally awarded work for Miller Lite and dozens of other Fortune 500 brands will strategically move your company in a winning direction.
SOURCE LINKS:
(1) Twitter: Alissa Heinerscheid Inclusive Marketing Strategy Video(2) NY Post CEI Woke Scoring Agenda
(3) Bud light CEO Pandering Statement
(4) Anheuser Busch Went Woke
(5) Kid Rock Shoots Bud Light Can Protest
(6) Newsweek Brewhound Sales Data
(7) Democrats Dragged for Bud Light Photo Op
(8) Anheuser-Busch Accused of Discriminating Against White People
(9) Dylan Mulvaney Bud Light Bath Tub
(10) White House Condemns Bud Light Boycott
(11) Bud Light Defends Trans Collaboration
(12) What is gender reassignment surgery?
(13) Anheuser Busch loses $6 Billion Market Valuation
(14) Second Woke Bud Light Marketing Executive Placed On Leave Following Boycott Calls
(15) Fmr Anheuser-Busch exec on Bud Light marketing: Who will it be accountable to?
(16) Bud Light Signals New Era In Marketing
(17) Anheuser-Busch’s New CEO Talks Integrating Leadership And Sustainability
(18) Bud Light suffers ‘staggering’ 17% sales plunge amid Dylan Mulvaney controversyg
(19) Coors Light, Miller Lite Sales Spike amid Bud Light Transgender Controversy
(20) Interview of Elon Musk on Real Time with Bill Maher - "Woke Mind Virus"
(21) Bud Light Sales PLUMMET 26% – ‘This Kind Of Collapse Has Never Occurred’
(22) Who Is Elizabeth Hitch? Miller Lite Marketing Exec Under Fire Over Beer Ad
(23) Bud Light Backlash Shows No Sign Of Letting Up, And Now There Is Contagion To Budweiser, Busch And Michelob
(24) Nation’s Largest LGBTQ Org Suspends Anheuser-Busch’s Perfect Corporate Equality Index Score Over Dylan Mulvaney Fiasco
(25) Fmr. Anheuser-Busch Executive: Corporate Leftism Is Driven by Investment
(26) Michigan Economics Professor: Boycotting Target is “Literal Terrorism"
(27) Influencer agency that tapped Dylan Mulvaney for Bud Light in ‘serious panic mode’
(28) Boycotts Reveal 'Racketeering Scam' Behind Corporations That Go Woke: James Lindsay
(29) Modelo Especial dethrones Bud Light as America's NUMBER ONE selling beer after 22 years: Sales up 15% on last year
(30) "Gone, Gone": Anheuser Busch Fires Pro-Trans Marketing Execs Who Destroyed Brand
(31) BUD LIGHT OBLITERATED IN LATEST SALES DATA, DOWN NEARLY 30%
(32) Anheuser-Busch Responds After Dylan Mulvaney Throws Tantrum
(33) Bud Light To Lay Off Hundreds Of Employees In Wake Of Disastrous Pro-Trans Marketing
(34) Budweiser Still Pushing Transgender Cause Despite Dylan Mulvaney Disaster
(35) 'Boycott UFC' Calls Soar After Mega-Sponsorship Deal With Bud Light
(36) Anheuser-Busch Studio Head Exits Company Amid 'Bud Light Situation'
(37) Bud Light teams up with comic Shane Gillis in full Dylan Mulvaney reversal
(38) Bud Light beer boycott may now have a price tag, as AB InBev notches a $1.4B drop in U.S. sales following transgender influencer row
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