Last year, Bud Light made the biggest mistake of the company's lengthy existence when it decided to try its hand at a little wokeness by doing a partnership deal with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney, which featured his (and yes, he's a man, not a woman) mug plastered on cans. Mulvaney gushed about the partnership in a video posted online, which immediately went viral, but probably not for the reasons either Mulvaney or Bud Light hoped.
The whole thing caused a firestorm, leading to a huge boycott of the popular beer brand that ended up costing Anheuser-Busch significant amounts of money. People were fired or "put on leave." The company tried to do some damage control to smooth things over, but nothing really stuck.
This has apparently led Bud Light to employ a desperate strategy meant to rehabilitate its image with the target demographic of its product. The company announced this week on social media that it would be partnering with comedian Shane Gillis, who was booted from the cast of "Saturday Night Live" five years ago for telling gay jokes.
In other words, rather than trying to appease the LGBTQ crowd, Bud Light has gone the exact opposite direction and hired someone that particular demographic likely despises. Interesting move, right? But is it too little too late?
“Welcome to the team @shanemgillis, excited to be a part of your 2024 tour,” the brand’s account posted on Instagram, which then featured a reply from Gillis, who said he was “excited to announce [a] partnership with Bud Light #budlightpartner.”
Check out a few more details on this story from The Washington Times:
He was tapped to join the “Saturday Night Live” cast in 2019 but was fired before ever appearing on the show “thanks” to cancel culture.
Jokes Mr. Gillis had made on his podcast and his show resurfaced in which, among other things, he recited an anti-Chinese slur and used “Jew” as an entry into derisive descriptions of liberal politicians.
The cancellation efforts came against Mr. Gillis in the wake of the Bud Light announcement.
The gay site Pink News published an article headlined “Bud Light partners with comedian fired from SNL over racist and homophobic comments.”
The article pointed out that Gillis poked fun at "white fa***t comedians" who are "f***ing gayer than ISIS." Again, this means that Bud Light went as hard as possible in the opposite direction as it could from Mulvaney when it brought the comedian on board.
If you listen closely, you can almost hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth from LGBTQ allies and members of the community itself as they prepare to launch some sort of cultural counteroffensive against the popular beer brand. I highly doubt it will be a boycott though. Given the infinitesimally small portion of the overall population they represent, it would amount to a loss of cash so insignificant the accountants would laugh themselves into oblivion.
Bud Light had been America’s top-selling beer brand when it partnered with the transgender influencer early this spring.
In subsequent months, sales cratered, tens of billions in market cap was lost, and there were layoffs throughout the supply chain. And there numerous demonstrative public actions against Bud Light, such as Kid Rock shooting up several cases of the beer.
It also came out that Bud Light‘s marketing vice president at the time, Alissa Heinerscheid, had said the brand needed to incorporate “representation” and “inclusivity” and overcome being “a brand of fratty, kind of out of touch humor.”
The real kicker is that Gillis made an appearance on popular podcast host Joe Rogan's program where he ruthlessly mocked Mulvaney and Bud Light for the campaign they were creating.
“It became a joke,” the comedian said. “That’s tough to overcome, marketing-wise. It’s tough to get people to order a Bud Light publicly. You’re gonna get made fun of.”
Again, the question is whether or not those who initiated the boycott last year will consider the action too little too late. Many folks have returned to consuming the product, but quite a few have remained steadfast, refusing to partake of it ever again after the debacle with Mulvaney.
I guess time will tell.
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