Michael Knowles made the best point I’ve heard about the Bud Light branding mistake.
A bunch of guys are at the bar, and it’s your turn to get a round. You get yourself and everybody else a Coors, or whatever, but you buy one guy a Bud Light. The implication is that he’s gay, or trans.
This is the heart and soul of branding. It’s why Dos Equis had the “most interesting man in the world” commercials. Michelob Ultra has branded itself as a beer for people who work out. Corona is about “finding your beach.” Sam Adams tries to tie their brand to “the love of beer.”
Bud Light has completely undermined and corrupted their brand image. It was a mistake on the order of new coke.
Back in the day when I used to smoke cigarettes I would have never felt insulted if someone bought a pack of Marlboros for me, even though I thought those ads about the Marlboro Man were really stupid. I really doubt if people choose brands on the basis of images projected by them.
There are two choices here.
(1) You do not represent the norm.
(2) Every brand marketer on the planet is misguided.
Almost everyone I knew backed then smoked cigarettes, and I can’t think of a single case where the smoker explicitly identified with the image in the ads. People who smoked Marlboros could had no problem smoking Winstons, but the images in the ads were very different. I don’t think the brand marketers are misguided because they have to put out some of ad, and they probably just go with what they will catch the buyer’s attention.
In the case of New Coke, I’m pretty sure that the problem was with the flavor, not the image.
QUOTE: A bunch of guys are at the bar, and it’s your turn to get a round. You get yourself and everybody else a Coors, or whatever, but you buy one guy a Bud Light. The implication is that he’s gay, or trans.
This entire thing is silly bordering on stupid! ONE trans person was put on a beer can and delivered to ONLY them and because they choose to speak about it publicly, it now means everyone who drinks Bud Light is a gay or trans? What???
Well, I guess the rainbow can’t be taught to be a sign of God’s covenant any longer because the gays co-opted it. Better reprint every bible in existence! OMG!…Sunday school will become “woke” when teaching kids about the flood! Look out…Hershey’s chocolate is the next “way to be gay”…given some conservatives didn’t like a trans influencer endorsing their sacred chocolate. This from the folks that once thought it was reasonable for men to dress in women’s outfits (aka drag) to entertain military troops!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN1C_bPC4tc
QUOTE: Bud Light has completely undermined and corrupted their brand image.
Time will tell. Let’s see if has a long term impact or eventually goes the way of the Nike, Keurig, Starbucks and #walkaway kerfuffles. BTW, this is the second time around for Anheuser-Busch…they were previously in conservative hot water for filming a pro-immigration commercial. Imagine that…how utterly un-American to promulgate that a nation of immigrants should be pro-immigration.