Beer analysts are saying that Bud Light is still struggling with the boycott that has reduced its sale by a whopping 28% over the four weeks leading up to Dec. 9 — and heading to the all-important New Year’s sale period. The tragic irony for the company is that Alissa Heinerscheid, vice president of marketing for Bud Light, sought to dismantle Bud Light’s “fratty reputation.” She succeeded. It is now the symbol of woke companies for many and consumers seem to be treating the company as a vehicle to express their opposition to the social and political campaigns of companies from Disney to Nike.
Notably, U.S. beer shipments dropped by more than 5% over the first nine months of 2023, reflecting a trend among younger voters away from alcohol. However, Bud Light appears to be off the charts as consumers continue to send a message by buying other brands.
The timing is critical. According to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, a quarter of the $49-billion-a-year distilled spirits industry’s profits come between Thanksgiving and the New Year. The continued struggle of Bud Light during this period could magnify the losses and the message in the market.
The message appears to be getting through. Corporate executives have long yielded to demands for greater political and social agendas despite indicators that these campaigns were driving away business. That is changing as shareholders object to subsidizing campaigns unconnected to products. Most recently, Disney appeared to acknowledge that its own campaigns were undermining sales and alienating consumers.
It is the invisible hand of Adam Smith at work. However, this is more of a backhand for Bud Light, which has tried to distance itself from the earlier campaign. The problem is that many consumers now view the company as a symbol of this struggle between companies and the public. Some are seeking to “hoist the wretch” to warn other companies. It seems that Bud Light is now that wretch.
Kid Rock has said the boycott is over.
Fundimentally it is.
The problem is that with most boycotts where there are competing products – once people switch – they do not tend to switch back.
Once the boycott lasted more than a month – AHB was unlikely to recover.
If you are drinking Bud Light, you are probably drinking it by the gallon. With all the great craft beers out there, a better option may be to have a pint or two, and enjoy!
Excellent point. Light beer is an oxymoron.
What’s Bud Lite you ask?
It’s that swill that the poofsters drink that results in a sore throat and a heavy pounding in the rectum…
What’s Bud Light?
Once the US beer industry, outside of a few national brands, went all IPA all of the time, I quit buying. That is a style I despise. I didn’t stop drinking beer, I now just make my own.
Currentsitguy,
Yeah, I am so over the double, triple IPA thing.
Went back to stouts and German Pilsners.
@currentsitguy @Upstate
Same here, and I used to enjoy IPAs. The ever increasing abv and can size – why not just get some Everclear and cut to the chase? And the fruity flavors and comic book characters on cans – these are not adult beverages. Really over beer and wine aged in a whiskey barrel, too. I only do organic wines from Italy and stouts or ales these days. To each their own, but I’ll pass.
BOYCOTT – Send the Message to the WOKE ESG MGMTS
Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV trades on the NYSE under the symbol BUD. The corporation has a fiduciary duty to its shareholders. The corporation’s foray into an ill-advised marketing campaign that tanked its share price appears to some of us to be an abrogation of the company’s duties to manage it operations in the best interest of its shareholders.
It’s a boycott if you stop using a product or service to make some point. If you decide never again to use something, I think it’s called rejected.
Exactly.
I wonder if Alissa Heinerscheid really understood what she did. She smugly said she wanted to get out of the fratty reputation and Bud Light did, but nobody else came to replace the lost revenue. I wonder who she thought she was going to get to fill the void? As the old saying goes, it takes twenty years to build a customer and five minutes to lose one.
Bud Light not only lost their customer base, but even worse they were turned into a meme. The joke turned on them and Bud Light became the punchline. Better yet, Bud Light is doing commercials of men being men and sports events including MMA, you know, the very things they ridiculed in the first place…..
Because Alissa H is who and what she is, the answer to who she thought would fill the void is simply that she didn’t think about that. Filling the void was never really the point. Sticking it to her customers was really the point, and, worse yet, she believed that her customers were too stupid, lazy and uninformed to even understand that she was sticking it to them. So, there’d be no void to fill.
Ones beer choice is as much habit as it is taste. Once people got out of the habit of Bud, there’s no reason to go back.
It’s easier to say ‘boycott’ but that expression suggests a considered decision to achieve a goal.
But I think for many it is more emotional and therefore likely more enduring.
The brand has made itself ridiculous, repellant, political, woke, distasteful, ugly…and there is no rational argument or endorsement or apology that makes for an easy recovery from that.
And, as David Benson said here, it probably doesn’t taste good. It had a carefully crafted emotional appeal that overcame its indifferent quality and now it has a carefully crafted emotional disgust that reminds us of its taste.
As was once explained of a poor selling dog food despite an aggressive sales campaign: “Sir, the dogs don’t like it.”
Boycott They still don’t understand Boycott woke
Bud Light is not a quality product. Drink beer from your local breweries instead.
Drink tap water instead. It tastes the same but it’s cheaper.
Hopefully, the Bud Light fiasco is the harbinger for the demise of wokeism. Hopefully…..
SkyRaider,
I have read more than a few articles about the demise of wokeism.
On one hand, the Bud Light, Disney, Target fiasco do seem to be a real turning point.
However, I also just read an interview with Doug Casey who said,
“Wokism is more than a passing fad. There’s a good chance it will end with a violent confrontation between people who have culturally conservative views and those who want to destroy Western Civilization and upset the nature of society as we know it.”
What would that kind of confrontation look like in the streets of America?
If there is a violent confrontation, it will probably happen in response to the reelection of Trump – probably fueled by rage over an escalating Israel-Palestinian War.
@Anon
I am of the same mind. If Trump is elected again, we all need to brace ourselves, because the people in question are not well. That the dems harp on about ‘peaceful transition’ is hilarious. The next year is going to be very ugly, regardless, that is a fact.
James,
I would fully expect the woke leftists to riot and Democrats would give them cover like they did with the Fiery But Mostly Peaceful 2020 Summer of Love. We already know by their words and actions to what lengths they are willing to go to destroy democracy in order to save it, according to them.
Invest in chickens, PMs, ammo and your own health.
@Upstate
I don’t disagree. If you legally own your property, thank your lucky stars. Urban areas are literally going to be on fire this coming year, and it is in no way shape or form ‘grassroots’ or ‘organic’. Get your head out of the sand. Evil people are paying for this because they can.
It is highly unlikely that the Israel/Hamas war continues to the election.
I fully expect a great deal of violence if Trump is elected.
More than in 2016, which was more than J6 though left wing nuts forget.
It will pass and we will deal with it.
That is possible, but Peter Theil beleives we hit peak woke in 2020.
and I beleive he is correct.
The left is getting ever more desparate.
That is a sign of trying to cling to power as it slips from your hands.
More recently the Israel Hamas conflict has been a dumpster fire for the left.
It has risked splitting the entire democratic party.
But most importantly it has alienated the woke.
The woke no longer trust democrats.
There is also an element in this that is reminiscent of 2016.
Not a majority but a surprising number of Sanders voters switched to Trump.
Mostly the democrats attempts to play both sides on the O7 war has aleinated young woke left wing nuts who appeat to be chosing not to vote. But a surprising number are shifting to Trump.
because even idiot illogical left wing nuts understand that no war is better than a war where the US tepidly backs Israel,
And they are concluding that had Trump been president there would be no war.
That is surprisingly astute for a woke wing nut.
Beer was the perfect vehicle for this sort of consumer rebellion. There were numerous palatable options, so the boycotters made no real sacrifice in order to send a message.
Yeah, obama and his merry band of homosexual promoting, anti-western NGOs really didn’t think this one through too well.
You have to wonder how much inbev and many other corps have made off of your tax dollars trying to propagandize the population that the woke BS is normal.
Sal Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals
Obama’s goto playbook on how to destroy America. You don’t believe Senile Joe is doing this do you?
Division
Confusion
Distraction
Collapse
Socialism to Tyranny or a resurgence of Freedom!
What pisses Democrats off about Trump is that Trump has read Alynsky and understands that Alynsky’s tactics are not owned by the left.
Maybe just make better beer?
Bud light is built for quantity, not quality.
just like horse piss. No wonder Trans like it, aint that right elvis bug/Dennis!!!
🤣
Dang buggy boy, somebody here despises you worse than Tom does.