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Newsmax: Bud Light Tries to Revive ‘Shattered’ Brand After ‘Woke’ Turn Bud Light sales are still dropping because of a boycott triggered by a controversial campaign involving transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

  |   By Polling+ Staff

MIAMI, FLORIDA - JULY 27: Bud Light, made by Anheuser-Busch, sits on a store shelf on July 27, 2023 in Miami, Florida. Anheuser-Busch InBev announced it will lay off hundreds of corporate employees as its Bud Light beer sales continue to struggle. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

If at first you don’t succeed……

Newsmax headlines: https://www.newsmax.com/platinum/bud-light-sales-decline/2023/12/07/id/1145089/

Bud Light Tries to Revive ‘Shattered’ Brand After ‘Woke’ Turn 

Bud Light sales are still dropping because of a boycott triggered by a controversial campaign involving transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

The story reports:

“Even a new ad campaign featuring a pair of popular NFL Hall of Famers such as Peyton Manning and Emmitt Smith won’t be enough for Bud Light to repair its reputation after the beer brand’s ill-conceived “woke” marketing ploy earlier this year sent sales tumbling, marketing and branding experts predict.

Bud Light sales are still in free fall after beer drinkers began boycotting the brand due to a controversial campaign with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

While Bud Light is still the official beer sponsor of the NFL, its total U.S. revenue has dropped 10.5% compared to last year.

Consumer backlash to the Mulvaney stunt cost Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, $400 million in sales and saw the brand fall from its coveted perch as the bestselling beer in the country.

‘They are in trouble,’ said David Johnson, an Atlanta-based marketing and branding expert.

 While the new ad seems to be targeted toward members of the brand’s core audience – football fans who enjoy cracking open a cold beverage while watching their favorite team – Johnson said it will be viewed as a “marketing ploy.”

In the ad, Manning walks up to a bartender in a busy establishment and decides to order a round of beers for everyone. He then uses his Super Bowl-winning arm to start tossing cans of Bud Light to thirsty fans. One patron goes long and falls to the ground as he catches a can, at which point Smith appears above him signaling a touchdown.

The ad for the “Easy Rounds” campaign is part of a Super Bowl buildup and kicks off a contest in which fans can win playoff and Super Bowl tickets by scanning QR codes on their cans.

Smith recently told Fox Business that beer drinkers should give Bud Light another chance despite its “woke” marketing miss.

‘It’s an iconic brand, and it’s been around sports for a long time,’ he said. ‘Every brand itself goes through iterations of highs and lows.’ 

Smith said that even his former team, the storied Dallas Cowboys, went through “highs and lows,” and called Bud Light’s effort to engage fans “wonderful.”

Johnson said he believes the ad makes a great commercial, with the potential to be immensely successful – had the Mulvaney scandal never occurred.

‘Once that happened, the brand was over,’ he said. ‘It shattered their brand.’ 

After Bud Light decided to go ‘woke,’ and then offered no explanation or apology when met with a swift and massive backlash, Johnson said consumers simply ditched the beer and likely no longer believed in the brand.

Johnson said the brand now is ‘so damaged’ that it is ‘not going to recover.’

He also notes this isn’t Bud Light’s first attempt to restore its image.

Amid the fallout from the disastrous Mulvaney decision, Anheuser-Busch tried to return to its traditional values by announcing $3 million in scholarships for families of America’s fallen and disabled first responders.

Bud Light also took a shot at Mexican lager Modelo, which unseated Bud Light as America’s top-selling beer, by inking a deal valued at over $100 million to become the official sponsor of UFC – a role currently occupied by Modelo. Bud Light and UFC had a previous sponsorship arrangement that ended in 2017. 

But this time, fans who still had a bad taste in their mouths from the ‘woke’ misadventure criticized the new deal, which is set to go into effect on Jan. 24, and called for a boycott.

Johnson predicts that beer drinkers will view the new football-themed ad as another transparent bid to boost sales before the brand inevitably pushes a new ‘woke’ initiative.

He said Bud Light’s biggest misstep wasn’t necessarily the Mulvaney campaign itself, but rather how the company handled the fallout.

By failing to apologize, issue a mea culpa, or even just explain the decision, Johnson said the brand left its once loyal beer drinkers frustrated.

‘They went completely dead quiet,’ he said.

Since then, Johnson said efforts to restore the brand’s once sterling image have ‘flopped.’

‘You don’t recover after something like this,’ he said. ‘You really don’t.’”

One can only think that this hapless episode began as an attempt to please someone’s woke friends – unaware of how it would play in the real world of Bud Light drinkers.