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I am not a boycotter – or at least not a very good one. During my six-week sojourn in the South Carolina Lowcountry for Alex Murdaugh‘s double homicide trial, I mulled whether to deprive Parker’s Kitchen of my business owing to the fact its founder, Greg Parker, strikes me as an utterly irredeemable canoe full of douches.
Several canoes full of douches, actually …
Here’s the thing, though: Parker’s bathrooms were clean, its redeye coffee wasn’t overly acidic, and its premium unleaded gasoline was reasonably priced. I may have even enjoyed one or two (twelve? twenty? twenty hundred?) of their breakfast burritos … but if my wife asks, those were for our director of special projects Dylan Nolan.
He is the burrito bandit, not I …
There was also … location. Wherever I was going, a friggin’ Parker’s Kitchen was on the way. Which I suppose makes me a slave to convenience.
Anyway, the point is I put my personal misgivings aside … and gave the store my business. Without even really thinking about it.
Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I boycotted a product … because I can’t recall the last time a product offended me to the point of taking note of it in a random consumer setting. “Corporations are people,” but if they are smart they never tell you how they are feeling.
The saga of Bud Light has been thoroughly entertaining, though. For those of you waking up from a two-month nap, the company is continuing to face backlash – and boycotts – after it featured trans “influencer” Dylan Mulvaney in a social media campaign.
What prompted this trans appeal?
“Bud Light had been a brand of fratty, kind of out of touch humor and it was really important that we had another approach,” the company’s former marketing vice president Alissa Heinerscheid said during a recent interview. “I had a really clear job to do when I took over Bud Light and it was this brand is in decline, it has been in decline for a really long time. And if we don’t attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand there will be no future for Bud Light. So I had this super clear mandate. We have to evolve and elevate this really iconic brand.”
Evolve and elevate? Heinerscheid is Hindenburging Bud Light – which prior to the Mulvaney controversy was America’s most popular beer.
Bud Light sales tanked 21.4 percent last month – contributing to a 12 percent decline for all Anhueser-Busch brands.
That cratering came despite a full-throated defense of the beer – and rebuke of the boycotters – by the woke mainstream press. As soon as it became apparent the Bud Light controversy had teeth, the corporate media machine rushed to the brand’s defense with a blizzard of stories belittling the effectiveness of consumer activism.
Want proof corporate media is still driving (or trying to drive) narratives? Google “effectiveness of boycotts.”
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Last week, Michel Doukeris – the chief executive officer of Bud Light’s parent company, InBev – decided the best way to respond to the crisis was to blame “misinformation and confusion” – while claiming the company had been “pulled into” the crisis.
Really?
An ill-advised woke outreach effort exploded in the company’s face … but it’s somebody else’s fault?
After saying he would “never minimize the situation,” Doukeris proceeded to minimize the situation – telling investors on a recent earnings call that the boycotts only impacted “around one percent of our overall global volumes for that period.”
So far …
Finally, to all those who might have been inclined to drink Bud Light because of its Mulvaney campaign, Doukeris added this doozy.
“We never intended to make (the Mulvaney cans) for general production and sale for the public,” he said. “It was not (a campaign). It was one post. It was not an advertisement.”
Whether that is true or not, now all the woke progressives the brand was trying to court are pissed off …
“Bud Light is now facing boycotts from both ends of the political spectrum as LGBTQ bars are displeased with the brewer’s lack of support for Mulvaney,” authors at the website Zero Hedge noted.
Again, I’m not a boycotter … but there is something truly gratifying about the marketplace speaking (even after the corporate media told it not to speak). Now the only question is this: When will Bud Light listen?
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children.
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7 comments
Republicans love their cancel culture.
Wonder what garbage beer they will move onto next?
You are not very intelligent to blame this disaster on a political party. And if cancel couture is the topic look in the mirror.
Yes, I see the typo.
Hey, come on, you’re kidding yourself right, pal? Republicans aren’t all about cancel culture and retribution against corporations engaging in wrongthink?
More “news” for the Walking Unwoke.
Please don’t refer to Alissa H as the former marketing VP. She has been placed on leave. It is nothing more than a paid vacation until InBev can reward her with another position.
I don’t drink Bud Light, and not for the reason of this brew-ha-ha (pun intended), nor do I drink Coors or other mass produced beers. I enjoy craft beers and South Carolina has great craft beer breweries. I enjoy River Rat, Steelhands (both Columbia), Palmetto Brewing (Charleston), Legal Remedy (Rock Hill).