Topline
Nearly one year after Bud Light faced boycotts over its brief marketing collaboration with transgender social media personality Dylan Mulvaney, the company unveiled a new Super Bowl advertising efforts and a partnership with controversial comedian Shane Gillis in an apparent attempt to win back old customers.
Embattled beer company Bud Light is ramping up advertising the week of the Super Bowl. (Photo by ... [+]
Key Facts
Bud Light unveiled a commercial this morning set to air during the Super Bowl, featuring appearances from Peyton Manning, Post Malone and Dana White, the Trump-backing CEO of UFC—with whom Bud Light inked the UFC’s “biggest-ever sponsorship” in October.
The commercial is an attempt to return to the “humor the brand has been known for,” Bud Light vice president Todd Allen told CNN, a move the brand may hope will bring back old customers lost during last year’s boycotts.
Days before the ad dropped, Bud Light announced a partnership with controversial comedian Shane Gillis—known for his 2019 firing from Saturday Night Live after videos surfaced of him using slurs against Asian and gay people.
Bud Light will also advertise at Sphere, the Las Vegas arena lined with an LED screen exterior, during the week leading up to the Super Bowl with a video that will reportedly make viewers feel they’re getting a tour of the inside of a Bud Light bottle.
Tangent
Gillis stirred controversy after being cast in Saturday Night Live in September 2019 after videos resurfaced of him using a racial slur referring to Asian people on his podcast. Other videos of Gillis using homophobic slurs and ranking how funny comedians are by their race, gender and sexual orientation also resurfaced. Gillis responded in a now-deleted post on X, formerly known as Twitter, stating he is a “comedian who pushes boundaries” but is “happy to apologize to anyone who’s actually offended by anything I’ve said.” Gillis was fired from SNL just four days after being hired. Days after Gillis was announced as a Bud Light partner, SNL announced he will host the show set to air on Feb. 24. Though Gillis does not describe himself as a conservative, the New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman wrote he has amassed an audience that includes right-wing Americans by poking fun at conservatism and satirizing patriotism. Some right-wing media personalities embraced Gillis’ Bud Light partnership: Fox News host Greg Gutfeld praised the beer company for “rediscovering its core values.” He added that Gillis “beat cancel culture” by making a comeback after his SNL firing. Daily Wire host Brett Cooper said “maybe things really are changing for the better over at Bud Light,” adding Gillis may help reach out to the company’s “core” customer base.
Contra
Some conservatives criticized Bud Light’s latest marketing tactics, including conservative pundit Megyn Kelly: She said she’s “not sure what [Gillis]
is doing” amid his partnership with Bud Light, which she said is “basically a slur in Republican circles.” Tim Pool, who has more than 1.6 million YouTube subscribers, said Bud Light’s partnership with Gillis is “pure desperation” and doubted it would help the brand’s sales, though he praised Gillis as a funny comedian. Right-wing radio host and comedian Tim Young said the Gillis partnership “will not win back a single Bud Light drinker on the right who dropped them.”Key Background
Bud Light had a rough year marred by boycotts stemming from partnerships with celebrities that angered the right wing. Mulvaney, known for her TikTok videos documenting her gender transition, made an Instagram post showing off a customized can Bud Light sent her in April 2023 and advertising a contest sponsored by the brand—but conservative critics quickly objected to the partnership, including Kid Rock, who posted a video shooting cans of Bud Light (before declaring the boycott “over” in December). A resurfaced interview of Bud Light’s then-vice president for marketing Alissa Heinerscheid, in which she said she wanted to shift the company’s image from “fratty” to more inclusive, also sparked outrage and accusations that the company abandoned its customer base. Bud Light sales dropped throughout the year, and Modelo overtook it as the best-selling beer in the U.S. in May. The company reportedly saw better-than-expected third-quarter sales growth, though, and Anheuser-Busch InBev stock jumped more than 20% between late October and late December, outpacing gains in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. Bud Light also released several commercials in 2023 starring Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who has since emerged as a target for criticism and conspiracy theories by the right-wing amid his Pfizer partnership and relationship with Taylor Swift.
Further Reading
Bud Light’s New Super Bowl Genie Grants Wishes With Peyton Manning, Post Malone and More (Variety)
Travis Kelce’s Ads For Pfizer And Bud Light Draw Right-Wing Anger (Forbes)
