Mediaboss Marketing

I once led a drink boycott.

It was my sophomore year of high school. At least, I think it was. Im hedging my bets because Im getting to the age where my kids or wife sometimes stop me when Im telling a story and suggest the details are different than the first 73 times I told it.

Age does things to our memory. But heres the story as I remember it:

We had two soda machines in our high school lunch room. Back then, a soda cost a quarter. My drink of choice was Mountain Dew. But one day, the machine supplier made a change. The price for my nectar of the Gods was now going to be 35 cents.

This cant stand, I thought. So I stood on the lunch room table and channeled the Mel Gibson portrayal of William Wallace in the movie Braveheart, thumping my chest and demanding freedom from price betrayal.

People are also reading

OK, check that. Braveheart didnt come out until a decade after I graduated from high school. And I probably didnt stand on the table. But I did ask my friends to stop buying Pepsi products from the machine with the higher prices.

It worked. We drank Mello Yello for a couple of weeks. The price returned to 25 cents. For a while.

These days, kids dont even need loose change for soda and snack machines. They can use credit and debit cards. And I cant remember the last time I paid even 50 cents for a can of soda.

I mention this story because our fair citys most famous corporate citizen is involved in a drink boycott of its own. During the NCAA championship basketball tournament, Anheuser-Busch ran a promotion for Bud Light that included transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney, who is a Tik Tok influencer. Back in my day, we had celebrity spokespeople. Now we have influencers. Get off my lawn.

Because literally everything these days must devolve into a culture war, so-called conservatives, politicians and celebrities are pushing a boycott of Bud Light. Apparently, they dont believe transgender people should be allowed to exist, let alone drink the same beer they do.

Country musician Travis Tritt tweeted vulgarities about Bud Light and said he would get rid of the product on his tour bus. Congressman Dan Crenshaw of Texas made a video of his refrigerator no longer having any Bud Light in it. The video did, however, show a fair amount of Karbach, a Texas craft brewery that was bought by Anheuser-Busch in 2016.

This cancel culture business is tough, especially in the ever-shrinking beer world, where big labels like Anheuser-Busch buy up Goose Island and Karbach and Breckenridge Brewery. A few years back, Anheuser-Busch hooked up with hip-hop musician Jay-Z. Then it moved away from that partnership and dove into country music. Outrage in. Outrage out.

This is one of those things that happens on the left and the right, when a brands owner does something to offend those with a different political view or tries to appeal to a new demographic. More often than not, those who decide to boycott end up looking silly, as they rush to take videos of themselves tossing the products in the trash or burning their formerly beloved possessions.

The boycotts come and go; they backfire or fade out of memory. Most of us who follow politics closely deal with enough outrage real and ginned up that we dont need it to carry over to personal consumer choices.

Representation is sort of at the heart of evolution, Bud Lights vice president of marketing, Alissa Heinerscheid, said in an interview with an industry publication.

She was explaining the new branding, which sought to update the beers fratty appeal.

Youve got to see people who reflect you in the work, she said.

I saw the video on Twitter. An influencer linked to it.

With all due respect to the generations of St. Louisans who made Anheuser-Busch what it is, I dont particularly care if there is a picture of Bob Dylan, Matt Dillon or Dylan Carlson on a can of Bud Light. My loyalty is to taste and, to a certain extent, region.

For instance, during Denver Broncos games, I drink craft beer from Colorado. During St. Louis City SC games, I drink craft beer from St. Louis, preferably a Brewligans from 2nd Shift Brewery.

I like beer. Straight beer. Gay beer. Country beer. City beer. Football beer. Most of it, anyway.

A few years back, Bud Light appealed to each NFL fan base by putting team logos on the beer. Even if I were a Bud Light beer fan, I would never as in Travis Tritt and Dan Crenshaw never drink a Bud Light with a Raiders logo on it. But I didnt blame Anheuser-Busch for trying to increase its market share by making a deal with the devil.

If youre offended by your favorite beer trying to appeal to different consumer groups, then you have 99 problems, and Bud Light aint one.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch metro columnist Tony Messenger thanks his readers and explains how to get in contact with him.

Your daily recap of the top stories of the day.

Visit link:
Messenger: The culture wars come to Bud Light. Cry me a river (of beer). - St. Louis Post-Dispatch