It may take more than Travis Kelce grunting to save Bud Light.
Anheuser-Busch InBev unveiled an ad over the Fourth of July weekend featuring the Kansas City Chiefs tight end and other big guys noisily sitting down to relax with a beer, part of the company’s latest rebranding effort as it seeks to recover from the Dylan Mulvaney debacle.
“Easy to drink. Easy to enjoy. Bud Light,” concluded the ad called “Backyard Grunts with Travis Kelce.”
The ad comes with Bud Light teaming up with NFL players and country singers as part of its “Easy to Summer” campaign, pitched as “the brand’s largest media spend to date,” but the initial reviews were not encouraging.
Critics on social media ridiculed the campaign as a ham-handed ploy to win back traditional beer-drinkers without addressing the issues behind the fierce backlash over its partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Bud Light’s YouTube channel drew a flood of overwhelmingly negative comments in the two days after posting the 15-second spot.
“So you went from a man pretending to be a little girl to now showing manly grunting people … to swing it the other way?” said one commenter. “You gotta lock your marketing team in a room with rabid dogs and toss the key.”
Others weighing in called the commercial “pathetic,” “embarrassing,” and “just sad.”
“I don’t even drink beer,” another commenter said. “But I came here to say this ad clearly shows that they think you’re stupid enough to fall for this after the nonsense they pulled.”
Said another commenter: “I’m actually embarrassed for Bud Light at this point. It’s obvious they don’t have the sense to be embarrassed themselves.”
“Bud Light” became shorthand for woke corporate America after the company sent a custom can in March to Dylan Mulvaney, who has 10.7 million followers on TikTok, to celebrate the influencer’s “365 Days of Girlhood.”
The episode prompted a consumer exodus that saw sales nosedive and Anheuser-Busch lose $27 billion in market cap in two months.
Last month, Bud Light lost its 20-year title as America’s best-selling beer to Modelo Especial, a Mexican lager.
Bud Light has struggled to mend fences with conservatives without alienating LGBTQ activists, running ads appealing to traditional American values while also sponsoring events such as last month’s Toronto Pride Parade, which included naked adult men marching in the presence of children.
The “Easy to Summer” campaign unveiled June 22 will also feature San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, as well as the Bud Light Backyard tour with country acts Tyler Braden and Seaforth.
Bud Light had previously announced partnerships with country stars Kane Brown, Midland and Megan Moroney.
New Bud Light commercial featuring Travis Kelce 🍺 pic.twitter.com/20bSFx8pHX
— Farzin Vousoughian (@Farzin21) July 2, 2023
Not impressed with the strategy was the left-wing website Jezebel, which declared: “Bud Light is Embracing Country Music and Football to Try and Win Back Transphobes.”
Bud Light has even alienated Dylan Mulvaney, who slammed the company in a post last week on Instagram, saying, “I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me, but they never did.”
“For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse than not hiring a trans person at all,” Mulvaney said. “It gives customers permission to be as transphobic and hateful as they want.”
Critics on the right have called for an apology from Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth, who told “CBS Mornings” last week that he was “accountable” for everything that happens at the company but sidestepped questions about whether the Dylan Mulvaney episode was a mistake.
“As we move forward, we want to focus on what we do best, which is brewing great beer for everyone, listening to our consumers, being humble in listening to them, making sure that we do right by our employees, take care and support our partners and ultimately make an impact in the communities that we serve,” the CEO said.
Some pointed out that Mr. Kelce doesn’t drink a Bud Light or even touch a can in the commercial.
The NFL allowed players in 2019 to have their likenesses appear in beer ads, but they are still prohibited from endorsing alcohol products directly.
