Apparently, everybody is going woke for the holidays!
Anheuser-Busch is now trading at a higher share price than at the height of the Bud Light controversy, meaning the conservative boycott of the iconic brand was a failure.
Shocking!
Back in March, Anheuser-Busch partnered with Dylan Mulvaney for a social media ad campaign that sparked faux outrage across the right. Kid Rock blew up the controversy with an unhinged video, in which he shoots cans of beer cases with a gun.
Soon, seemingly every MAGA grifter was claiming to boycott Bud Light, and urging their sycophants to follow suit.
Country star Travis Tritt vowed to drop all Anheuser-Busch products from his tour, and one conservative influencer even launched his own “Conservative Dad’s ULTRA RIGHT 100% Woke-Free American Beer,” which costs $29.99 for a six-pack.
Not to be outdone, country music act Brent Gilbert also smashed a Bud Light can during a concert… while singing a Queen song in a muscle shirt.
Unsurprisingly, Republican politicians joined the outcry, with Ted Cruz still threatening to probe the Bud Light-Mulvaney partnership.
At the time, Anheuser-Busch buckled to the pressure. The company placed two execs in charge of the controversial campaign on leave, and tried to distance themselves from Mulvaney.
Unsurprisingly, Anheuser-Busch’s capitulation didn’t quell the performative uproar. Right-wing talking heads still raged, and sales slumped.
But like all outrage cycles, the cries over Bud Light ended, too. This week, Kid Rock declared his boycott is officially over.
Not that he ever followed it…
But don’t just take Kid Rock’s word for it: look at the stock price. As of Thursday, Anheuser-Busch stock was up 5.35% year to date.
On social media, many people rightfully noted that buying low on companies that conservatives are attacking might be the next best investment strategy.
Calling Michael Lewis: You have a book to write!
Cultivate a network of brand social media managers, find out ahead of time which brand plans to display some basic human decency, do some insider trading
— Clue Heywood (@ClueHeywood) December 15, 2023
The lgbtq community loves Anacott Steel pic.twitter.com/VPe7uyBcFC
— the flake that Eddie Felson gave a Balabushka to (@taxthemothmen) December 15, 2023
This is actually a good investment strategy
— Corey Abraham (@coreyabraham91) December 15, 2023
The anti-climactic end of the Bud Light boycott comes just a couple months after the Los Angeles Dodgers proved the same point.
The iconic MLB franchise honored the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at their Pride Night, prompting right-wing carnival barkers to declare the team was discriminating against Catholics.
While the Dodgers originally disinvited the Sisters, they corrected course, and honored them as planned. Despite widespread calls for protests, the team sold more than 49,000 tickets to Pride Night.
Some high-profile Republicans tried to distort reality, but failed. The 100-win Dodgers wound up leading MLB in attendance. (They also just signed Shohei Ohtani, the modern Babe Ruth, to an unprecedented $700 million contract.)
Go woke and… make tons of money?!
Pride Nights were a controversy across baseball last season, with several players voicing their displeasure. But there were also star players who stood up for LGBTQ+ inclusion, such as pitcher Marcus Stroman and outfielder Julio Rodriguez.
Most fans were firmly on the side of inclusion, too. Blue Jays fans booed anti-LGBTQ+ pitcher Anthony Bass right out of the ballpark, days before he was released.
Despite the noise, MLB enjoyed its biggest growth in three decades, with attendance shooting up 10%.
The NHL can tell a similar story. After a smattering of players refused to wear Pride warmup jerseys last season, the league banned rainbow jerseys and warmup tape.
But the misguided edict was panned, with one player, Arizona Coyotes defenseman Travis Dermott, openly defying the league.
The NHL reneged its policy a few days later.
This Pride season, conservatives tried to bully companies and sports leagues into shunning the LGBTQ+ community. But time and time again, the numbers show the impact is short-lived.
Reactionary decisions almost never look good in hindsight.
Diplomat
Boycott Failure? No. You don’t see Bush doing it again now do ya. Some will say anything for faux approval. Dream on.
Kangol2
AnheuserBusch/InBev. The Bushes are a completely different clan!
dbmcvey
This will trigger conservatives.
Hell, it already has (see above).
Diplomat
Hammering trans troll activists back under their bridge state by state law by law.
dbmcvey
This coming from an anti-trans troll who by his very existence is giving comfort to the enemies of LGBT people everywhere.
Diplomat
The LGB community ARE your enemies. Get with the program. Go look at YouTube and search lgb transgender backlash.
Jaesly
I guess one good side effect of the rampant transphobia amongst old gays and lesbians is that it has finally gotten them to admit the bisexuality is real and not just a cop-out for people too afraid to come completely.
Baron Wiseman
Only in Queerty-world would losing $400 million be called “a complete failure.”
Jaesly
Baron, you do realize that Anheuser-Busch InBev is a multi-national brewing conglomerate with $57 billion USD in revenue right? $400 million is a drop in the bucket to them. InBev was never in danger of going bankrupt over the Bud Light boycott, or did you forget that the US is not the entire world?
Hi
Hey Queerty. Enough of the MAGA posts.
Apparently you missed the Democratic mayor that hosted a, ‘non whites’ elected holiday party. The new modern day KKK.
This site should blast the mayor for hosting such a hateful event.
Who’s to say this doesn’t set an example for others to host ‘Straight’s only’, or ‘Biological Male only’ events? Where is the outrage.
Oh that’s right, the reporting on this site is only one sided. Lost the integrity of what true journalism is. Not just pushing an agenda.
dbmcvey
Yeah, because the KKK was all about “non-whites.” What a stupid comment.
Baron Wiseman
@dbmcvey
The KKK was started by the Democrats. It was the activist wing of the Democratic party.
“What a stupid comment.”
Fname Optional Lname
So if it’s the new modern day “KKK” are they burning down crosses on people’s lawns and rounding up undesirable’s to later execute them in the pubic square? Are they then taking photo’s of the dead bodies and making postcards out of them? Sounds like that might have made the nightly news.
bachy
A blizzard in a beer bottle.
Kangol2
You’re confusing Queerty with Breitbart! AGAIN!
Kangol2
Baronin, the KKK was founded by ex-Confederates, not the Democratic Party. Which, as you may not know, flipped its politics with the GQP in the 1950s and 1960s. You seem to be unclear about this since you’ve brought it up again and again. The modern GQP is the heir to the racist Southern White Democrats and Dixiecrats.
And for Baronin, some actual history: “The first [Ku Klux] Klan was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee, on December 24, 1865, by six former officers of the Confederate army: Frank McCord, Richard Reed, John Lester, John Kennedy, J. Calvin Jones, and James Crowe..” Not the “Democratic Party.” They went on to serve the planter class, business interests and Southern White Democrats, with the larger aim of White supremacy.
Cf. Perlmutter, Philip (1999). Legacy of Hate: A Short History of Ethnic, Religious, and Racial Prejudice in America. M. E. Sharpe. p. 170. ISBN 978-0765604064, among other sources.
RIGay
Hey! How about if we come up with a rainbow colored AR-15?
dbmcvey
Whether Bud Light lost money or not, this whole episode just shows what snowflakes conservatives are. A person sips a beer and they freak the f out.