Bud Light’s latest commercial, which features a woman eating a watermelon in the middle of a storm, sparked a wave of derision on Sunday as viewers said the clip was representative of the brand’s disastrous marketing department.
The 10-second clip posted to the beer brand’s Twitter page shows a female picnicker spooning large chunks of melon into her mouth as the wind sends paper plates and cans of Bud flying.
She sits as if nothing is happening around her at all. The video’s caption reads, “It’s fine, this is fine,” likely a reference to a popular meme of a dog drinking coffee as his house goes up in flames.
There was a scathing reaction in the comments section, and viewers joked that the commercial could be “a peek inside Bud’s headquarters.”
Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, has wiped $27 billion off its market value since its disastrous partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in April. Sales of the brew have fallen, and the Mexican lager Modelo has now replaced it as America’s top-selling beer.
The flailing brand continued to post regularly on its social media pages, where messages were consistently met with vitriol from disgruntled former consumers
The response on Twitter has been swift and scathing, coming from users who remain angry with the brand for collaborating with Mulvaney and the subsequent lack of a sincere apology.
“We’re getting a look at Buds headquarters today. After speaking to reps, they say, “It’s fine, this is fine!” one user wrote.
“Is this a video from your marketing department,” wrote Seth Weathers, who has since launched a conservative rival to Bud Light called Conservative Dad’s Ultra Right Beer.
“This brand seems to have hit rock bottom…” another user wrote.
“Whoever advises you, it’s probably time for a change,” a fourth wrote.
On Monday, the brand was again criticized in the comments when it posted a GIF of a can of Bud Light being broken open with the caption, “The best beer is an open beer.”
“Hard pass, banned for like in our house!” wrote one disheartened former fan.
“The best beer is one that isn’t Bud Light,” wrote Derek Shwartz.
“The best women are biological women,” a third user wrote, gesturing to the Mulvaney scandal.
Bud Light sales continue to fall into July – a generally critical sales period for alcohol brands.
Sales fell 28.5 percent in the week ending July 1, slightly less than the 27.9 percent drop the brand saw in the week ending June 24.
The short video is captioned, “It’s fine, this is fine,” likely a reference to a popular meme of a dog drinking coffee as his house goes up in flames
The very short clip posted to Bud Light’s Twitter page shows a female picnic goer spooning large chunks of watermelon into her mouth as the wind blows across the picnic table, causing others to run and cans of Bud Light to fly
Bud Light has been on a steady decline since April
Bud Light’s popularity has plummeted since brewer Anheuser-Busch teamed up with 26-year-old Mulvaney and gave her a personalized can
In a new YouGov poll, which polled 1,468 people, the beer’s public approval dropped so much that it dropped out of the top ten to rank 15th.
Bud Light’s problems have, to some extent, trickled down to its sister brands under the Anheuser-Busch umbrella.
Sales of Michelob Ultra — the country’s third-favorite beer last year — fell 4.3 percent in the week ending July 1. Busch Light sales fell 8.5 percent for the same period, according to data from Bump Williams Consulting and NielsonIQ.
Budweiser also fell 12.1 percent, according to the consultants.
Modelo Especial, on the other hand, saw its sales increase. They were up 11.4 percent for the week of July 1 and have been climbing steadily since the spring.
Modelo is also owned by AB InBev – Anheuser-Busch’s parent company – but is distributed in the US by Constellation Brands.
Adding to the discord among brand executives is that Bud Light is no longer in the top ten most loved beers in the US, with a survey showing that public opinion of the beer has dropped significantly.
The YouGov survey found that the percentage of Americans who “like Bud Light” hasn’t changed, but the popularity of other beers has skyrocketed, pushing the blue can to 15th.
The survey found that Guinness, Corona and Heineken were the three most-liked beers of 2023, with approval rates ranging from 58 percent to 51 percent among US consumers.
Mulvaney announced the partnership in a series of videos posted to social media in early April
Mulvaney only recently broke her silence about the fiasco, berating the troubled brand for not standing by her side.
She told her 1.8 million followers, “I waited for the brand to contact me, but they never did. I have been afraid to leave my house.
“If a company hires a trans person and then doesn’t publicly assist them, that’s worse than not hiring a trans person at all.
“I’ve been ridiculed in public, I’ve been followed, and I’ve felt a loneliness I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”
After going public with her criticism, Anheuser-Busch hit back in a statement to say they are “committed to the programs and partnerships” they have forged with the LGBTQ+ community.
The company didn’t directly name Mulvaney, but their comments came immediately after she lashed out at them for not supporting her and the trans community.
In the statement, they said: “The privacy and security of our employees and our partners is always our top priority.
“As we move forward, we will focus on what we do best: brewing great beer for everyone and earning our place in times that matter to our consumers.”
Their statement comes after CEO Brendan Whitworth was criticized for refusing to rule out whether the company would work with Mulvaney again – and avoided answering how much the marketing blunder had cost Bud Light.
It’s one of the few times the company has directly addressed the controversy surrounding its partnership with Mulvaney — as bosses initially claimed an “outside agency made the move to work with Mulvaney without management awareness or approval.”
Anheuser-Busch said earlier this month it would triple its marketing spending in the US this summer to boost distressed sales.