Opinion
Bud Light lost hundreds of millions of dollars last year after teaming up with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for a partnership in April.
Now, Bud Light is desperately trying to backtrack, as the brand just announced that it’s teaming up with conservative comedian Shane Gillis, who was dropped from the cast of “Saturday Night Live” after just five days due to footage that emerged of him making what some deemed racist and homophobic jokes.
Bud Light teams up with Gillis
Gillis, 36, announced he was partnering with the brand in an Instagram post tagged “paid partnership with Bud Light.”
“Excited to announce the partnership with Bud Light #budlightpartner,” Gillis wrote.
“Welcome to the team @shanemgillis, excited to be a part of your 2024 tour,” Bud Light added in a separate post.
The Street described this partnership as “somewhat shocking because Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) CEO Michel Doukeris said during his company’s second-quarter earnings call that he intended to avoid making political statements.”
“Our consumers across sentiment groups have three feedback points in common,” Doukeris said. “First, they want to enjoy the beer without arguing. Two: They want Bud Light to focus on beer. Three, they want Bud Light to focus on the platforms that all consumers love, like the NFL, Fields of Honor and music.
“After that statement, however, the company immediately became the largest sponsor of the UFC, the mixed martial arts group managed by Dana White, a friend and supporter of Donald Trump who did nothing to prevent his fighters from fighting against transgender invective,” The Street added.
Related: Bud Light Attempts Comeback With New Super Bowl Ad After Dylan Mulvaney Debacle
Gillis addresses plummeting Bud Light sales
This comes as Bud Light sales continue to slump, with sales in the first two weeks of 2024 down 28.9% from a year earlier, according to the Daily Mail. This is largely because conservatives have launched a highly affective boycott of Bud Light against the brand that partners with transgender influencer Mulvaney.
Gillis addressed the fallout from Bud Light and Mulvaney while appearing on “The Joe Rogan Experience” last year.
“It’s become a joke, and it’s hard to overcome from a marketing perspective,” Gillis said. “It’s hard to get people to publicly order a Bud Light because you’ll get ridiculed.”
“They should hire the Rock kid as a spokesperson,” host Joe Rogan said, according to Newsweek.
“We talked about it last night, it would be the best thing,” Gillis continued in agreement.
Related Article: Kid Rock Forgives Bud Light ‘As a Christian’ – ‘They Made a Mistake’
Gillis eliminated from ‘SNL’
Gillis definitely knows a thing or two about cancel culture. In 2019, he was dropped as a cast member from “Saturday Night Live!” just five days after it was announced that he would be joining the show. Gillis was reportedly fired after jokes surfaced that he had made on a podcast years earlier that some believed were both racist and homophobic.
“After speaking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining ‘SNL,’” the sketch comedian said at the time, according to Fox News. “We were unaware of his previous remarks that had surfaced in recent days. The language he used was offensive, insulting and unacceptable. We regret that we did not see these clips sooner and that our judging process was not up to our standards.”
Bud Light partnering with Gillis shows how desperate the brand is to win back the conservative consumers it alienated last year with its partnership with Mulvaney. Only time will tell whether this move will ultimately pay off for Bud Light.
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