The more I think about it, the more interesting this story is going to be to watch. Most of the time when we say, “get woke, go broke,” we’re full of shit. The companies don’t go broke, not even close to it. They might have a small hiccup in stock values or sales, but that’s it.

What makes this one different is that Bud Light is an identity product for its core customer base. By that, I mean that being a “Bud Light drinker” (or a Bud drinker, etc.) is a bigger part of how people view themselves. Same as their favorite sportsball team. When a “Bud Light drinker” enters a bar, they don’t think about what they are going to drink – they just order their Bud Light. This type of demographic, according to surveys I’ve seen (I have some involvement in the food and beverage industry) makes up about 50% of their customer base. That’s why (normally) the people in the beer commercials are people that their core customers want to emulate.

However, that identity is shot for many of that core customer base. It’s hard to imagine the majority of that 50% “identity” customer base wanting to emulate a mincing transfaggot. Bud Light (and other A-B products) are losing real sales in real time at ground level over this. And not just a little bit – a lot. The conversations I’ve had with distributors back up Tsquared’s comments. They are concerned. Very concerned.

Of course, the NFL didn’t “go broke” over BLM, so will this really affect A-B? Probably. For the NFL’s core customer base, there really isn’t a competitive product that they can consume, so they’ll just try to ignore kneeling players, the ‘end racism’ messages, and other bullshit. Frankly, most NFL fans are so brain-dead that Michael Vick could sacrifice a pit bull during the Super Bowl halftime show and they’d lose less than 1,000 viewers.

It’s not the same with beer. Right now, as bad as A-B distributors are doing, Miller distributors are doing very well, as are others. And when an “identity product” breaks its brand promise to its customers, the reaction is very emotional – so it might be hard to do a mea culpa and get those customers back. This could affect A-B’s business for a long time to come. I fucking hope so.

The ultimate irony is this – had A-B done these commercials with real women – attractive ones – it probably would have helped them sell more beer. Picture the bathtub commercial with a hot and well known acutal female actress – that might have actually appealed to women AND men. But the marketing skank had to prove a point rather than sell beer. This could be one of the biggest “own goals” in the current propaganda wars.

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