A transgender influencer as the face of a marketing campaign – with this idea, Budweiser got caught in the middle of a culture war that is becoming increasingly extreme in the United States. Calls for a boycott and an attempt at a U-turn followed.
Musician Kid Rock recently explained to his followers that he has to say something as clearly and precisely as possible. Then – in front of a picturesque seascape – he took out a machine gun, shot at three crates of Bud Light beer cans and followed by a few more insults.
Bud Light is by far the best-selling beer in the US, with $4.8 billion in sales last year. But sales of the distinctive blue cans and aluminum bottles have been falling sharply for several weeks – since Bud Light has been in the middle of a culture war over sexual identity because the company has chosen Dylan Mulvaney as its advertising partner.
Little was left of the beer cans, and that was exactly the goal of Kid Rock’s video (screenshot).
A gift with consequences
Mulvaney, 26, has been documenting her transformation into a trans woman on social media for months. Millions of young people follow her – the perfect medium for brands that want to specifically address Millennials and Generation Z.
But what seems to work well for fashion, cosmetics and travel backfired on the beer brand. As Mulvaney celebrated “365 days of being a woman” this month, Bud Light sent her “a can with my face on it,” Mulvaney said in the video — it was possibly the best gift ever.
Shortly thereafter, conservatives and right-wingers called for a boycott. It’s part of this larger issue where America’s corporations are trying to change the country, the politics, the culture, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on a podcast. He probably won’t drink Bud Light anymore.
Dylan Mulvaney attracts the hatred of the ultra-right in the US – that also makes her a symbol.
Group with a preference for right-wing politicians
The fact is, says Joanna Schwartz, a professor of marketing at Georgia College, “that Anheuser Busch, the parent company, gives more money to right-wing politicians than to progressive ones.” But when it comes to transgender issues, conservative politicians are highly mobilized.
Only about 1 percent of the US population is transgender, meaning they don’t feel like they belong to the gender they were assigned at birth. Nevertheless, hundreds of laws have been passed this year that regulate toilet visits, exclude trans women from women’s sports or ban drag shows.
Memories of dark times
“Being trans in America today is a lot like being gay in the 1940s and 1950s,” says Joanna Schwartz. Anyone who turns a transgender influencer into an advertising medium should therefore be warned.
But instead of confidently professing his partner, Anheuser-Busch issued a lukewarm statement, sending two executives on furlough — angering the LGBTQ side.
How other corporations advertise
Other companies have solved the balancing act better, says Schwartz. Volkswagen, for example, addressed homosexual customers early on, but inconspicuously, under the radar. Coca Cola went head-to-head a few years ago. There is a Coke for everyone, “for him, she, her, him, me,” it said in the video.
Even cosmetics companies do not hide their interest in addressing trans people. But there is also the customer’s wish that brands do not interfere in their private lives and certainly not tell them what to think.
Joanna Schwartz believes that the debate about transgender people in the US will only intensify in the near future, but that history is moving in the direction of equality. And the next generations, she says, will be shocked at today’s debate: “Really, did they really do that? That’s terrible!”