They’re back.
Bud Light has kept a low profile on their social media accounts the past few months, in the wake of the controversy surrounding their decision to partner with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney back in March.
The company has since been facing boycotts that have sent Bud Light’s stock and sales plummeting, causing the beer to lose its place atop the list of best selling beers in the United States while fighting to reverse the trend and stop the bleeding.
They’ve released ads featuring Zac Brown Band’s “Chicken Fried,” partnered with iconic motorcycle company Harley Davidson, and even tried giving their beer away, but the company’s sales are still down nearly 30% since the controversy began as they struggle to turn things around.
Bud Light has also been the target of frequent criticism and jokes on Twitter, so the brand has been staying quiet since the controversy began.
Their last tweet came on April 14, and has over 33,000 replies – most of them negative.
I don’t drink so I have no skin in this game but damn, read the room.
— Marc Lobliner – IFBB Pro (@MarcLobliner) April 15, 2023
Well it seems like they’re ready to jump back onto social media, maybe thinking that things had died down a little bit and they could fly under the radar. Just pretend nothing happened, ignore the last few months, and get back into the Twitter game.
But unfortunately for Bud Light, that definitely wasn’t the case.
Earlier today, the brand tweeted for the first time since April 14:
“Crack a cold one: we’ve got an epic summer ahead. Sock tans included.”
The tweet featured an ad featuring folks enjoying the summer, and doing your typical summer activities like…getting the outline of a cell phone sunburnt on your stomach, falling off a paddleboard, and dropping an entire tray of food as you carry it outside of your house.
Interesting strategy…
And the replies – well, it went about how you would expect.
Dear Budlight,
I will never drink your beer again, even if it was the last beer on earth.
Signed,
An American who happens to be gay.
— Mario Presents Official (@Mario_Presents) June 22, 2023
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) June 22, 2023
Delete your account.
— Spitfire (@DogRightGirl) June 22, 2023
Bud Light PR people:
Lets pretend like nothing happened and just release a lame commercial.Normal people: pic.twitter.com/Lmr5Y5WLih
— Charles Weber – aka THE Jew from Boca (@CWBOCA) June 22, 2023
Still waiting for a serious, authentic apology. Until then, nope!
— Jason Charles (@jasoncharles83) June 22, 2023
103,000 views with only 0.17% liking it must give you a hint at how this is going to go for you, BL.
— DJTAlways (@DjtAlways) June 22, 2023
Speaking of things cold, I see @BudLight‘s sales volume has cooled considerably. #GoWokeGoBroke, huh? 🤣 pic.twitter.com/Fw96BF34ad
— Rich Muny 🇺🇸 (@RichMuny) June 22, 2023
They’ve also hidden quite a few replies to the tweet, which I’m not going to post here but you can imagine how those went.
Among the reactions to the tweet were some people who called out the new ad for being tone-deaf itself by featuring “stupid white people.”
Do you like this ad filled with stupid white people doing stupid things? Good God, our country has lost.
— Deborah (@guyswife_cocos) June 22, 2023
hey look stupid white people! what a novel advertising strategy!
— The Truth Monkey (@TheTruthMonkey) June 22, 2023
It seems like the company was in a lose-lose situation whenever they decided to return to Twitter anyway, so I guess you might as well go ahead and rip off the Band-Aid and let people get their jokes in.
And that’s exactly what they’ve done, with the tweet already racking up over 4,500 replies and just 350 likes in the two hours since it was posted.
But hey, I guess “tweet through it” is one strategy. Let’s see if it works.
