If people boycotted Joe Rogan for not boycotting Bud Light, could you call that “Boycott-ception?” A boycott within a boycott?
It doesn’t look like things will get that drastic, but some of Rogan’s loyal listeners are certainly getting upset that he decided to crack open a couple of Bud Lights when he had country music superstar Zach Bryan join The Joe Rogan Experience. Besides the beer drinking, the episode revealed some pretty interesting insights into Bryan, the former Navy AO who said he never really meant to be a musician, and first got into songwriting by writing poems.
And at one point during the sit down conversation, Rogan busted out some Bud Lights, which would have been no problem at all a year ago before all of the backlash surrounding transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney began. Sales have plummeted since the Anheuser-Busch beer had a short-lived promotional partnership with Mulvaney back in March. An executive doubled down calling the brand “fratty” and “out of touch,” backlash ensued, and now months later, Bud Light is still scrambling to figure out how to gain back the trust of their customers.
Apparently one of those customers that has decided to come back to the beer (if he ever left in the first place) is Joe Rogan, and the fact that he’s speaking out about it probably helps out the struggling beer brand. The Joe Rogan Experience has a pretty extensive reach, and if fans see the popular podcast host drinking it, they might change their mind about the whole thing as well.
In the clip from the Zach Bryan episode below, Rogan hands one of the beers over to the “Something in the Orange” singer and says:
“We’re drinking Bud Lights, so he’s a gentlemen. Sorry!”
Bryan laughs as he cracks open the beer, stating:
“Sorry guys. We’re f**ked.”
Rogan raises his Bud Light up Bryan and continues:
“There’s nothing wrong with it. Cheers bro. People are so silly. We were just talking about how silly it is. One person made a really stupid decision, and now everybody has decided that Bud Light is the enemy.”
I can imagine the move didn’t go over so well for some fans of The Joe Rogan Experience. Then again, Rogan has made a career out of riding the line of controversy with podcast topics and questionable guests, so maybe it was all part of the plan.
Of course, for a guy who is constantly be accused of aligning with the “alt-right,” not participating in the Bud Light boycott seems like the opposite of that.
You can check out the video below, which was posted by someone who was upset that Rogan was downing Bud Lights with Zach Bryan.
They captioned they post with:
“Why does Joe Rogan pretend to not know what the Bud Light boycott is really about? He’s openly against Dylan Mulvaney and the destructive influence he has on kids but still “drinks” Bud Light. Joe Rogan is scared to fully take a side in the culture war.”
