Bud Light looks to be buying their way out of the boycott.
It seems like it happened a long time ago now (and I’m sure Bud Light is happy that it seems that way), but back in April of this year, the Bud Light Boycott officially began. Beer drinkers, specifically Bud Light drinkers, were upset that Anheuser-Busch partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney on a celebratory can, but then, a VP a Anheuser Busch doubled down and called the brand “fratty” and “out of touch,” indicating that this kind of partnership signified a new direction for Bud Light.
A certain group of people took offense to that, and decided that they would no longer support Bud Light because of their “woke” decision. And as it turns out, the decision to boycott Bud Light drastically and negatively impacted the Anheuser-Busch brand.
Ever since then, Bud Light has pulled out all of the stops trying to get consumers back, including ads with country music, as well as NFL stars Travis Kelce and Dak Prescott. Although, I’d say people saw through it and many of the ideas failed to really re-establish the beer brand.
It seems as though the only thing that has really helped is time, and now that it’s been basically half a year since it all went down (literally), Bud Light decided to break out the checkbook to reassert themselves.
Bud Light just announced a multi-year, multi-million dollar deal to once again claim the title of the official beer sponsor of the UFC:
The deal is rumored to be the largest and most lucrative sponsorship deal in the history of the UFC, which shows just how much Bud Light and Anheuser-Busch want to put all of the boycotting behind them.
Reports are suggesting that Bud Light and the UFC agreed to a six-year, $100 million deal to lock down the sponsorship, and the beer brand embroiled in controversy for most of this year takes the place that Modelo once had with the UFC.
That move is actually pretty interesting, and might not be a coincidence considering Modelo dethroned Bud Light as America’s favorite beer brand over the summer.
As stated in the post below, the deal will kick into effect soon:
“The global rights deal starts on January 1st and includes octagon branding, social/digital content, and broadcast integrations.”
Could this finally be the move that brings Bud Light back to the glory it once had?
I guess only time (and a lot of fighters beating the hell out of each other and splashing blood onto the Bud Light ad plastered onto the octagon floor) will tell.
