Sounds like Kid Rock is ready to move on from the Bud Light controversy.
Of course the country rocker was one of the most outspoken critics when the beer brand decided to partner with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, a decision that caused massive backlash that the company is still struggling to recover from.
In response to Bud Light’s marketing campaign, Kid Rock posted a now-viral video of himself blasting cases of Bud Light with a rifle:
But he’s since seemed to soften his stance, and was even spotted cracking a Bud Light during a concert in Nashville.
The controversial star joined former Fox News host Tucker Carlson on his new online network, Tucker Carlson Network, for an episode of The Tucker Carlson Encounter, and naturally the two discussed the Bud Light controversy – and why he’s willing to move on.
Kid Rock says that the problem the company made was that they hired executives who don’t understand their brand – or their customers:
“They moved part of their corporate offices from St. Louis to New York City. Then they start hiring these Ivy League progressive people to work for them who don’t know sh*t about working class people or middle America in this country.
And so somebody wasn’t watching the hen house, they’re riding high and mighty as #1, and a fox gets in.”
But he says at this point, he doesn’t believe the punishment fits the crime:
“Yes, it was a mistake. Do I want to hold their head under water and drown them because they made a mistake? No, I think they got the message. Hopefully other companies get it too. But at the end of the day I don’t think the punishment they’ve been getting fits the crime.”
He does say, though, that he still believes Bud Light has some work to do to win back customers – despite the brand’s aggressive push to refocus their marketing back to their customer base:
“I think they got some work still to get some of that base that they lost, I think to get them back. I’ve said a few times I’d love to see them get triple fratty than they’ve ever been. Hit it head on, kind of make light of the situation, self deprecation.
At the end of the day, when you step back and look at it, yeah, they deserved a black eye – and they got one. They made a mistake.”
He says it all comes down to understanding your brand and who your customers are. And he said that’s why he made the video of himself blasting the cases of Bud Light: He understands his customers, and was doing some marketing for them.
“I keep a lot of beer on the property. A lot of light beer. Bud Light was one of them. And I was like, I know who my consumers are.
So I was doing a little marketing to my folks. It was spot on for me, but also a fun excuse to get my machine gun out and have some fun, but also to make a statement like, ‘Hey, a lot of us aren’t cool with this.'”
