News/Commentary

Budweiser trots out patriotic Clydesdales to save company, but damage control adds insult

April 17, 2023 | | Print Article

Anheuser-Busch is in full damage control mode as the alcoholic beverage colossus seeks to contain the damage to its flagship brand while backlash continues to rage over the genius marketing idea to hire transgender TikToker Dylan Mulvaney to hawk Bud Light beer and has trotted out the famous Clydesdales in a patriotic appeal to its customers.

Following weeks of inaction as boycotts were joined, celebrities spoke out, billions in market value bled away, and negative publicity dominated the headlines, Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth issued a lame mea culpa on Friday, saying that the company never meant to divide people while not specifically mentioning Mulvaney, but it fell short of an actual apology.

Budweiser also released its new pro-America ad featuring the iconic horses that have been a fixture of the company’s promotions for 90 years, showing the majestic animals on a cross-country journey from New York City to Washington D.C.. to the oceanside, with scenes of the Heartland mixed in between, along with its patriotic message that at one point shows two people raising the American flag, all to a stirring musical background.

“Brewed for those who found opportunity in challenge and hope in tomorrow,” the narrator says as a Clydesdale gallops past the Lincoln Memorial before it appears in a country setting with two men, presumably a father and son, sharing bottles of beer on a porch before the scene shifts to the New York City skyline.

“This is a story bigger than beer,” the narrator says during the one-minute spot. “This is the story of the American spirit,” as the company’s slogan “This Bud’s For You,” is shown on the screen as the camera pans the Grand Canyon.

It is an impressive advertisement for sure, but alas, times have changed in an era when American corporations have eschewed real patriotism for “woke” virtue signaling to promote the toxic ideology of the race and transgender cults and have moved away from the traditional values of the past.

However, the ad missed the mark with Twitter users who posted their brutal reactions in a sign that the rejection of the company’s championing of transgenderism is spreading from Bud Light to regular Bud, as well as competitors like Yuengling that have wisely stayed out of the culture war and stand to benefit by increasing their market share.

The reactions poured in and they weren’t good news for the suits in the executive suites at Anheuser-Busch headquarters.

“In April 1933, August A. Busch, Jr. and Adolphus Busch III surprised their father, August A. Busch, Sr., with the gift of a six-horse Clydesdale hitch to commemorate the repeal of Prohibition of beer,” the company states on its website about the history of Budweiser and the Clydesdales. “Realizing the marketing potential of a horse-drawn beer wagon, the company also arranged to have a second six-horse Clydesdale hitch sent to New York to mark the event. The Clydesdales drew a crowd of thousands on their way to the Empire State Building. After a small ceremony, a case of Budweiser was presented to former Governor Alfred E. Smith in appreciation of his years of service in the fight against Prohibition.”

“This hitch continued on a tour of New England and the Mid-Atlantic states, thrilling thousands, before stopping in Washington, D.C., in April 1933 to reenact the delivery of one of the first cases of Budweiser to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt,” Anheuser-Busch boasts of the origins of the promotion and a special delivery to the four-term Democrat president whose time in office encompassed both the Great Depression and World War II.

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Chris Donaldson
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