WTH

  I'm still hearing about Bud light and the big controversy. Apparently, I am supposed to be boycotting that product. My beer drinking days are in the past now, but I was never a fan of any light beer in the first place. Truth be told I was never much of a Budweiser fan. My friends and I used to call that the skull buster for the headache it left behind. I never paid any attention to who was making it, why they made it or what they believed when making it. I do wonder why they decided to put a trans person on their cans, is this person lost? Was it placed there instead of the milk carton? I just don't get it. How anyone could think that would increase sales is beyond me. According to the data I have read about 1.9% of the adult population identify as trans. So how many of those would be beer drinkers, light beer drinkers at that? Without any surveys, polls or data on that I'm guessing it wouldn't be a very large market. Maybe the thinking was to provide a means for Bud light drinkers to virtue signal their support. Is there marketing research that shows those folks, the Bud light crowd, would be in support? Apparently not from the reaction I'm hearing about. 

 I'm certainly no expert in retail or advertising, I have no interest or experience in any of that. All I have is about fifty years of experience. In my twenty years in the Navy, I was exposed to many people that were beer drinkers, avid fans of the "suds" in fact. I did notice that certain brands appealed to certain people. I noticed the country folk, the good old boys usually favored Budweiser. That was the "in beer" for those times anyway. Lesser known and appreciated beers were Schaefer and Pabst Blue ribbon. Light beers weren't favored by the men! It was a perception thing and still is. Those drinking Heinken or Coors were making a statement too, they were the progressive crowd, the enlightened. Really it is all about fads and what is cool today. In the thirty years after my naval service I have noticed that Budweiser appeared to remain the popular choice with the macho crowd. As I said, I'm no expert on any of this but I'm thinking it still is. So why put the picture of a Trans person on the cans? It's a mystery to me.

 Will I boycott the product? I don't buy that product anyway, so my answer is no. Would I boycott the product? No, it isn't going to change anything of any great significance. It might get that advertising campaign stopped, the picture removed, but it isn't going to change the thinking that put it there in the first place. You're not going to put Anheuser-Busch out of business. They have been in business for 160 years and operate twelve breweries. They survived prohibition! You not buying a bud light isn't going to affect them that much, just a bump in the road. It sure has drawn attention to them and as Barnum said, all publicity is good publicity. Everyone is talking about Bud light. Yeah, there are those shooting the cans, blowing them up or whatever, those making a statement. My thinking is those same folks will get over it soon enough when their thirst builds. The NFL is still in business aren't they, still selling tee shirts and all sorts of merchandise. Boycott, what boycott, we got that settled didn't we. Yeah, you got that settled alright. 

 I just wonder how that managed to get on those cans in the first place. It isn't one person that decides about any of that. There are several departments each with a department head that has to approve this stuff. Okay maybe the president of the corporation doesn't have to be involved but I'm sure a bunch of other executives must be. So just how did someone convince all these people that this would be a good idea? How was that supposed to sell the product? If presented to me I would have immediately said, no! Not because you want to put a trans person on the can, but because I don't think there are that many trans people drinking Budweiser. There aren't that many trans people in the country. It is estimated there are 1.6 million trans people in the country. That's not a very large market. So, no, we are not putting a picture of a trans person on the can. It just might upset some folks too! No, our beer is for everyone and that's why we aren't putting any picture of some trans tic-tok influencer on our products. It's just business, it's what we do. We are in business to sell beer. Amazing to me that it got through that chain and made it to market. WTH