Budweiser has introduced a new ad that’s teeming with Americana — right as the beer brand’s parent company was being skewered for partnering with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
The ad features Budweiser’s iconic Clydesdale galloping past notable U.S. landmarks — such as the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the Grand Canyon in Arizona — and interspersing patriotic shots such as a couple raising a flag while a woman puts her hand over her heart.
Classic shots of New York City’s skyline, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and America’s Heartland are also prominently depicted in the one-minute spot.
A gravelly-voiced narrator begins to talk “about a beer rooted in the heart of America” and how Budweiser represents the honor, hope and willingness to overcome challenges of the nation’s people.
“This is a story bigger than beer. This is the story of the American spirit,” the narrator says at the end of the ad.
— Budweiser (@budweiserusa) April 14, 2023
The ad’s release last week came after Anheuser-Busch endured two-plus weeks of backlash for making Dylan Mulvaney a brand ambassador for Bud Light.
Trade publications reported last week that Bud Light’s sales took a nosedive for giving a platform to Ms. Mulvaney, a biological man who identifies as a woman.
That includes sales reps and bars both saying they’re having a hard time moving the beer.
Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth purportedly responded to the outcry in a statement last week by saying, “We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.”
Ms. Mulvaney became a brand ambassador days after Alissa Gordon Heinerscheid, Bud Light’s vice president of marketing, said that she wanted the beer to stay away from the “fratty, kind of out-of-touch humor” it was known for.
“I’m a businesswoman, I had a really clear job to do when I took over Bud Light, and it was ’This brand is in decline, it’s been in a decline for a really long time, and if we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand there will be no future for Bud Light,’” Ms. Heinerscheid said on the “Make Yourself at Home” podcast on March 30.
Bud Light began its union with Ms. Mulvaney by selling a can with the trans influencer’s face on it to celebrate Ms. Mulvaney’s one-year anniversary of living as an openly transgender woman.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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