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Transcript

Bud Light Refuses To Apologize for Dylan Mulvaney · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Anheuser Busch has announced that apparently the chick that did
0:05
Speaker 1: the Mulveney campaign they're head of like marketing, she's no
0:09
Speaker 1: longer a quote with the company. Yeah, you think, and
0:13
Speaker 1: Anheuser Bush decided they were going to do some damage
0:16
Speaker 1: control by getting back on Twitter. That just backfired in
0:20
Speaker 1: their face because everybody was taunting them and messing with them.
0:24
Speaker 2: Right.
0:24
Speaker 1: Also, they also had a tweet they deleted that said
0:29
Speaker 1: go woke exclamation point from a little while back. They've
0:33
Speaker 1: deleted that tweet now because people were mocking them with
0:35
Speaker 1: that old tweet as well, which is even funnier.
0:38
Speaker 2: And then you had the Anheuser Bush CEO.
0:40
Speaker 1: Now, this was stupid for him to take this long
0:42
Speaker 1: to do this interview, but he decided to do it,
0:44
Speaker 1: and it was a bad interview by the way.
0:46
Speaker 2: He went on CBS Mornings.
0:48
Speaker 1: It was the safest place round to go because Gail
0:50
Speaker 1: King and they're not going to ask any tough questions. Okay,
0:53
Speaker 1: they did ask him this question about Dylan mulvaney. Now
0:56
Speaker 1: to be clear, So you know, Dylan Mlvani's the dude
0:59
Speaker 1: that has a penis the dresses like a chick that
1:02
Speaker 1: Anheuser Busch put on a can. Okay, so understand that
1:06
Speaker 1: I want you to hear Anheuser Busch's CEO, younger guy
1:10
Speaker 1: Brennan Whitworth, and here's what he had to say about
1:14
Speaker 1: basically having no regrets about the decision literally to destroy
1:17
Speaker 1: bud Light, and suggests is that he would even do
1:21
Speaker 1: it again, which is a reason why I said from
1:23
Speaker 1: the beginning. Unless they decide to come out and say
1:26
Speaker 1: we screwed up and we're so sorry, and we alienated
1:29
Speaker 1: our customers and we're never going to do it again,
1:32
Speaker 1: then don't believe any of their pr marketing with their
1:35
Speaker 1: Harley Davison campaign or their Fourth of July campaign or
1:39
Speaker 1: whatever the crap they try to do next, because they
1:41
Speaker 1: don't actually believe it. And that is exactly what happened
1:45
Speaker 1: today with a CEO.
1:46
Speaker 3: Listen, given the moment we're in, this moment in America
1:48
Speaker 3: with trans issues at the top of a republican social
1:52
Speaker 3: or conservative political agenda. Knowing what you know now, if
1:56
Speaker 3: you could go back, would you send this can to
1:58
Speaker 3: this one person again?
2:00
Speaker 4: There's a big social conversation taking place right now, and
2:04
Speaker 4: big brands are right in the middle of it. And
2:06
Speaker 4: it's not just our industry or bud Light. It's happening
2:09
Speaker 4: in retail, it's happening in fast food, and so for us,
2:12
Speaker 4: what we need to understand is deeply understand and appreciate
2:16
Speaker 4: is the consumer and what they want, what they care about,
2:21
Speaker 4: and what they expect from big brands.
2:24
Speaker 3: This this is part of why you're getting it from all
2:25
Speaker 3: sides because I asked you, would you do it again?
2:27
Speaker 3: And people on the trans right side of things supporting
2:30
Speaker 3: that community want you to say yes. Of course, we
2:33
Speaker 3: want that fortitude, and people on the right would criticize
2:37
Speaker 3: you for saying yes.
2:38
Speaker 5: So where are you on the issue? I mean, was
2:40
Speaker 5: this a mistake?
2:42
Speaker 4: You know, bud Light has supported LGBTQ since nineteen ninety eight,
2:46
Speaker 4: so that's twenty five years. And as we've said from
2:49
Speaker 4: the beginning, we'll continue to support the communities and organizations
2:52
Speaker 4: that we've supported for decades. But as we move forward,
2:56
Speaker 4: you know, we want to focus on what we do best,
2:58
Speaker 4: which is brewing great beer for everyone, listening to our consumers,
3:01
Speaker 4: being humble and listening to them, making sure that we
3:04
Speaker 4: do right by our employees, take care and support our partners,
3:09
Speaker 4: and ultimately make an impact in the communities that we serve.
3:12
Speaker 2: All right, So to be clear, I guess he's saying
3:14
Speaker 2: they do it again. Right.
3:16
Speaker 1: He has no regret about the decision to destroy bud Light,
3:19
Speaker 1: He has no regrets about basically working with Mulvaney. He
3:23
Speaker 1: makes it clear that they're still standing by what they
3:24
Speaker 1: believed in the day that they did the deal with Mulvaney.
3:27
Speaker 1: A dude with a penis, dress like a chick, and
3:31
Speaker 1: they're still a cutting edge company that he's going to
3:33
Speaker 1: run into the ground. What's even funnier than that is
3:37
Speaker 1: the fact that the CBS News actually asked him another question.
3:42
Speaker 1: And a lot of people don't know this. Brendan Whitworth
3:44
Speaker 1: was actually a CIA employee at one point in his
3:50
Speaker 1: career before he went to bud Light and collapse bud Light,
3:53
Speaker 1: and I want you to hear how they asked him
3:55
Speaker 1: about that. It's hysterical.
3:57
Speaker 6: We should point out that you're a former United States
3:59
Speaker 6: Marine and you were all so at the Central Intelligence Agency,
4:01
Speaker 6: the CIA. Correct, So you know a little bit about stress.
4:04
Speaker 6: I just lit tiny bit. How did you go from
4:07
Speaker 6: the CIA to anhyser Bush?
4:09
Speaker 4: You know, I thought the highest calling that anybody can
4:12
Speaker 4: have is serving the country, but for you know, personal reasons,
4:17
Speaker 4: made the decision, after eight years in service of the
4:19
Speaker 4: country to move into business. I worked for PepsiCo for
4:22
Speaker 4: a number of years, and I came here ten years ago,
4:24
Speaker 4: and I've been in this position for two years.
4:26
Speaker 7: You still like this job. I love this job and.
4:28
Speaker 4: I love the company, and it really is, as I mentioned,
4:31
Speaker 4: an American institution, and it's really to me one degree
4:34
Speaker 4: of separation away from the United States, the American flag.
4:39
Speaker 4: And so even though I'm not serving the country anymore,
4:42
Speaker 4: I still feel like I have an opportunity to support
4:47
Speaker 4: the country. And that's exactly what Anheuser Busch gives us
4:49
Speaker 4: the opportunity to do.
4:50
Speaker 7: And you're feeling you'll get through this absolutely.
4:53
Speaker 2: Yeah.
4:54
Speaker 1: So in other words, the American flag, we'll talk about,
4:57
Speaker 1: and we're happy to bring up his service to a
4:59
Speaker 1: mayor when it's convenient. I found that aspect of this
5:03
Speaker 1: a little bit condescending to the audience, Like I found
5:07
Speaker 1: what he just said there just a little bit like
5:09
Speaker 1: in your face, like are you kidding me? Like you're
5:11
Speaker 1: now gonna go from Dylan mulvaney to let's talk about
5:15
Speaker 1: your service to America and you're one step away from
5:19
Speaker 1: from serving your country while being at Anheuser Bush. No,
5:22
Speaker 1: you're not, like I have no problem with people that
5:25
Speaker 1: make money. I love capitalism, I love working hard and
5:28
Speaker 1: making money. I don't mind whatever this guy's making. But
5:31
Speaker 1: don't sit there and then use your service to America
5:35
Speaker 1: to cover your a dobls for a terrible business decision,
5:38
Speaker 1: which was to change your brand and alienate the redneck
5:42
Speaker 1: south right, the frattie I'm using their words, the fratty
5:46
Speaker 1: image of bud Light by giving a customized bud like
5:51
Speaker 1: can and the wake of women member. This wasn't even
5:55
Speaker 1: Gay Pride when they did this. This was for women's
5:57
Speaker 1: mart like for Women's Month, whatever the hell they call well,
6:01
Speaker 1: Vanny was saying when they did the can like, this is.
6:03
Speaker 2: For Women's Empowerment Month or whatever.
6:06
Speaker 1: So they're now also telling you that they believe a
6:08
Speaker 1: dude with a chick is a woman. He was also
6:12
Speaker 1: asked how they're handling the massive dropping sales and people
6:16
Speaker 1: shooting bud like cans with guns, right, because the Friday
6:19
Speaker 1: people are doing that. Yes, we are, by the way,
6:21
Speaker 1: and it's really fun listen.
6:23
Speaker 4: And I think the fact remains that millions and millions
6:26
Speaker 4: of consumers enjoy bud Light each and every day, and
6:29
Speaker 4: they do it.
6:29
Speaker 7: I'm mad, though, Brendan, because the sales have dropped. How
6:32
Speaker 7: are you handling that?
6:33
Speaker 8: I mean to Ceo, I just I want to know
6:36
Speaker 8: what this was been like for you when you've had
6:39
Speaker 8: so much vitriol on all sides.
6:41
Speaker 7: Your sales are dropping.
6:42
Speaker 8: People, you know, we have people firing guns at bud
6:45
Speaker 8: like cans. I mean, it's just gotten really off the
6:47
Speaker 8: chain crazy.
6:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, so how have you how are you grabbed by
6:52
Speaker 1: the way, Just so Gael King knows, and I just
6:54
Speaker 1: think it's important that I tell her this.
6:57
Speaker 2: It is not off the chain to shoot bud like can.
7:00
Speaker 2: When you go.
7:01
Speaker 1: Shooting, especially when your outdoor, you're shooting at something. And
7:05
Speaker 1: a lot of times, I mean when I was growing up,
7:07
Speaker 1: we would shoot because we go to Walmart. We buy
7:09
Speaker 1: case of Barbasol Kansas Shootout because they were so cheap,
7:13
Speaker 1: that's the shaving cream.
7:14
Speaker 2: They would explode. It was awesome.
7:16
Speaker 1: Then I remember buying Big K three liter bottles at
7:19
Speaker 1: Kroger and Big K twelve packs or twenty four packs
7:24
Speaker 1: and shaking them up and then shooting them like.
7:27
Speaker 2: Skeat because it was so cheap.
7:31
Speaker 1: This idea that it's off the chains, that people are
7:33
Speaker 1: shooting by light is again shows you there the disdain, okay,
7:40
Speaker 1: and the lack of understanding of the Freddy South as
7:46
Speaker 1: they would condescendingly talk about us. They don't understand Middle
7:54
Speaker 1: America and they don't want to.
7:56
Speaker 2: They just want to look down on it. And I
7:59
Speaker 2: want you.
7:59
Speaker 1: To hear this c of Anheuser Busch saying this, and
8:02
Speaker 1: watch how quickly he says it, okay, about the massive
8:05
Speaker 1: sales drops and the people shooting the bud like cans.
8:09
Speaker 7: Appling with that handling that.
8:11
Speaker 4: I think it's the impact, honestly on the employees that
8:14
Speaker 4: weighs most on me. But again, as I mentioned, seeing
8:18
Speaker 4: the pride in the commitment that they have working on
8:21
Speaker 4: behalf of a one hundred and sixty five plus year
8:23
Speaker 4: old American institution is what gives us energy as we
8:28
Speaker 4: as we look to move forward and focus on what
8:30
Speaker 4: we do best.
8:31
Speaker 1: So you're supposed to feel sorry, frannheuser Busch for doing this,
8:34
Speaker 1: even though they haven't said they're sorry to you, even
8:37
Speaker 1: though they haven't said they alienated to you and they
8:39
Speaker 1: screwed up even as they're given an opportunity to say, yeah,
8:42
Speaker 1: we wouldn't do this again. It was just a bad decision,
8:44
Speaker 1: a bad choice by these marketing people who are no
8:46
Speaker 1: longer with the company.
8:47
Speaker 2: No, no, no, that's not it.
8:48
Speaker 1: Now. If you want to know who's the blame, CBS
8:52
Speaker 1: News was helping out Anheuser Busch. They believe that this
8:57
Speaker 1: CEO is a hero because he stays aid with it
9:00
Speaker 1: and stuck with it and isn't flinching and is still
9:03
Speaker 1: there at Anheuser Busch and hasn't quit gone home and cried.
9:07
Speaker 2: So he's somehow the hero in all this.
9:09
Speaker 1: And then, if you want to know who they blame,
9:11
Speaker 1: it's Republicans, it's conservatives.
9:13
Speaker 2: Listen, many people.
9:14
Speaker 8: In your positions, mister Wentworth would be running for the
9:17
Speaker 8: hills at this point, because since April you all have
9:19
Speaker 8: faced a lot of incoming How and why did it
9:24
Speaker 8: go so off the rails, because that certainly wasn't your
9:26
Speaker 8: intention when you did. One can to one person.
9:29
Speaker 4: It's been a challenging few weeks, and I think the
9:33
Speaker 4: conversation surrounding bud Light has moved away from beer and
9:37
Speaker 4: the conversation has become divisive and bud Light.
9:40
Speaker 1: Really But by the way, who did that? Who moved
9:43
Speaker 1: it away from beer?
9:45
Speaker 2: Right?
9:45
Speaker 1: Anyone want to talk about that? Who moved the conversation
9:49
Speaker 1: away from beer?
9:51
Speaker 2: Right?
9:51
Speaker 1: This has really moved away from beer as he described it, Well,
9:54
Speaker 1: they did. They're the ones that moved away with this
9:58
Speaker 1: woe agenda, trying to get you to believe, okay, that
10:03
Speaker 1: somehow you should want to drink beer with a dude
10:09
Speaker 1: with a penis dressed like a chick put telling you
10:12
Speaker 1: that you are this dude with a penis is a
10:17
Speaker 1: woman when we all know it's not a woman.
10:21
Speaker 2: And if you don't.
10:21
Speaker 1: Believe it, then you're some sort of bigot, a racist,
10:24
Speaker 1: or homophobe or a phobe, whatever you want to call it. Right,
10:27
Speaker 1: the LGBTQ community will activist community will come after you.
10:30
Speaker 2: So bud Light is now mad.
10:34
Speaker 1: That they decide to have a conversation that had nothing
10:39
Speaker 1: to do Okay, it had nothing to do let me
10:45
Speaker 1: say it again, it had nothing to do.
10:50
Speaker 2: With beer.
10:52
Speaker 1: And now they're saying it's sad and unfortunate that we're
10:55
Speaker 1: having this conversation that deals with beer or outside of beer.
11:00
Speaker 1: You the ones that decided to do this, sir, nobody
11:03
Speaker 1: else put a gun to your head and said, hire
11:05
Speaker 1: a dude and promote a dude with a penis who
11:08
Speaker 1: acts like a woman during Women's Month.
11:11
Speaker 5: Doesn't belong there.
11:12
Speaker 4: Bud Light should be all about bringing people together, and
11:15
Speaker 4: there's an impact on the business and I think that's
11:18
Speaker 4: publicly covered on bud Light specifically.
11:20
Speaker 8: Yeah, so what was your intention take us to what
11:22
Speaker 8: was your intention? What were you all trying to do here?
11:24
Speaker 8: And you've done this before, these promotional campaigns.
11:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was just to be clear, it was it
11:29
Speaker 4: was a gift and it was and it was one can.
11:33
Speaker 4: But for us, you know, as we as we look
11:35
Speaker 4: to kind of the future and we looked to moving forward,
11:38
Speaker 4: we have to understand the impact that's had and like
11:41
Speaker 4: I said, you know, uh that that impact has has
11:44
Speaker 4: taken place.
11:45
Speaker 1: But by the way, the idea of these is it
11:46
Speaker 1: was a gift and it was one can. It was
11:49
Speaker 1: not a gift in one can. It was pushing an ideology.
11:54
Speaker 1: It was demanding that America bow and change its core
11:58
Speaker 1: beliefs to believe that a woman is the same as
12:03
Speaker 1: a man with a penis if he just wants to
12:06
Speaker 1: dress up like a woman. They did this themselves after
12:10
Speaker 1: this interview, I feel even better about what's happened to
12:13
Speaker 1: the company. I hate it for the distributors, I hate
12:16
Speaker 1: it for the be that work there, but this CEO, Like,
12:18
Speaker 1: if the distributors are smart, they would be demanding a
12:20
Speaker 1: new CEO after watching this interview. It didn't make anything better.
12:25
Speaker 1: It made things worse. And if you're a shareholder, by
12:28
Speaker 1: the way of Anheuser Busch, you should be enraged by
12:32
Speaker 1: what they're doing with your money and your harder investments.
12:35
Speaker 2: Right now.
12:35
Speaker 1: By the way, Budweiser now is down one and one
12:39
Speaker 1: point one point one percent since this interview took place,
12:44
Speaker 1: So it's costing them real money. It's costing them. We're
12:49
Speaker 1: talking about one hundred and eleven billion dollars. Is where
12:53
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12:57
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Speaker 1: number four goldr a Well. If you want to know
14:30
Speaker 1: how to screw up a apology, look no further than
14:34
Speaker 1: the Anheuser Busch CEO. The Anheuser Bush Co went on
14:38
Speaker 1: TV to do a big interview to try to get
14:40
Speaker 1: Anheuser Busch back on track.
14:42
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
14:43
Speaker 1: It was about as big of a disaster as putting
14:46
Speaker 1: ade with a penis on a bud like can dressed
14:48
Speaker 1: like a chick for Women's Month.
14:50
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, it didn't go well.
14:52
Speaker 1: Anheuser Busco was supposed to go out there and help
14:55
Speaker 1: rehab the company. He did the exact opposite of that.
15:00
Speaker 1: Anheuser Bush CEO won't say whether the partnership with Dylan
15:03
Speaker 1: mulvaney was a mistake. Bud Light, he went on to
15:07
Speaker 1: clearly say it supported LGBTQ since nineteen ninety eight. He
15:14
Speaker 1: did the interview and I'll let you listen to it
15:16
Speaker 1: and you decide if you want to start drinking bud
15:19
Speaker 1: Light again.
15:20
Speaker 3: Given the moment we're in, this moment in America with
15:22
Speaker 3: trans issues at the top of a Republican, social or
15:25
Speaker 3: conservative a political agenda. Knowing what you know now, if
15:29
Speaker 3: you could go back, would you send this can to
15:31
Speaker 3: this one person.
15:32
Speaker 4: Again, there's a big social conversation taking place right now,
15:37
Speaker 4: and big brands are right in the middle of it.
15:39
Speaker 4: And it's not just our industry or bud Light. It's
15:42
Speaker 4: happening in retail, it's happening in fast food, and so
15:45
Speaker 4: for us, what we need to understand is deeply understand
15:48
Speaker 4: and appreciate as the consumer and what they want, what
15:53
Speaker 4: they care about, and what they expect from big brands.
15:57
Speaker 3: This is part of why you're getting it from all
15:59
Speaker 3: sides because I asked you, would you do it again?
16:00
Speaker 3: And people on the trans right side of things supporting
16:04
Speaker 3: that community want you to say yes. Of course, we
16:06
Speaker 3: want that fortitude, and people on the right would criticize
16:10
Speaker 3: you for saying yes.
16:11
Speaker 5: So where are you on the issue? I mean, was
16:13
Speaker 5: this a mistake?
16:15
Speaker 4: You know, bud Light has supported LGBTQ since nineteen ninety eight,
16:19
Speaker 4: so that's twenty five years, and as we've said from
16:22
Speaker 4: the beginning, we'll continue to support the communities and organizations
16:25
Speaker 4: that we've supported for decades.
16:27
Speaker 1: To be clear, he was just given the opportunity to say, hey,
16:31
Speaker 1: clearly we misread the moment. Clearly we overstepped here. Clearly
16:35
Speaker 1: are drinkers. We shouldn't have gotten so political. That was
16:39
Speaker 1: wrong of us to get so political. We should have
16:42
Speaker 1: just been a beer coming that sells crappy beer, right,
16:45
Speaker 1: and we just bring people together to get hammered.
16:47
Speaker 2: Right. We're Freddy, We're everything.
16:49
Speaker 1: And the people that did this are no longer at
16:51
Speaker 1: the company because this is not a place or a
16:53
Speaker 1: space that we should be involved in, Like we should
16:57
Speaker 1: be nonpartisan.
16:58
Speaker 2: We just sell beer.
17:00
Speaker 1: Should have stuck to that, and this was a big
17:02
Speaker 1: misstep for Anheuser Busch.
17:05
Speaker 2: That's what he should have said.
17:07
Speaker 1: It was actually a really easy setup there, Like it
17:10
Speaker 1: was so freaking easy, Like this was not hard. This
17:13
Speaker 1: was maybe the easiest response he could have ever had, right,
17:20
Speaker 1: like just hey, this is like, this is not hard.
17:24
Speaker 1: And he could have said, you know, we clearly alienated
17:27
Speaker 1: a large part of our customer base.
17:29
Speaker 2: That was a big mistake. We should not have done this.
17:33
Speaker 1: The people that get it, by the way, he should say,
17:36
Speaker 1: are no longer there. Right. That's something else that he
17:38
Speaker 1: could have said, These are pretty simple things, isn't This
17:42
Speaker 1: isn't like a trick here, a Jedi mind trick. He
17:44
Speaker 1: could have just said it that way. And it would
17:46
Speaker 1: have been just fine. That's all you had to say.
17:49
Speaker 1: In fact, like you didn't have to say anything else.
17:51
Speaker 1: You could have just said that, but he chose not to.
17:55
Speaker 1: In fact, he doubled down. He didn't say they regretted it,
17:58
Speaker 1: and he didn't say they wouldn't do it again. And
18:00
Speaker 1: then he went back to remind you that we are
18:02
Speaker 1: huge supporters of the activist LGBTQ.
18:04
Speaker 2: Community and have been for you know, over a decade.
18:07
Speaker 2: And that's fine.
18:10
Speaker 1: I've always said this, when people tell you who they are,
18:13
Speaker 1: believe them, Okay, like just just flat out believe them.
18:17
Speaker 1: Believe what they're telling you when they tell you. And
18:19
Speaker 1: I'm going to back this up, you know, fifteen seconds
18:21
Speaker 1: here to this moment, and I want you to hear
18:26
Speaker 1: it again. They're telling you this is the decision they
18:29
Speaker 1: don't regret, so believe them.
18:33
Speaker 4: What they expect from big brands.
18:35
Speaker 3: Since is part of why you're getting it from all
18:37
Speaker 3: sides because I asked you would you do it again?
18:39
Speaker 3: And people on the trans right side of things, supporting
18:42
Speaker 3: that community want you to say yes. Of course, we
18:44
Speaker 3: want that fortitude, and people on the right would criticize
18:48
Speaker 3: you for saying yes.
18:49
Speaker 5: So where are you on the issue? I mean, was
18:51
Speaker 5: this a mistake?
18:53
Speaker 4: You know, bud Light has supported LGBTQ since nineteen ninety.
18:57
Speaker 7: Eight, so that's twenty five years.
18:59
Speaker 4: And as we've said from the beginning, we'll continue to
19:02
Speaker 4: support the communities and organizations that we've supported for decades.
19:05
Speaker 4: But as we move forward, you know, we want to
19:08
Speaker 4: focus on what we do best, which is brewing great
19:10
Speaker 4: beer for everyone, listening to our consumers, being humble and
19:13
Speaker 4: listening to them, making sure that we do right by
19:16
Speaker 4: our employees, take care and support our partners, and ultimately
19:21
Speaker 4: make an impact in the communities that we serve.
19:24
Speaker 1: So, no, we don't regret it. No we don't believe
19:28
Speaker 1: it's a mistake. No, we're not going to say we
19:30
Speaker 1: made a mistake. We're not going to humble ourselves and say, hey,
19:33
Speaker 1: we really screwed this up and we really didn't understand
19:36
Speaker 1: who our customers were or we took our customers for Granted,
19:39
Speaker 1: you could have said it that way too, like, hey,
19:41
Speaker 1: we were stupid and had somebody that's no longer at
19:44
Speaker 1: the company that made a horrific decision that we should
19:48
Speaker 1: have never been involved in. This is not what we
19:50
Speaker 1: should be doing as a company. We should be selling
19:52
Speaker 1: great beer, bringing people together, period. We should let other
19:55
Speaker 1: people decide on these on these issues. That is the
19:57
Speaker 1: exact opposite of what they said. So I go back
19:59
Speaker 1: to what I said, believe them when they tell you
20:01
Speaker 1: who they are at bud Light. If you want to
20:04
Speaker 1: know why I'm not going to drink bud Light, this
20:05
Speaker 1: is exactly why I believe them. I'm listening to them.
20:09
Speaker 1: They're telling you they didn't make a mistake. They're telling
20:12
Speaker 1: you that this was a good decision. They're telling you
20:15
Speaker 1: that they might have done it again, or might do
20:17
Speaker 1: it again. Maybe it's just a timing that was bad,
20:20
Speaker 1: but they don't. It doesn't mean that the belief for
20:22
Speaker 1: what they were trying to do is bad. I believe
20:25
Speaker 1: they'll probably do this again based on what he just said, Like,
20:27
Speaker 1: I'm going to believe him that they believe.
20:30
Speaker 2: That this is something that they should have done.
20:34
Speaker 1: They believe, like God, we've been doing this for twenty
20:36
Speaker 1: five years, right, We've been doing this for twenty five years.
20:41
Speaker 1: We're not backing down. Okay, I actually do believe you.
20:47
Speaker 1: I think you're telling me the truth, right. I think
20:50
Speaker 1: that not only are you telling me the truth. But
20:52
Speaker 1: I'm going to one hundred percent stand here and not
20:55
Speaker 1: think that you're you're this is who bud Light is. Okay,
21:00
Speaker 1: this is who bud Light is. Believe them when they
21:05
Speaker 1: tell you this is who they are. Dylan mulvaney cuts
21:09
Speaker 1: them bud like Cannon said, he would do it again.
21:12
Speaker 1: He'd anced around every question and will not apologize. And
21:15
Speaker 1: if you want to know why the boycott is permanent,
21:17
Speaker 1: in my mind, this is exactly why. You have a
21:20
Speaker 1: former Marine, a former member of the CIA, who entered
21:23
Speaker 1: the business world about fifteen years ago.
21:25
Speaker 2: And this was I guess the rehab.
21:27
Speaker 1: Moment, right, they were gonna sit down and discuss the
21:30
Speaker 1: most recent backlash against bud Light after the company sent
21:33
Speaker 1: a dude with a penis dressed like a chick I
21:36
Speaker 1: can of beer with his face imprinted on it. Mulvaney
21:40
Speaker 1: first shared the customized cam in an Instagram video in
21:42
Speaker 1: April the first, and since then, the company has lost
21:45
Speaker 1: twenty billion dollars in market cap according to the most
21:50
Speaker 1: recent numbers. They lost more money yesterday. By the way,
21:53
Speaker 1: because those tremendous losses, those losses, I should say, excuse me.
21:58
Speaker 1: The team CBS Press Whitworth about the decision to partner
22:02
Speaker 1: with mulvaney. Quote, knowing what you know now, if you
22:05
Speaker 1: could go back, would you send this can to this
22:08
Speaker 1: one person again? Now, let me also explain something to
22:11
Speaker 1: you about CEOs. Okay, and you used to be a
22:16
Speaker 1: fiduciary of the shareholders you're supposed to protect, is probably
22:24
Speaker 1: the best way of putting it. The shareholders. Like, if
22:28
Speaker 1: I'm an investor in a company and you lose twenty
22:31
Speaker 1: billion dollars because you're wanting to push an ideology, like
22:35
Speaker 1: I'm going to be pretty mad as an investor. Your
22:38
Speaker 1: job for your investors, big or small, whether I have
22:42
Speaker 1: one share or millions of shares of your company, is
22:46
Speaker 1: to make good business decisions, right, Because I don't invest
22:49
Speaker 1: in the stock to lose money. I invest in the
22:51
Speaker 1: stock to what to make money. That's that's what I
22:56
Speaker 1: That's what I do. That's what we all do. And
23:01
Speaker 1: when you see it this way, right, when you see
23:04
Speaker 1: what Anheuser Busch has done, and they should have come
23:09
Speaker 1: out and said, hey, we screwed this up, like we
23:11
Speaker 1: really really really really screwed this up to the point
23:16
Speaker 1: where the headlines are so bad, right, the headlines are
23:20
Speaker 1: so terrible and in fact, I want to play for
23:23
Speaker 1: you a headline. Okay, I want to play for you
23:26
Speaker 1: an intro. If you want to know how damning this
23:29
Speaker 1: decision was to work with mulvaning, look no further.
23:37
Speaker 2: Than CNN.
23:39
Speaker 1: Listen to what CNN led on their newscast here it.
23:42
Speaker 9: Is so this morning after two decades, a new top
23:45
Speaker 9: selling beer in the US. Mexican loger Modelo Especial was
23:50
Speaker 9: the top selling beer last month overthrowing bud Light. There
23:54
Speaker 9: are a couple of things that play here, including flat
23:56
Speaker 9: out changing taste, but also the backlash from a social
23:59
Speaker 9: media host by transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaaney.
24:06
Speaker 2: That's the headline.
24:08
Speaker 1: You've lost a position that you've had for how many years?
24:14
Speaker 2: Decades?
24:15
Speaker 1: Some of your drinkers weren't even alive, that's how long.
24:20
Speaker 1: For two decades, you've been the top selling beer in
24:22
Speaker 1: the US and you lost that. And so you go
24:25
Speaker 1: on TV and you would think that you'd be like, yeah,
24:28
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta fix this, right, I gotta I
24:30
Speaker 1: gotta fix this. You're gonna fix it now? Hell no, no,
24:36
Speaker 1: I'm not going to fix it. CNN said more than
24:40
Speaker 1: just that. By the way, when they did this, they
24:43
Speaker 1: went into a deep dive, and I'm going to play
24:47
Speaker 1: that part of it for you so you understand just
24:49
Speaker 1: how just how massive of a screw up this actually was,
24:53
Speaker 1: and they know it.
24:54
Speaker 9: Correspond to Christine Romans here with the details Romans.
24:59
Speaker 10: Hither John will Yeah, Medello prevails. Pardon the pun over
25:03
Speaker 10: the king of beer is dethroned. Here bud Light. In
25:05
Speaker 10: the most recent month a bud Light's share of the
25:08
Speaker 10: market was less than Modello, so it lost its top
25:12
Speaker 10: standing there. Eight point four percent of beer sales in
25:16
Speaker 10: May belonged to Medello, only seven point three percent bud Light,
25:20
Speaker 10: So that is a big shift. Now, you're right, there's
25:21
Speaker 10: some changing tastes happening, and also this is the month
25:23
Speaker 10: of May. There's Senko to Mayo, and there's also a
25:26
Speaker 10: really clever advertising promotion campaign from Medello and changing taste.
25:30
Speaker 10: Analysts tell us that already there's been an affinity, a
25:33
Speaker 10: growing affinity for Mexican beer and spirits for some time now.
25:37
Speaker 10: So that's sort of a tipping point that you're seeing
25:38
Speaker 10: here when you look at overall sales, though sales for
25:41
Speaker 10: bud Light down more than twenty four percent in the month.
25:44
Speaker 10: That is kind of a staggering number here. And for
25:47
Speaker 10: Medello sales up twelve point two percent. So these numbers
25:51
Speaker 10: are telling a story. You mentioned the transgender influencer who
25:57
Speaker 10: had one can one customer mice can of bud Light
26:01
Speaker 10: and did an Instagram post, and conservative media and conservative
26:05
Speaker 10: social media went on a very full, full forceful boycott
26:11
Speaker 10: of the beer, and so that is one other kind
26:14
Speaker 10: of factor here at play.
26:17
Speaker 1: So you've got to right, by the way, it's not
26:18
Speaker 1: one other factor. It is the whole damn story. And
26:21
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, they just did one can with mulvany
26:24
Speaker 1: on it. You have put a dude with a penis
26:27
Speaker 1: on a can of beer, dressed like a chick celebrating
26:29
Speaker 1: Women's Month, and then you didn't apologize and say you
26:34
Speaker 1: got it wrong, and then you didn't back down from it.
26:37
Speaker 1: So it's not the one can. It's the aftermath of
26:40
Speaker 1: the one can. If you would have come out and said, hey,
26:42
Speaker 1: we screwed this up. That's really bad, and separate yourself
26:45
Speaker 1: from the person that did the marketing decision like this,
26:48
Speaker 1: this is a low level staffer that did this, that
26:51
Speaker 1: was supposed to be reaching out to influencers. This was
26:53
Speaker 1: not coming from the top. We apologized to our beer drinkers.
26:56
Speaker 1: We made a huge mistake. The twenty four percent witness beer.
26:59
Speaker 1: And by the way, this has nothing to do with
27:01
Speaker 1: singing to Mayo. Okay, as they're trying to act like, oh,
27:03
Speaker 1: this is a two tier thing, No it's not. And
27:06
Speaker 1: when you keep giving us the middle finger every time
27:11
Speaker 1: we do something like this where we stand up for
27:12
Speaker 1: what we believe in, you're like, oh, well it's really
27:14
Speaker 1: singing to Mayo.
27:15
Speaker 2: It just makes us stick in even more.
27:18
Speaker 1: Go ahead and lie and say, oh, well, this is
27:21
Speaker 1: multiple factors that well, there's really an affinity coming for
27:25
Speaker 1: Mexican beer. Midello had no shot in hell of becoming
27:28
Speaker 1: the number one beer now or any time in the
27:31
Speaker 1: near future if it wasn't for people boycotting bud Light.
27:38
Speaker 1: The twenty four percent sales decline year over year month
27:41
Speaker 1: over month, however you want to look at the numbers,
27:45
Speaker 1: is not because there's a new affinity for Mexican beer.
27:48
Speaker 1: It is because people are now choosing that beer over
27:51
Speaker 1: bud Light. And because twenty five percent of bud Light
27:55
Speaker 1: drinkers are saying will never buy your beer again unless
27:59
Speaker 1: you change course. Well, we now know they're not going
28:01
Speaker 1: to change course. They're not going to change course at all.
28:04
Speaker 1: And so they're not saying they did anything wrong. They're
28:07
Speaker 1: not saying they messed up. They're sticking to their guns.
28:09
Speaker 1: And that's fine, stick to your guns, but we're not
28:12
Speaker 1: coming back. And when you lie to us and say, oh, well,
28:16
Speaker 1: it's multitude of things, not really just the Republicans that
28:19
Speaker 1: did this are the people.
28:20
Speaker 2: They alienated their customer base.
28:22
Speaker 1: And you try to say, I sing it to mind
28:23
Speaker 1: all this other crap, like you're just insulting us, and
28:26
Speaker 1: now we're going to not do it even more. Were like,
28:28
Speaker 1: you're hurting your brand even more. We're going to dig
28:30
Speaker 1: in even more. Keep listening.
28:31
Speaker 10: The thing's happening. You've got changing tastes, You've got several months,
28:35
Speaker 10: actually years of declining taste for light beer in particular,
28:38
Speaker 10: and then you have this social media fail, quite frankly
28:43
Speaker 10: from bud Light. I mean a lot of corporate directors
28:45
Speaker 10: are watching what bud Light did in this whole situation
28:49
Speaker 10: and finding a lot of fault with how it managed
28:51
Speaker 10: and behaved the situation. From a corporate and pr.
28:53
Speaker 7: Standpoint, Christine Romans, thank you very much.
28:57
Speaker 1: By the way, if this all could have stopped, if
29:01
Speaker 1: the CEO would have come out and said, hey, this
29:03
Speaker 1: was a massive screw up and we are sorry and
29:06
Speaker 1: not been afraid of the woke mob of the left
29:09
Speaker 1: and the LGBTQ activist community. All they had to do
29:14
Speaker 1: was come out and say, we really screwed this up
29:16
Speaker 1: in a way that you've never seen before, and we apologize.
29:21
Speaker 2: Now.
29:21
Speaker 1: Do I think all twenty four percent would come back No?
29:23
Speaker 1: I think you know, time would tell and it could
29:25
Speaker 1: get a little bit better, right, it could have gotten
29:28
Speaker 1: a little bit better. But ultimately, okay, ultimately what this
29:34
Speaker 1: comes down to, Ultimately, what this boils down to is
29:39
Speaker 1: you have a brand that refuses to budge and that's fine,
29:44
Speaker 1: but I'm never going to drink a butt light again
29:46
Speaker 1: with this brand being this way. Please share this podcast
29:51
Speaker 1: with your family and friends. Make sure you write us
29:53
Speaker 1: a five star review wherever you're listening to this podcast,
29:56
Speaker 1: so that will.
29:57
Speaker 2: Help us reach more people. And we will see you
29:59
Speaker 2: back here tomorrow.