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Bud Light lost hundreds of millions of dollars last year after partnering with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in April.
Now Bud Light is desperately trying to bounce back. The brand announced a partnership with conservative comedian Shane Gillis. He felt some people were making racist and homophobic jokes.
Bud Light Teams Up with Gillis
Gillis, 36, announced she would be teaming up with the brand in an Instagram post labeled “Paid partnership with Bud Light.”
“We are excited to announce our partnership with Bud Light #budlightpartner,” Gillis wrote.
In a separate post, Bud Light added, “Welcome to the team @shanemgillis, who is excited to join the tour in 2024.”
The Street described the partnership as “somewhat shocking, as Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) CEO Michel Doukeris said he tried to avoid political comments during the company's second-quarter earnings call.”
“Consumers across all emotional groups have three types of feedback in common,” Doukeris said. “First, they want to enjoy their beer without discussion. Second, they want Bud Light to focus on beer. Third, we want Bud Light to focus on the platforms that all consumers love: NFL, Fields of Honor, music, and more.”
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“But after that statement was made, the company immediately became the UFC’s largest sponsor. UFC is a mixed martial arts group run by Dana White, a friend and supporter of Donald Trump. “Transgender people get verbally abusive,” Street added.
Related: Bud Light attempts comeback with new Super Bowl ad after Dylan Mulvaney debacle
Gillis addresses plummeting Bud Light sales
This comes as Bud Light sales continue to plummet, with sales in the first two weeks of 2024 down 28.9% compared to the previous year, according to the Daily Mail. This is largely because conservatives have launched a highly emotional boycott of Bud Light over the brand teaming up with transgender influencer Mulvaney.
Gillis addressed the Bud Light and Mulvaney fallout during an appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” last year.
“It’s become a joke and it’s hard to overcome from a marketing perspective,” Gillis said. “It’s hard to get people to order Bud Light in public because you’ll get made fun of.”
“They should hire Rock as their spokesperson,” host Joe Rogan said, according to Newsweek.
Gillis went on to agree. “We talked about it last night. That would be best.”
Related: Kid Rock Forgives Bud Light ‘As a Christian’ – ‘They Made A Mistake’
Gillis leaves 'SNL'.
Gillis certainly knows about cancel culture. In 2019, he was removed from the cast of “Saturday Night Live!” It's been just five days since it was announced that he would be joining the show. Gillis was reportedly fired a few years ago after jokes surfaced on his podcast that some felt were racist and homophobic.
“After speaking with Shane Gillies, he has decided not to join ‘SNL,’” the sketch comedy show said at the time, according to Fox News. “We were not aware of his prior comments that have surfaced over the past few days. The language he used was offensive, hurtful and unacceptable. “We regret that we did not see these clips sooner and that our review process did not meet our standards.”
The fact that Bud Light is teaming up with Gillis shows how desperate the brand is to win back the conservative consumers it alienated last year through the Mulvaney partnership. Only time will tell whether this move will ultimately pay off for Bud Light.
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