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In what the Wall Street Journal describes as the brand’s “biggest bid to recover from a consumer boycott last year,” Bud Light is launching a Super Bowl ad promising a “humorous spot introducing a new character to the Bud Light universe and some familiar faces from the platforms the brand has been passionate about for years.”
A teaser video — showing 12 seconds of the one-minute ad — dangles a celebrity cameo, with a bearded football fan in awe of a mysterious sunglass-wearing figure, asking: "Are you?"
Bud Light’s iconic Super Bowl ads gained notoriety for their levity and occasional brashness, including those featuring the controversial "original party animal" Spuds MacKenzie. In a switch designed to broaden the target market beyond young males, Bud Light’s 2023 Super Bowl commercial employed a softer approach, depicting husband-and-wife actors Miles and Keleigh Teller dancing to telephone hold music as it rolled out a new slogan: “Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy.”
The execution received generally positive ratings, but two months later, a widescale boycott ensued after a partnership with transgender influencer and activist Dylan Mulvaney outraged the brand’s conservative fanbase.
A podcast clip from Bud Light’s former marketing chief, Alissa Heinerscheid, labeling past Bud Light campaigns as having “fratty, sort of out of touch humor,” elevated the uproar. Liberal-leaning drinkers similarly boycotted the brand since it didn’t stand by its transgender partnership.
The brouhaha caused Bud Light to lose its spot as America's top-selling beer at retail to Modelo.
CEO Brendan Whitworth said in April last year that the company “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.” However, sales have continued to slide.
In the first two weeks of 2024, Modelo accounted for 8.6% of U.S. retail-store beer sales compared with Bud Light’s 7.4%, according to consulting firm Bump Williams. Bud Light sales were down 28.9% year-over-over, while Modelo’s grew 15.1%.
In response to the backlash, Bud Light initially ran a more traditional and patriotic TV ad calling out American values that many saw as disingenuous. Thereafter, the brand started rolling out a number of lighthearted commercials capitalizing on its NFL sponsorship — including one featuring current star, Travis Kelce, and a recent one featuring legends Peyton Manning and Emmitt Smith — hammering home its “Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy” tagline.
Bryan Roth, editor of the alcohol beverage newsletter Sightlines+, believes consumers will be turned off by Bud Light’s “incredibly generic” identity given its strong past reputation for supporting inclusivity. Roth told CNN, “Today’s consumers feel connected to brands because they represent ideas and values, not because a beer company makes a general hand wave that drinking its product will be ‘easy to enjoy.’”
At least with the Super Bowl ad, Bud Light seems intent on continuing to emphasize its drinkability message while again reaching for the funny bone. Kyle Norrington, Anheuser-Busch’s chief commercial officer, told the WSJ, “You’re going to see what…our brand lovers expect, which is some really funny advertising.”