The impact of the backlash against Bud Light on the company’s sales is extraordinary. In recent years, it has been the target of outrage on the right, like Nike and Disney, over race and gender politics, and on the left, like Goya, who support former President Donald J. Trump and his stolen election claims. There are other companies as well. foodthere are few payments with consumers.
Americas Reed, a professor of marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who studies the intersection of social movements and consumer behavior, said that for many companies that have openly embraced the politics of racial justice and LGBTQ rights in recent years, , the perception that such gestures are “another way to differentiate yourself in a competitive marketplace.”
He points to Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, which has its roots in the hippie enclave of Burlington, Vermont, and has built its brand identity and loyalty over the decades by wearing liberal politics on its sleeve. “And suddenly the bucket wasn’t just cream and sugar, it was something else,” he said.
But Anson Frericks, who until last year was president of Anheuser-Busch’s U.S. operations, said the logic didn’t always work for his previous company. It has an increasingly bitter partisan side of the country and an identity more associated with Clydesdale, Americana and humorous Super Bowl commercials than with social justice.
“There is an element of authenticity to the Ben & Jerry’s business,” Frericks said. Frericks is currently co-founder of Strive Asset Management and serves as president alongside Ramaswamy. Strive Asset Management is an investment firm that stands against the trend towards social and environmental awareness. investment.
“When big companies with historical brand identities suddenly become involved in these social campaigns, it seems inauthentic.” Anheuser-Busch “lost the consumer,” he argued.
But with the company’s setback, there are few defenders left.
“This means, ‘We do Stand by the LGBTQ community, especially the trans community,” said Stacy Lentz, chief executive officer of the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative, a charity of Manhattan’s historic gay bars.
