Bud Light - "Grunt" feat. Travis Kelce (2023) :15 (USA)

Lawd knows I'm tired of bringing it up, but mainstream media seemingly can not get enough of this marketing mishap. Now CBS news runs the headline: "After Dylan Mulvaney backlash, Bud Light releases "grunts" ad with Kansas City Chiefs' Travis Kelce". Ho-kay. Kids, I'm sure this was already in production a while ago, as it follows the "easy" evolution perfectly. We had the "easy" bar, carrying drinks, and the "easy" dancing while on hold featuring Miles and Keleigh Teller during the super bowl, and then the "easy" summer. Which didn't fall into favor much, with the target market, as the market still seemed to be quite sore about Bud Light hiring Dylan.

Now, we've understood that the exec who pulled the trigger on using Dylan Mulvaney, and the man who hired her, were both quietly let go. And, now we also know that Dylan was upset about the reactions and the "lack of support" from Bud light, as Dylan has posted on Instagram.

“For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse than not hiring a trans person at all because it gives customers permission to be as transphobic and as hateful as they want. The hate doesn’t end with me. It has serious and grave consequences for the rest of our community,” Mulvaney said.

With all the gay bars also boycotting Bud Light over this, I find it an utterly fascinating case study of how to dig yourself out of a hole. So far, it isn't going so great, nor does it look like Bud Light is even trying much. And Anomaly, the agency, that created these chill ads is getting the brunt of the hate that stems from a single, very poorly chosen and poorly timed, spokesperson on social media. While this spot did get press attention, even Kansas City wasn't impressed: "Bud Light is trying to turn around its fortunes as it has seen sales plunge after what Yahoo Finance called the “fateful Dylan Mulvaney promotion.” It seems the beermaker is hoping the presence of a Super Bowl champion will improve those lagging sales."

Ad agency: Anomaly, New York