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Culture war refresh. Many people are familiar with the Bud Light and Dylan Mulvaney controversy. About a week afterwards people on this website noted there wasn’t a large impact on the stock price of InBev, Bud’s parent company,
Well, InBev is now down about 10% from when the whole Bud Light - Dylan Mulvaney sponsorship. Bud light revenue is still down materially. At the same time, other major alcohol companies appear flat or up materially. Therefore, it seems the boycott has had real negative impact on InBev.
Does this mark the start of the right finding it’s muscle or is this a dead cat bounce?
Light beer seems like the type of product that you would never switch once you've made a choice. Once you pick Bud Light in your early 20s, you just stick with it for the rest of your life. So it's a choice that people rarely re-examine and the brand benefits a lot from inertia. I don't think conservatives are going to be upset forever about Bud Light, but getting them to switch back seems like it will be an uphill battle.
It’s also something you order at restaurants and bars where you have a choice and the choice is publicly known. If I’m in a bar in Mississippi and I’m ordering a beer with my buddies, there’s an element of peer pressure. The controversy over Mulvaney means that especially in conservative circles, ordering a Bud Light is going to be something people pay attention to. It’s the tranny beer. You don’t support that do you?
And I think this is why a lot of boycotts fail. If you can privately cross the line, then a lot of people do. All the people who are concerned about Amazon abusing workers still order from them because the social pressure of potentially being seen ordering from Amazon isn’t there.
To be clear, a lot of the bud light drop in sales was through liquor stores and grocery retail.
The people who, for whatever reason, wanted to drink bud light, now buy something else to drink a six pack of at home where no one is watching.
Being at the liquor store isn't being alone.
If you're in a small town, you may very well know the person who works the cash register.
The sociology of the small town south, at least(that is, a large portion of the population claims not to drink, and 95% of them do anyways) should be a mitigating factor on that because liquor store employees are de facto sworn to secrecy anyways- pastor Jimbob drinking bud light isn’t that much bigger of a reputational hit than him drinking Michelob ultra or coors light or whatever.
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