Alternate headline: Anheuser-Busch CEO Arrives at “Bargaining” Stage of Kubler-Ross Scale. After all, “denial” didn’t work when Brendan Whitworth insisted that ‘We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people.” The “anger” stage came from distributors that got stuck with a lot of expired beer, and “depression” aptly relates to the 30% or so drop in Bud Light sales.

So it’s either “bargaining,” or accepting that Bud Light’s brand is so damaged that it’s never coming back. According to Axios, Whitworth will try doing something radical to recover … actually listening to his customers rather than Ivy League progressive scolds.

Or so Whitworth hopes consumers will believe:

Axios has learned that Whitworth plans to go on the road around the U.S. this summer to listen to consumers, in connection with Budweiser’s MLB sponsorship.

The company’s summer ad campaign, which begins next week, will portray Bud Light as “easy to drink and easy to enjoy,” he added in the statement Thursday.

Well, good luck with that argument, given the fact that the marketplace is chock-full of beers that fit that description, and Bud Light has no qualitative edge. Besides, while Whitworth may plan to “listen to consumers” this summer, he still hasn’t provided them with what they’ve demanded all along:

Whitworth’s latest statement stopped short of the apology that conservatives want. But that could alienate the consumers who have stuck with the brand.

I’d guess that a “listening tour” that starts off by ignoring the clear apology demand of Bud Light’s customer base is going to end up being more of a “gaslight tour.” Whitworth will tour the country, offer lip service to the commitment of Bud Light/Anheuser-Busch to its consumers, and then claim to have demonstrated “caring” for the average beer drinker.

Why not offer an apology instead? It would be a lot cheaper, and a lot more effective to offer some form of remorse for insulting customers. That doesn’t even necessarily relate to Dylan Mulvaney. Mulvaney’s influencer relationship just caught everyone’s attention; the real insult came from Alissa Heinerscheid and her public belittling of people who had enjoyed the humorous ad campaigns from A-B in the past. That was the betrayal, and Mulvaney’s presence only made the impression worse that A-B detested their customers. Apologize for Heinerscheid and fire her, and the problems will likely alleviate.

“Betrayal” is the theme in the New York Times coverage of the loss of top position by Bud Light this week.  Naturally, they cast it as betrayal in both directions, and not unfairly:

Sales began to dip after commentators and celebrities on the right began to protest. Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Bud Light, later announced the departure of two marketing executives, but the company’s attempt to backtrack drew further criticism, this time from liberals and members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community. …

“Bud Light’s missteps felt like a betrayal to both its liberal and conservative customers, and that trust is going to take months, if not years, to rebuild,” said Daniel Korschun, an associate professor of marketing at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business.

The liberal backlash came when Bud Light cut ties with Mulvaney. However, no one seemed to notice that that decision did nothing to appease conservative Bud Light drinkers. The rational conclusion to that should have been that Mulvaney wasn’t the main insult. Consumers have grown suspicious of corporate “diversity” initiatives that end up feeling like lectures and judgment on consumers’ values, and the Heinerscheid interview exposed those suspicions as well-grounded in fact.

That is the exact same issue in play at Target, and probably now Fox Corp too. Corporations may want to lecture employees and consumers about adhering to the progressive agenda, but consumers are sick of the lectures and the finger-wagging (and way worse in the case of Fox Corp). They want an honest apology from Whitworth for that. And if Whitworth doesn’t know that by now, he’s never going to learn it regardless of how much “listening” he’s doing.

The Bud Light debacle also comes up in the latest episode of The Ed Morrissey Show podcast. Today’s show features:

•  Will policy or culture prevail in the 2024 Republican presidential sweepstakes? A.J. Kaufman returns to discuss the newly enlarged field, whether policy will matter, and the impact of the Donald Trump indictment.
• Mike Pence may be the man most caught in the middle of all these issues, but how much will he matter in the end?
• We also discuss the LA Dodgers’ Pride Night celebration this evening, and whether their fan base will revolt at their celebration of anti-Catholic bigotry. Will they go the way of Bud Light and Target, or get a pass like Nike?

The Ed Morrissey Show is now a fully downloadable and streamable show at  Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the TEMS Podcast YouTube channel, and on Rumble and our own in-house portal at the #TEMS page!