Bud Light, the NFL’s official beer sponsor, seems to be trying to reconnect with its original fanbase after a fumble last year. Peyton Manning has recently collaborated with Bud Light in a Super Bowl giveaway ad campaign but fans think the damage done by Dylan Mulvaney’s campaign with the company cannot be undone.
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Bud Light’s commercial features Peyton Manning and Emmitt Smith where Manning generously buys drinks for a lively bar crowd and then starts throwing Bud Light cans towards the crowd like a football. The 15- and 30-second versions of this ad will air throughout the 2023 NFL season, leading up to the Super Bowl.
However, some fans believe it might be too late for Bud Light to recover its market share. Fans expressed skepticism over Bud Light’s attempt to salvage its image, with one indicating doubts about the sincerity of the company’s efforts and one labeling it “overcorrecting.”
Too little too late.
— Horseman (@RobSteeden) December 12, 2023
Budlight is trying really hard to move on from their Dylan Mulvaney screw up.
They are now using Peyton Manning throwing a can light a football in a country bar.#nfl
Is this over correcting?pic.twitter.com/rVBuoEcXxg— sonofabench (@therealmrbench) December 11, 2023
Another fan implies that Bud Light’s actions, including the collaboration with Peyton Manning, may not be sufficient to repair the damage done. Many seem to think that Bud Light leaning heavily into marketing toward football fans is a ploy to get their original consumer base back:
Unpopular opinion: I’ve never liked beer
But, as a marketing ploy it’s obvious that they are trying to manipulate their original consumer.— Holls (@thatssoholls) December 12, 2023
Is Bud Light Trying to Mend the Dylan Mulvaney Fallout?
Bud Light saw a drop of $400 million in sales and fell from the top spot of beer sellers in the country after it launched a campaign with Trans-influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The TikTok influencer, boasting 1.8 million followers, first shared a video of the campaign on the social media site, leading to widespread outrage and boycott. The brief post focused on a $15,000 giveaway sponsored by Bud Light during March Madness.
I just saw a @budlight commercial featuring Peyton Manning and Emmitt Smith.
So this is how Anheuser-Busch plans to win back beer drinkers put off by Dylan Mulvaney’s ascension as a spokesperson for the Bud Light brand.
Lame… pic.twitter.com/aariLCgmkw
— Alan W. Wright – #ByronDonaldsForSpeaker (@wrialhuden) December 3, 2023
She also mentioned receiving a can with her face, celebrating a year of her “Days of Girlhood” series, documenting her transition. After reactionary opposition to the campaign, Bud Light also faced heat from the other side for not standing by Mulvaney and adequately defending her, This led to a 10.5 percent drop in total US revenue compared to the previous year.
Since then, the beer company seems to be on a mission to rebrand. Many fans believe that the inclusion of football stars like Peyton Manning Emmitt Smith and Travis Kelce before them is an effort to do some damage control and wrest back control of the beer market.
