Anheuser-Busch has somehow become the standard-bearer for woke companies even though it has never been particularly progressive or inclusive.
This isn't Target (TGT) -) or Walt Disney (DIS) -), which both have shown real commitments to supporting the LGBTQ+ community.
Most ads for Anheuser-Busch (BUD) -) brands have leaned on traditional marketing techniques. Usually you get either a vague patriotic message framed around the Budweiser Clydesdales, or typical beer-makes-parties-more-fun-type ads.
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The company was acting out of character when it decided to partner with the transgender social-media influencer Dylan Mulvaney to promote Bud Light to an LGBTQ+ audience.
In theory, only Mulvaney's followers would have seen those ads, so it's hard to see Anheuser-Busch as some pillar of the woke business community. Instead, the Mulvaney promotion was a very small effort at building a more inclusive audience for Bud Light.
That, as you know, led to Kid Rock becoming outraged that a beer he drinks might also be consumed by transgender or gay people.
Maybe Budweiser should have understood its customer base well enough to predict this reaction. It clearly didn't and the fall of Bud Light -- the brand has lost nearly 30% of its sales -- has created an opportunity for new beers to gain market share.
That's where the self-described "Conservative Dad," Seth Weathers, a former Donald Trump campaign manager, enters the picture. Weathers has launched "Ultra Right Beer" and is promising to deliver America a "woke'-free" beer.
Black Rifle Coffee
Ultra Right Follows the Black Rifle Coffee Model
The culture wars have created a market for right-wing answers to companies and institutions viewed as left-leaning or woke. The biggest examples are Greg Gutfeld's late-night Fox News show serving as an alternative to the left-leaning shows on the major broadcast networks.
It doesn't really matter that the Jimmy Fallons and Stephen Colberts of the world make jokes across the aisle; they're perceived by many on the right as having a bias against conservatives.
Another major right-wing alternative to a business seen as being woke is Black Rifle Coffee, a company that never invokes the name Starbucks (SBUX) -) but has been built around answering many right-wing criticisms of the dominant coffee chain.
"Black Rifle Coffee Company (BRCC) -) serves coffee and culture to people who love America. We develop our explosive roast profiles with the same mission focus we learned as military members serving this great country and are committed to supporting veterans, law enforcement, and first responders," the company says on its website.
It's smart marketing that plays into the Fox-News-led narrative that some companies are woke and don't reflect the values of regular Americans.
That's exactly what Weathers is playing into with Ultra Right Beer. He lays out his company's mission in its latest Instagram video.
Ultra Right Wants Lapsed Bud Light Customers
When Bud Light dropped out of the top spot for beer brands, its place was taken over by Modelo, a brand owned by the Mexican company Grupo Modelo. The change left room for a beer pitched using the "real American beer" angle that has always been part of Budweiser's marketing plan.
Ultra Right Beer's Weathers has decided to embrace/exploit that market hole with a new ad themed to Burt Reynolds's 1977 classic film "Smokey and the Bandit." The ad features Weathers driving a Pontiac Trans Am (like Reynolds's character did) and, of course, smashing a Bud Light can with a bat.
“This is an unlikely story of a fed-up American who had enough of the woke beer companies and decided to do something about it," Weathers says as he changes from a sweatshirt into a cowboy hat and western gear. "I’m on a mission, and I won’t stop until all Americans have a 100% woke-free American beer company they can be proud of again.”
The ad goes on to show Weathers fleeing a southern sheriff (usually a very conservative character) who somehow is looking to arrest him for selling his anti-woke Ultra Right Beer.
"Woke corporations have spent years quietly funding woke garbage that's now spilling over into our schools," Weathers shared. He then goes on to say that a portion of Ultra Right Beer's proceeds will go to the 1776 Project, which works to add conservatives to school boards.
Weathers never directly names the woke actions his company stands against. He's certainly implying an anti-trans, anti-LGBTQ+ stance, but he's careful to keep things vague.
