🤨?
Plausible, but unlikely…
Hrrrmmm… a “4D chess” version of mercenary marketing…? I spent about 1/4 of my working life in senior sales. In the game of PR/marketing…anything is possible. Granted, my experience was in technical/industrial sales. That is a far, far cry from commercial/hospitality sales. The commodities are different, as are the clientele. But…
I can say with near certainty that when Anheuser Busch decided to market Bud Light with transvestites… the senior sales guys would have had a freaking stroke. Those guys know who their customers are, they know what they want … and woke branding would have given them kiniptions. I can say with near certainty that when their new Girlboss came out with the Dylan Mulveney ad campaign… they all started polishing their resumes and reading the employment ads in earnest. The orders for that debacle almost certainly came right from the top at the CEO level. After the campaign (and arguably, the brand) collapsed…one of the PR managers was asked how Bud Light could be redeemed after alienating infuriating the customer base. He shrugged and quipped, “Maybe we can sell Bud Light to the moslems…?” Of course he was being facetious. It is my conviction that the senior management consisted of old, out of touch morons that had no clue who their customers were or why they bought the company’s beer. This is actually quite common. People at the senior level over-estimate themselves and their companies and think they can make the tail wag the dog… and sometimes it can. Usually, though… the attempt fails - miserably.
To deliberately torpedo your own brand and bet the farm on an apology…? In theory it could work… IF the right guys were driving it. But…it would be very, very risky. It might be something you’d do if your back was against the wall and you were making a Hail Mary power play.
Hopefully America’s money men, power brokers and bean counters are finally becoming aware that woke ideologies disgust the average consumer and the majority of the customers are disgusted with it.
But whadda I know?
The guy completely overlooked the fact that the logo re-design caused info to come out about Cracker Barrel's support of queers and DEI. That is what will kill Cracker Barrel, just like it did Bud Light.
ReplyDeleteThey Told us who they Are. No apologies will undo that. Plus we now know where their loyalties lie. Without a Deep Cleaning, CEO, Board of MisDirectors, eliminating DEI,,I'll Never eat there again.
ReplyDeleteAlternate theory for Bud Light - they never intended for the Dylan Mulvaney shit to actually go public like it did. Like with a lot of companies, they market to White people openly, on TV, billboards, radio, etc. That's what we see and hear. But they also market to blacks in black media, in black magazines, on black TV stations. Since we don't really watch that stuff, we don't see it. They market to gays in gay media, in gay magazines, at gay bars. Again, for the most part, we never see that and never once think about it.
ReplyDeleteRight up until some of that shit spills out. Gets revealed. Someone spills the beans and BOOM it's all over the internet. I would have died happy never knowing who that Dylan person was. I would have never seen any of the tic-tok, u-tube, or other social media with him. I would have never looked and been happier for it. So would Anhauser-Busch. Except it got leaked and now everyone has seen it.
The modern DEI trend to have gays and blacks and mixed race couples in every ad is beginning to blur that separation that once existed. Companies used to peacefully market to all corners without most people even knowing about the other. Except now they do. I don't know how that explains Cracker Barrel, but that most likely explains Bud Light. I'm just surprised we have seen even more of the big companies caught in a Bud Light moment.
Right or wrong, the Fat Electrican has just got a new fan
ReplyDeleteI can get a greasy breakfast or chicken fried steak and taters at BreakfastTime. Don't need Cracker Barrel.
ReplyDelete