Advertising
it is kind of strange to be slapped in the face to this reality of marketing in our consumer based society: Anheuser Busch is in essence in the entertainment content business. The product means close to nothing — one bottom mass beer as good as another. But they are bought off of the image cast from the commercials. And they had a loyal fandom of the commercials. The marketing director of the Bud line of beers made comments in launching a new entertainment / commercial line with someone referred to as a trans-gendered “influencer” making the pitch. In doing so, she disparaged the previous commercial lines, the pitches that entertained the mass of consumers over the years, saying they were getting from this “fratty humor”. In essence, it is Netflix cancelling some lowbrow show with a large audience to go with a presumably critically acclaimable darling — one these low brows may deem as lecturing and hectoring. They have made the announcement that popular hits such as those “was-sup” guys, the “bud” and” weise” and “er” frogs, and the Bud Knight will be no more. From that perch the maybe a tad too violent reaction from Kid Rock and the slumping away from the product makes sense — corporate has cancelled the entertainment they used to sell. The words of getting to “inclusivity” and “for everyone” ring hollow because it is not simply introducing a new show, it is doing so while announcing the old show has been cancelled.
On the finding that the woman who made the remarks about getting away from “fatty humor” is a recovering or self hating Greek, at party functions in college with a sorority the college paper disparaged with standard takes on Greek life, there is an irony here on customer. Way back in 2004 I recall voting demographics getting split into a “beer track” vs “wine track” dichotomy. Class distinctions have that beer track, sold off”fratty humor”, not much in the frat, and the “wine track” maybe just parked temporarily in fratty beer… Sold or, in this case ceased to be sold, by the wine track.