Left-wing nutballs have had the upper hand in America's culture wars for a long time. They are hyperaggressive and focused on pushing America in a radical direction. They push their agenda on school boards, in local and national political venues, and on many corporations. To date, resistance has been isolated to a small number of dedicated conservative activists. Most Americans just want to get along whenever possible, not fight about sensitive social issues if they can help it and, most of all, not be mean to people. That's a laudable attitude in general, but when up against radical, ideologically driven opponents, oftentimes you have to push back. If you don't, they won't stop. As we have now seen, just trying to get along can end in pure insanity. That's precisely how we ended up with little kids being taught about super sensitive sexual topics at ages when they should be playing in sandboxes.
The upper echelons of corporate America have been occupied by executives with radical political agendas. Trained in increasingly left-wing elite colleges, these managerial-class leftists have continually pushed big companies further to the left. Senior managers often go along because they don't want the fight or because they see it as good for business. Also, and perhaps most importantly, until now there was no real business peril in appeasing the nuts. The only consumer pressure was driven from the left. Companies could annoy the right without paying a price. That all seems to be changing. Normal Americans, for the very first time, seem to be screaming, "Stop!"
Anheuser-Busch and its parent company InBev, out of Belgium, are keepers of the iconic American beer brand Bud Light. If there were ever a beer associated with the American everyman, Bud Light was probably it -- either that or Miller Lite. Each brewer's marketing team knew this for decades, and they developed hilarious and creative ad campaigns to celebrate and cultivate this image. More recently, InBev hired some younger woke American marketing executives who found all this embarrassing. In their efforts to revamp the Bud Light brand, they engaged Dylan Mulvaney, a famous transgender activist, in a marketing campaign. As of today, it looks like this move may have forever changed the dynamic between the liberals running most huge American companies and their consumers.
A few things touched a nerve with the Bud Light/Mulvaney incident. First, Mulvaney isn't just a left-wing political activist. Mulvaney specialized in marketing to young kids. Using Barbie dolls and singing songs about being a young girl were squarely in Mulvaney's wheelhouse. There's something seriously wrong with that; almost any normal person would agree. Second, soon after the controversy erupted, the beer marketing head who set it off was seen in an online video trashing Bud Light's fratty marketing campaigns of the past and, by direct inference, trashing their very customers. The Bud Light drinkers of America had had enough. This was their brand, something that helped define them. And now the lefties couldn't leave even that alone. Not only that, but the corporate chieftains didn't care enough about them to stop it. For the first time in recent memory, a mass-scale boycott from right-leaning people took hold. The revolt was on.
Sales of Bud Light have tanked by over 25%. Meanwhile, sales of rival brands are up by huge margins. Anheuser-Busch's stock itself is down 20%. Shares for rival conglomerate Molson Coors have gone up 19% in the same period. Shifts this large for brands this huge are unheard of. And the carnage extends to other Anheuser-Busch products as well.
Where does all this end? Nobody knows. Anheuser-Busch has notably placed the marketing geniuses behind this sales carnage on leave. They still have jobs. Someone at corporate headquarters must think they can sneak them back in. It's not clear why they would want to do that, given all the damage they have caused to their brand and their entire company. They must be afraid of the left, but that's telling in itself. What happened to "know your customer"? For those of us sitting back and enjoying the show, the drama upon reinstating these failed marketing officers will be a hilarious next act.
Most interestingly with all this, it seems that regular Americans have learned just how powerful a block they can be. For the first time, they seem to be flexing their muscles in the marketplace. The normal people's revolt is now moving on to other brands. Clothing retailers Target and Kohl's have stocked shelves with kids' LGBTQ clothing and supported radical interest groups pushing gender transition on young children. Their customers are making them pay a price. Sales are down, and the stocks are taking a huge hit. Same with Disney stock, which is down 33% since its feud with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis began.
The right was asleep at the switch as they allowed radical left-wing activists to thoroughly take over American schools and universities. Somebody should have guessed that the result would be a takeover of the corporate management suites. But all of a sudden, there's a price to pay for companies getting too political. Regular Americans have had enough. They are not haters. Quite the contrary -- they genuinely want to get along. But the craziness levels have gone too high, especially when it comes to the left's targeting young kids with overly politicized or sexual topics at a young age. That's going to have to stop now or there will be a price to pay. That makes me want to crack a beer and celebrate.
Neil Patel co-founded The Daily Caller, one of America's fastest-growing online news outlets, which regularly breaks news and distributes it to over 15 million monthly readers. Patel also co-founded The Daily Caller News Foundation, a nonprofit news company that trains journalists, produces fact-checks and conducts longer-term investigative reporting. The Daily Caller News Foundation licenses its content free of charge to over 300 news outlets, reaching potentially hundreds of millions of people per month. To find out more about Neil Patel and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com