Almost everyone has dealt with customer service, and that often includes the frustrating waiting for someone to get their act together. Miles Teller took that to a whole new level in this Bud Light ad, where he takes the time to show off some dance moves as he waits for the beer company’s employees to finish up their tasks.
Bud light customer service has had to deal with some backlash over its partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who was pictured holding a can of the brand. The move riled conservatives, who slammed the brand and called for a boycott. But the beer is still selling, despite some dips in sales. And the company might be learning a valuable lesson.
The company might be able to rebound, says Manveer Mann, an associate professor of marketing at the Feliciano School of Business at Montclair State University. He thinks Bud Light’s problem is that it got caught up in a political debate without a plan for how to handle the criticism. And that ended up alienating its base and hurting sales.
But he also believes the beer will continue to sell, and that this controversy will be short-lived. He cites research showing that social media-driven boycotts tend to be short-lived, and that in the long run, people will come back to the brands they love. He notes that the popularity of Bud Light was already declining, and that the brand’s NPS rating had been in decline for years.
A-B has been quiet since the controversy erupted, with only a short statement posted to Twitter on April 14 from CEO Brendan Whitworth that did not mention the Mulvaney incident. A-B is set to report earnings Thursday, and its senior executives are likely to be asked questions about the issue during a conference call with Wall Street analysts.
The beer maker has reportedly promised its distributors it will spend heavily on the Bud Light brand to help revive sales after they dropped off a cliff last year. But the distributors are also nervous, because they don’t want to be seen as supporting a controversial political figure like Mulvaney.
One wholesaler, who wished to remain anonymous, said he’d noticed a dip in Bud Light sales since the Mulvaney controversy, but that he didn’t think the boycott would stick. He added that he expected sales to recover in the next few weeks.
Another wholesaler, from the Texas-based Del Papa Distributing, didn’t have a comment for this story, but issued a statement of support earlier this week. That statement noted that the company “has always supported diversity and inclusion.” But it also criticized the retaliation that Bud Light had faced from conservatives on social media, and called for an end to the hysteria. The statement also noted that the company had reached out to several conservative influencers to express its support for diversity, and asked them to do the same. It’s unclear whether any of them will take up that challenge.
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