How Anheuser-Busch’s Controversial Campaign Backfired: A Marketing Case Study

Faced with a boycott, abused on social networks, the Anheuser-Busch InBev group, whose head office is located in Leuven, even recorded a fall in its share price in mid-April, a decline that has since been compensated. Bud Light’s Vice President of Marketing, Alyssa Heinerscheidfelt compelled to justify the controversial campaign: “the brand has been in decline for some time, its image had to evolve, that means changing its tone, having a really inclusive campaign, lighter, brighter and different, which is aimed at women and men”.

Except that the marketing experts had obviously misjudged the opposition that this inclusive campaign would arouse. Whether the brewing giant initially hoped to seduce a public open to diversity, it was finally forced to launch a counter-offensive to recover the most reactive fringe of its clientele.

First step, a statement from the CEO of Anheuser-Busch, Brendan Whitworthin which he apologizes: “we never intended to enter into a debate that divides people, we are in a business that aims to bring together people over a beer. “An exit that did not seem to satisfy either side.

Second part of the counter-attack, a Bud ad with a very strong patriotic flavor, with typical American landscapes and, of course, the inevitable United States flag, just to flatter the fiber of identity of the most conservative.