Bud Light took a pounding all summer long after picking a man to represent women. But things had quieted down. People who’d dropped the brand had moved on, and everything appeared settled. Except it’s not.
Bud paid the UFC $100 million in sponsorship fees, and fans are dragging both of them into the octagon.
The UFC and Anheuser-Busch announced that Bud Light would be the official beer of the mixed martial arts promotion, this a part of a “nine-figure deal” that also happens to be Dana White & Co’s biggest sponsorship ever. In other words, it wasn’t hard for Dana and UFC to accept a bag from the anti-American beer giant.
The Twitterverse took to the interwebs of X and expressed its disdain for the deal, but what happens on Twitter doesn’t always translate into the real world. The test – and this is a true test of how damaged Bud Light is as a brand – is whether the UFC pays any meaningful price for the venture.
The response was outright anger from Americans, with several blasting UFC and calling for a boycott against the company, and not just that, but renewed calls for Bud Light also got sparked up. Needless to say, the United States hasn’t gotten over the Dylan Mulvaney nonsense, and who the hell wants to drink Bill Gates juice?
If you forgot, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation dropped a chunk of money on Bud Stock. Couch cushion cash, really. But real money to the rest of us.
The Gates move could inspire other investors to drop a dime or two on the stock, which might bring it back a bit, but absent rising real-world sales (and value), it would be an empty gesture and a bad investment. Not that Bill (sorry, his Foundation) couldn’t dump the shares in another gesture called profit-taking if the price bumps a bit.
At the time of the buy, there was some debate about who should be more leery of the move, Bud Light or Bill Gates. The latter is not exactly popular with beer drinkers either.
In the end, or at least so far, the Gates Foundation investment has lost about 6 million in value, so Bill didn’t help Bud. And I could wish the UFC and Bud Light luck, but I think, in the end, they will beat each other up, and neither side will win.
HT | Daily Caller