Anheuser-Busch took some serious heat after announcing a marketing
partnership between popular product Bud Light and trans-identifying
influencer Dylan Mulvaney - but a recently-resurfaced Bud Light
commercial paints a very different picture.
The ad, which first aired in 1994, showed a group of men who were
dressed as women in order to secretly enter a women's pool tournament
in which the prize was Bud Light.
WATCH:
https://youtu.be/ttv7uN8-5jc
In the 30-second ad, several men wearing dresses and wigs - and at
least one of whom has a mustache - come into the bar where the
tournament is being held, and they proceed to run the table.
The women competing against them appear disappointed - and oblivious to
the deception.
"These guys are good," they complain.
"Who are you calling `guys'?" one of the men asks, putting on a
falsetto voice.
The ad ends with the fake women making it into the tournament finals -
and one of the cross-dressing males approaches the defending champion.
"You're the defending ladies pool champion?" he asks.
The person turns to face him, and it's clear that the previous champion
is also a cross-dressing male: "Yes, I am."
Three decades later, Bud Light reportedly was attempting to shed the
"fratty" image of prior advertisements when partnering with Mulvaney -
but instead, the brand received significant blowback.
Country music star Brantley Gilbert smashed a Bud Light onstage during
a recent concert after a fan threw it to him. "Yeah, f*** that," he
said, throwing it down.
Fox Nation host Piers Morgan addressed the topic in conversation with
comedian Bill Maher, adding that in his mind, the partnership between
Mulvaney and sportswear brand Nike was a larger problem.
"I said that for someone who identified as a gay man until last year to
be sporting a women's sports bra, despite having no breasts, as `they'
pranced around like a clueless non-athlete, mimicking how a misogynist
would scornfully depict a woman doing sport, struck me as a slap in the
face to actual women," Morgan wrote after the show. "And to my
surprise, given how liberal Maher's audience tends to be, my comments
were met with loud applause."
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Let's go Brandon!