about the RWNJ freakout.

In essence, ignore them. They will go away.

I still struggle to grasp what was wrong with the ads themselves. Neither the Super Bowl spot nor Mulvaney’s video were abrasive: they were both as light as the beer they advertised. In the days before activists on both right and left started trawling the internet for instant offence, the latter might have gone unnoticed.

Mass brands have always attempted to be inclusive, in the sense of pleasing a wide range of customers. “I’d like to teach the world to sing/ In perfect harmony/ I’d like to buy the world a Coke/ And keep it company,” sang the multi-ethnic “First United Chorus of the World” in Coca-Cola’s famous 1971 ad. AB InBev’s “hope to build a future that everyone can celebrate, and everyone can share” is similarly mushy.

But it is trickier to be vaguely well meaning now. Brands that deliberately provoke controversy by taking stands on social issues, such as Nike and Ben & Jerry’s, have a clearer strategy. They alienate some customers, and risk boycotts (Nike has faced one in the UK after using Mulvaney to promote a sports bra) but they energise others.

They also know that protests are febrile and storms often pass as rapidly as they have erupted. Bud Light US retail store sales fell 17 per cent in mid-April, but AB InBev can afford to be patient: as one academic study found, “political consumerism campaigns on social media and their portrayal in the press are not always mirrored in [long-term] sales outcomes.”

The study was of Goya Foods, a canned beans brand whose chief executive, Robert Unanue, backed Donald Trump in 2020. Goya faced both a boycott and a more effective Trumpite campaign to support its products: sales rose briefly by 22 per cent, only for the effect to dissipate entirely after three weeks. The same constituency that is now attacking Bud Light got angry, then forgot.

That is why Anheuser-Busch should stick with its marketing approach, rather than wringing its hands weakly. These efforts to broaden Bud Light’s reach made perfect sense and it has since gained free publicity. The clamour does not change the fact that it needs more drinkers, whether pick-up drivers, urban couples or trans actresses. The rest is froth.

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