It&#8217;s no secret that Disney isn&#8217;t doing well lately. They just laid off nearly 15% of the workforce at Pixar, their movie studio that used to produce guaranteed hits. But Pixar&#8217;s recent films &#8220;Elemental&#8221; and &#8220;Lightyear&#8221; were bombs, and the division hasn&#8217;t turned a profit in more than two years. People just didn&#8217;t go for the strained interracial/immigrant metaphor in &#8220;Elemental&#8221; or the same-sex kiss in “Lightyear,” or the rehashed, stale vibe of both projects.
Additionally, Disney&#8217;s much-touted &#8220;fully immersive&#8221; hotel called “Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser,” shut down late last year, after operating for less than two years. Disney had spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the project, apparently on the theory that people cared so much about the &#8220;Star Wars&#8221; brand that they&#8217;d be willing to spend thousands of dollars for the privilege of staying two nights in a windowless concrete building posing as a spaceship. That didn&#8217;t pan out. Apparently people weren’t excited to stay in a hotel where the experience is seemingly designed to be as aggressively unpleasant as possible.
That same quarter, Disney&#8217;s streaming service, Disney+, reported a loss of more than a million subscribers. And that&#8217;s not even getting into Disney&#8217;s decision to get involved in Florida politics, on the side of activist teachers who want to talk to kindergartners about &#8220;gender identity&#8221; and &#8220;sexual orientation.&#8221;
Faced with this brand collapse, Disney had two options. One option was to retool their content to focus on entertainment and family values instead of activism, which is what Disney used to do, when it was a universally beloved and much more financially successful company. They could get back to their roots. Not in the sense of churning out more remakes, but in the sense of being a company that makes wholesome family films that capture a sense of wonder and imagination. 
The other option was to keep doing exactly what they’ve been doing, and continue to shove the same agenda — the equity/representation/LGBTQ approach — that they&#8217;ve been pushing for years now.
Eight months ago, Disney&#8217;s CEO, Bob Iger, publicly pledged to pursue the first option. He declared that Disney would refocus its efforts on entertainment, not political messaging. That was the plan, or at least the plan that was shared with the public. But that&#8217;s not what happened. 
Disney, over the past eight months, has apparently decided to double down on agenda-driven content, to the point that they&#8217;re openly attacking their own fans. It&#8217;s a remarkable turn of events, and it&#8217;s one that&#8217;s worth discussing because this development isn&#8217;t unique to Disney. And it suggests that &#8220;wokeness&#8221; may not be the best way to describe what we&#8217;re seeing at Disney and other major corporations like it. That&#8217;s certainly part of what we&#8217;re seeing, but there&#8217;s something else going on here. It looks a lot like corporate mediocrity run amok — the private-sector version of what we see across the public-sector bureaucracy. Unimpressive people with impressive-sounding credentials, who check the right demographic boxes, are taking the helm of businesses and products that they don&#8217;t understand. They&#8217;ve insinuated themselves into these companies like a cancer that&#8217;s evidently impossible to remove. And even when the company CEO publicly tells them one thing, they&#8217;re free to do another.
To get a better idea of what I mean, take a look at this interview from the other day, featuring Leslye Headland, the creator of the new Disney &#8220;Star Wars&#8221; show, &#8220;The Acolyte.&#8221; I don&#8217;t want to prejudice you in any way, so watch this clip with that introduction. This is the showrunner talking about her show. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aSFW5OO8fI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Watch</a>: 
<iframe loading="lazy" title="ff" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OTRtQ_l8sPo?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Don&#8217;t worry about the story, or the plot, or the characters. Who has time for that? Instead, just listen to these two women call old &#8220;Star Wars&#8221; characters gay, and then giggle like schoolgirls. They are excited that this new &#8220;Star Wars&#8221; show will be the gayest &#8220;Star Wars&#8221; show yet. Which is, in every way, the exact opposite of what the audience actually wants.
The only thing you learn from that interview is that Leslye Headland is gay and has no respect whatsoever for her audience or her own show. This is how Disney is promoting the latest entry in a franchise they spent $4 billion to buy a decade ago. And that has a lot of fans wondering how exactly she was chosen for the role of showrunner. If her role is to push some subversive woke ideology, she&#8217;s not being very subversive about it. She&#8217;s just angering as many fans as she possibly can. That&#8217;s all this is.
And she&#8217;s not the only one doing it. The CEO of Lucasfilm — a woman named Kathleen Kennedy — just came out in defense of her showrunner. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/29/arts/television/leslye-headland-the-acolyte.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kennedy declared</a> that if you&#8217;re not a fan of how Leslye Headland is handling herself, then you probably hate women. 
<blockquote>I think Leslye has struggled a little bit with it. I think a lot of the women who step into Star Wars struggle with this a bit more. Because of the fan base being so male-dominated, they sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal. &#8230; My belief is that storytelling does need to be representative of all people. That’s an easy decision for me.</blockquote>
Yes, she really said that. &#8220;Storytelling does need to be representative of all people,&#8221; says the CEO of Lucasfilm, as she mocks her own fanbase. These people are so dumb that they don&#8217;t even understand the words coming out of their own mouths. &#8220;Representative of all people,&#8221; really? Are they going to have eight billion characters in this show, one for each person on Earth? How exactly is this going to work? Is storytelling supposed to be “representative of all people” — whatever that means — or is it supposed to be representative of the creative vision of the storyteller?
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1381-disney-churns-out-its-gayest-star-wars-show-yet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
I was going to show some more clips of these women, but it&#8217;s honestly too painful to subject you to. These are people who can&#8217;t even communicate without descending into valley girl nonsense, and they&#8217;re putting together shows that they expect millions of people to watch. Kathleen Kennedy was lucky enough to work with Steven Spielberg, and Leslye Headland worked on rom-coms with titles like &#8220;Sleeping With Other People.&#8221; Those are their credentials, and they&#8217;re considered impressive in the industry. So they get to continue butchering &#8220;Star Wars.” 
By the way, “The Acolyte” was released this week and — as has become a new tradition for “Star Wars” films and shows — it has a very high critics score on Rotten Tomatoes but a failing grade of 45% from the audience. 
Joel Berry, who apparently <a href="https://x.com/JoelWBerry/status/1798332506640626023?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">subjected himself</a> to at least some of the show, offered this review: 
<blockquote>The Acolyte is a queer, Marxist vandalization of the myth of Star Wars. In The Acolyte, the Force is a metaphor for cultural hegemonic power. The Jedi are a metaphor for cisgender white oppressors who hoard the power for themselves. Yes, it really is that obnoxious and stupid.</blockquote>
The account <a href="https://x.com/WallStreetSilv?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Wall Street Silver</a> offered this viewer warning: 
<blockquote>The Acolyte, Star Wars new series streaming, very woke. 1) main character has two mothers 2) main Jedi characters are all Black and Asian, no white men 3) only speaking role for white men in first episode is prisoners on prison ship.</blockquote>
So Disney has decided to right the ship by ramming it directly into another iceberg. That’s not to pick on &#8220;The Acolyte&#8221; too much, although it obviously deserves it. Because of the fact that Disney is now pumping out &#8220;Star Wars&#8221; shows on an assembly line, there&#8217;s another one I can mock as well called &#8220;Tales of the Empire.&#8221; This one is apparently geared towards kids, and I guess it features a nonbinary Jedi, based on how all of the characters use &#8220;they/them&#8221; pronouns to refer to his corpse. Watch this, if you can get through it:
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This is the result of Disney&#8217;s big plan to focus on &#8220;entertainment&#8221; and not &#8220;messaging.&#8221; We have nonbinary Jedi and girl bosses making sure we get the gayest &#8220;Star Wars&#8221; ever.&#8221; And that&#8217;s not all.
As Bloomberg recently reported, Disney is now banking on the upcoming film &#8220;Inside Out 2&#8221; as the, &#8220;key to restoring the magic.&#8221; They think this film — a sequel to a movie from 2015 — is going to be a smash hit, to the point that they&#8217;re going to give it a 100-day run in theaters. As Bloomberg reports: 
<blockquote>If families show up for Inside Out 2 in the kinds of numbers Pixar used to see, it will reaffirm the studio’s standing. But if the movie fails, it will fuel concerns about the company’s relevance.</blockquote>
So what&#8217;s &#8220;Inside Out 2&#8221; going to be about? It&#8217;s hard to say, because it&#8217;s not out yet. But after some Googling, I came across this headline from an outlet called Pride.com. Here&#8217;s their assessment, based on the trailer: 
<blockquote>The long-awaited sequel to Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out isn’t hitting theaters until this summer, but the official trailer dropped this week…and it’s looking a little gay. &#8230; Fans think Inside Out 2 is going to be gay AF.</blockquote>
How brave is that? Are they also going to gay-ify “Inside Out” — which was kind of a middling Pixar entry in the first place? Who knows? But based on the fact that they can’t make anything that isn’t gay — we can assume the answer is yes.
This is all very woke, yes. It’s also incredibly lame and stale and unimaginative. That would also be an apt descriptor for what Disney is doing with its theme parks. As the writer <a href="https://x.com/KeenanPeachy/status/1798134848294637569?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Peachy Keenan documented</a> on X/Twitter yesterday, Disney is currently re-theming their famous &#8220;Splash Mountain&#8221; ride because apparently it is racist. And they&#8217;re creating a politically correct replacement.
Keenan watched all of Disney&#8217;s promotional materials, and she put together a comparison of the old ride with the new one. Basically, the new ride won&#8217;t have Princess Tiana in a nice dress with a handsome prince, or even a storyline of any kind: 
<blockquote>Instead, you get a lot of dead space, repeated boring animatronic who look like zombies compared to the Pirates animatronics, and Tiana—incredibly—in ugly baggy pants, no makeup, no nonsense hair, zero glamour. &#8230; It&#8217;s Girl Boss Tiana and she&#8217;s dressed like a Jungle Cruise.</blockquote>
Sounds thrilling. I was trying to figure out why all of this is happening at Disney — why they&#8217;re sabotaging their own brand, despite what the CEO said they&#8217;d do. And it&#8217;s clear that, whatever&#8217;s going on here, it&#8217;s not unique to Disney.
Consider what just happened at Cracker Barrel. Their CEO is a woman named Julie Felss Masino. She took the job last year. Previously, she worked at Taco Bell, Mattel, Sprinkles Cupcakes, Starbucks, and Macy&#8217;s. Of course, the clientele of every single one of these companies is very different from the typical Cracker Barrel, which skews older. But in general, her old jobs were mostly in the food industry, just like ”The Acolyte&#8221; showrunner&#8217;s jobs were mostly in the entertainment industry. And that&#8217;s good enough, so Julie Masino got the job.
Unfortunately, it&#8217;s not working out too well. Masino just announced on a call with investors that the company is, &#8220;just not as relevant as we once were.&#8221; To &#8220;ignite growth,&#8221; she said, it&#8217;s necessary to &#8220;revitalize&#8221; the brand. She then outlined a bunch of generic initiatives, like rewards programs that every other restaurant offers. Her announcement sent the stock down 11% immediately, putting it down nearly 50% in the past year. And why wouldn&#8217;t the stock drop? The new CEO clearly views Cracker Barrel as completely indistinguishable from every other place she&#8217;s ever worked. If anything, she probably hates the brand. And we can assume she hates the brand’s primarily blue collar, Christian clientele. 
We saw something similar with that Bud Light VP, Alissa Heinerscheid, when she dismissed her own customers as &#8220;fratty&#8221; and said Bud Light needed a rebrand. They brought on Dylan Mulvaney, and we all know how that turned out. Alissa Heinerscheid, like Julie Masino, had great credentials. She went to Harvard and Wharton, and had worked at big companies like Listerine and General Mills. But she didn&#8217;t understand Bud Light or care about the customers, so she destroyed the brand.
That&#8217;s now unfolding at Cracker Barrel as well. And it&#8217;s a very preventable, slow-motion collapse. On social media, someone using the handle &#8220;Pine Barron&#8221; summed up the problem better than anyone I&#8217;ve seen. Here&#8217;s what he wrote, describing an alternative to Cracker Barrel&#8217;s current CEO: 
<blockquote>Imagine a CEO who actually loved Midwestern and Southern culture. What about pop up concerts and endorsements by Zach Bryan and Morgan Wallen? Why not lean into its heritage as an &#8216;after church&#8217; spot and create programs for church groups including discounts and shuttle bus services. Grassroots evangelical support has made huge hits of movies like the Sound of Freedom and restaurant chains like Chik-Fil-A. &#8230; Imagine a public company with leadership that didn’t hate the blue collar evangelical population. There are so many obvious partnership opportunities with brands like NASCAR or country music stars. I don’t think this is wokeness or girlbossery per se, but rather typical corporate mediocrity. &#8230; They hired a generic MBA type who built a career on the massive brand equity of Yum Brands and Starbucks. &#8230; Just a cog in the corporate machine. I hope we will see titans of industry again but this is not how we’ll get them.</blockquote>
That does a fairly good job of putting into perspective everything we&#8217;ve been seeing over the past few years at Disney, Bud Light, and so many other major corporations. And I think it&#8217;s a more apt explanation than simply chalking all of this decline up to &#8220;wokeness.&#8221;
This trend of hiring interchangeable CEOs with resumes and trendy demographics has been an unmitigated disaster because it overlooks what the leader of every company should have, at a bare minimum — which is an understanding of their product and a genuine respect for their customers. Without that, you get shows like &#8220;The Acolyte.&#8221; You get Dylan Mulvaney and angry customers, and your stock collapses along with your brand.
All the combined efforts of feminism and diversity and equity and wokeness have brought us to this point. But it&#8217;s bureaucracy and inertia that&#8217;s keeping it alive, long after everyone&#8217;s tired of it. That inertia is the reason why — whether you&#8217;re going to a restaurant or a movie theater — you&#8217;re now guaranteed a product that&#8217;s as mediocre as the people who created it.

Disney Acolyte

Disney Churns Out Its ‘Gayest’ Star Wars Show Yet

Disney Churns Out Its 'Gayest' Star Wars Show Yet

Bud Light

Cracker Barrel

Disney

LGBTQ

Pixar

Readers Pass

Star Wars

Woke Culture

The cookie company Oreo may be the next company to be targeted for its capitulation to the LGBT agenda, a watchdog organization warned.
Oreo, whose parent organization is Mondelez International, has <a href="https://www.oreo.com/pride">boasted</a> of its partnership with the group PFLAG for years. Last October, Oreo<a href="https://www.windycitytimes.com/lgbt/First-Lady-Jill-Biden-to-open-PFLAG-National-Convention/75629.html"> co-sponsored</a> PFLAG&#8217;s 2023 National Convention.
PFLAG “<a href="https://pflag.org/resource/lobbying/">actively lobbies</a> against state laws that seek to protect minors from medical butchery, <a href="https://pflag.org/resource/medical-bans/">pushes so-called &#8220;gender-affirming&#8221; procedures onto school-aged children</a> as young as three years old,” Mia Cathell of Townhall <a href="https://townhall.com/tipsheet/miacathell/2024/05/22/oreo-shareholder-meeting-n2639163">noted</a>. “PFLAG also <a href="https://pflag.org/resource/book-ban-resolutions/">battles to place pornographic books in public schools</a> and libraries where children can easily access them.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
We&#39;re celebrating our longtime partnership with <a href="https://twitter.com/PFLAG?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@pflag</a>, who turns 50 this year. Thanks for your iconic work and for helping us all to be better allies ensuring that every LGBTQ+ person is safe, celebrated, empowered, and loved 🌈 <a href="https://t.co/BGNotqNKOg">pic.twitter.com/BGNotqNKOg</a>
&mdash; OREO Cookie (@Oreo) <a href="https://twitter.com/Oreo/status/1671521735240294401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2023</a></blockquote>
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On Wednesday, the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a Mondelez shareholder, will appear at the annual shareholder meeting and present a proposal warning shareholders that the company is endangering profits by its association with leftist and LGBT causes. The proposal <a href="https://nlpc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Mondelez-Proposal-2024-1.pdf">states</a>:
<blockquote>
Mondelez placed its iconic snack label, Oreo, in partnership with radical LGBTQ activist group PFLAG. The cookie brand sponsored the group’s conference this year, whose centerpiece theme was to advocate for the placement of sexually explicit books in school libraries.
The company lists the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner as one of its many “Partners and Industry Memberships.” UN Human Rights paints a moral equivalence between Hamas and the State of Israel, mostly downplaying the vicious and unprovoked attacks of the terrorists while more frequently condemning Israel’s military response in Gaza, where the terror group uses civilians and hospitals as shields to cover its weapons stockpiles and tunnel systems.</blockquote>
“NLPC’s resolution calls upon the multinational snack giant to scrutinize areas of risk where it has engaged in disturbing relationships with outside organizations, such as the one Oreo has with PFLAG. Other examples in the proposal cite Mondelez’s support for the Marxist, <a href="https://nlpc.org/tag/defund-the-police">anti-law enforcement</a> group <a href="https://nlpc.org/tag/black-lives-matter-global-network-foundation">Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation</a>, and the company’s partnership with the <a href="https://nlpc.org/tag/anti-semitism">anti-Semitic</a> UN Human Rights,” NLPC <a href="https://nlpc.org/corporate-integrity-project/oreo-and-ritz-brands-are-used-to-promote-woke-causes/">declared</a>.
“The political winds have shifted from just a few years ago, yet Mondelez is still living in the past as if nothing has changed,” NLPC Chairman Peter Flaherty stated in <a href="https://nlpc.org/corporate-integrity-project/oreo-and-ritz-brands-are-used-to-promote-woke-causes/">a press release</a>. “Now that the extreme transgenderism push has inevitably progressed to endanger children, corporate involvement in social justice issues is more treacherous than ever.”

USA Grocery Products

Oreo, Proud Partner Of Group Championing Gender Transition For Kids, May Get Bud Light Treatment, Watchdog Warns

Gender Transition

Oreo

Transgender

Dylan Mulvaney, the trans-identifying male influencer whose partnership brought Bud Light to its knees last year, has a new music video out called &#8220;Days of Girlhood.&#8221;
The video is based on Mulvaney&#8217;s &#8220;Days of Girlhood&#8221; social media series, which brought him into the public eye two years ago.
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According to Dylan Mulvaney and his new song, &quot;girlhood&quot; consists of: &#8211; Not being able to get out of bed &#8211; Popping prescription pills &#8211; Retail therapy &#8211; Doing the &quot;walk of shame&quot; &#8211; Not remembering who you hook up with &#8211; Overspending &#8211; Flirting for drinks &#8211; Listening to the… <a href="https://t.co/o0gT0X9riq">pic.twitter.com/o0gT0X9riq</a>
&mdash; Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1768031933907320963?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
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The pop song goes through the days of the week in a &#8220;girl&#8217;s&#8221; life — on Monday she can&#8217;t get out of bed, Tuesday she picks up prescription medications, Wednesday she has retail therapy, Thursday she does the walk of shame and &#8220;didn&#8217;t even know his name,&#8221; Friday she overspends, Saturday she flirt with drinks, and Sunday she has a breakdown in the bath.
&#8220;Calling women of all ages. Girls like me gotta learn the basics,&#8221; Mulvaney sings in the nearly four-minute video.
&#8220;Boys on the dance floor, it&#8217;s time to clear. The patriarchy&#8217;s over. You can hold our beer!&#8221; Mulvaney sings in a possible reference to the Bud Light fiasco.
Bud Light&#8217;s collaboration with Mulvaney last year sparked a boycott from customers. The beer brand&#8217;s parent company may have <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/03/business/anheuser-busch-revenue-bud-light-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lost</a> as much as $1.4 billion in sales in the aftermath.
The backlash to the music video was immediate, with some critics saying the song promoted sexist stereotypes of women.
&#8220;Dylan Mulvaney just released a music video on how to&#8230; you guessed it&#8230; be a girl,&#8221; Jaimee Michell, founder of Gays Against Groomers, posted on X.
&#8220;Back up ladies, let a real man tell you what a woman is,&#8221; posted Libby Emmons, editor-in-chief of The Post Millennial.
&#8220;Every part of &#8216;girlhood&#8217; that Dylan Mulvaney imitates is an offensive stereotype,&#8221; posted Blaze TV host Lauren Chen. &#8220;Stupidity, promiscuity, emotional instability, materialism.&#8221;
&#8220;The craziest part of Dylan Mulvaney’s new music video is even after hormones and surgery, he still looks like a total dude. Just an unhealthy one wearing girl clothes,&#8221; posted conservative podcast host Liz Wheeler.
Mulvaney also <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C4bXlSovRpn/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shared</a> a video on himself on Instagram saying that the theme of his past year, his second year of &#8220;girlhood,&#8221; was &#8220;pain.&#8221;
“Two years of publicly transitioning as a woman,” he said, “or two years of being your worst nightmare, whichever way you see it. But I see it as a win.”
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1700760801843000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
Mulvaney also said that all proceeds from the music video will go to The Trevor Project, a leftist nonprofit that focuses on LGBT youth.
Also this week, Mulvaney <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/03/14/business/dylan-mulvaney-says-she-tried-to-fix-the-bud-light-boycott/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed</a> at an event in Austin that he had tried to &#8220;fix&#8221; the Bud Light situation by pitching a “Western commercial” to the brand, where a cowboy and a trans-identifying person share a beer.
However, the company did not bite.

US-ENTERTAINMENT-WIF-OSCAR

Dylan Mulvaney’s New ‘Days Of Girlhood’ Music Video Sparks Backlash

Dylan Mulvaney's New 'Days Of Girlhood' Music Video Sparks Backlash

Celebrities

Dylan Mulvaney

Gender

pop music

U.S.

Doritos has fired a trans-identifying male influencer who <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/doritos-spain-faces-backlash-transgender-brand-ambassadors-resurfaced-tweets-1875763">reportedly</a> posted sexual comments about children in the past.
Over the weekend, Samantha Hudson, a trans-identifying man and social media influencer, appeared in a 50-second Instagram promo called “Crunch Talks” for Doritos Spain, which is part of PepsiCo Spain.
A Doritos Spain spokesperson <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/boycottdoritos-spanish-trans-influencer-samantha-hudson-1234981041/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Rolling Stone that the company had launched a campaign with Hudson on Sunday before they were aware of his previous comments.
On Monday, after the company was “made aware of Samantha’s deleted Tweets from around 2015,” the spokesperson said the Instagram video was removed.
“We have ended the relationship and stopped all related campaign activity due to the comments,” the Doritos Spain spokesperson <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/03/06/us-news/doritos-spain-fires-transgender-influencer-ivan-ranedo-over-controversial-tweets/?utm_campaign=nypost&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. “We strongly condemn words or actions that promote violence or sexism of any kind.”
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Doritos facing backlash for hiring TRANS man to be the face of the brand in Spain. 
Samantha Hudson, a biological man, has sparked outrage across the country for some of his tweets where he shares his fantasies about abusing kids.
H/T <a href="https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@libsoftiktok</a> / <a href="https://twitter.com/hermanntertsch?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@hermanntertsch</a> <a href="https://t.co/Ef3z6Xir10">pic.twitter.com/Ef3z6Xir10</a>
&mdash; Oli London (@OliLondonTV) <a href="https://twitter.com/OliLondonTV/status/1764688557136843201?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2024</a></blockquote>
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🇪🇸 | Fuerte polémica en España tras conocerse que Doritos eligió a Samantha Hudson como embajadora de su marca en el país europeo.
Samantha Hudson: &#8211; Ha admitido ser una persona pedófila &#8211; Se identifica como una chica trans no binaria &#8211; Se burla abiertamente de las víctimas de… <a href="https://t.co/ur3l2orx3S">pic.twitter.com/ur3l2orx3S</a>
&mdash; UHN Plus (@UHN_Plus) <a href="https://twitter.com/UHN_Plus/status/1764655776813969632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2024</a></blockquote>
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The campaign’s removal and Hudson’s termination was due to Hudson’s history of controversial comments, not his gender identity, the spokesperson <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/boycottdoritos-spanish-trans-influencer-samantha-hudson-1234981041/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
“Being perfect is not easy, but you end up getting used to it,” Hudson says in the Doritos Instagram spot, according to a translation.
By Monday, several jarring sexual posts about children that Hudson allegedly wrote resurfaced, sparking outrage online.
“I want to do thuggish things [to] a 12-year-old girl,” Hudson allegedly posted on X several years ago, adding a description of an extreme sexual crime against a child.
Hudson, 24, was <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/doritos-spain-faces-backlash-transgender-brand-ambassadors-resurfaced-tweets-1875763" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> 15 when he allegedly made that post.
“In the middle of the street in Mallorca in panties and screaming that I’m a nymphomaniac in front of a super beautiful 8-year-old girl,” Hudson allegedly wrote in another post.
Hudson also appears to have previously said that he wants to destroy the traditional nuclear family.
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&quot;I advocate for the destruction and for the annihilation of the traditional family.&quot; Brand ambassador for Doritos and self-described pedophiIe Samantha Hudson <a href="https://t.co/j4hPgmoaxi">pic.twitter.com/j4hPgmoaxi</a>
&mdash; End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) <a href="https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1764724659088482349?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2024</a></blockquote>
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“I advocate for the destruction and for the annihilation of the traditional, monogamous, nuclear family,” Hudson said in a video posted to X by several social media users.
“Not that I’m going to beat up my parents,” he added to laughter from an audience.
In yet another X post, Hudson allegedly said that he hates women who are rape victims.
“I hate women who are victims of rape and who turn to self-help centers to overcome their trauma. k fat wh****,” Hudson allegedly wrote.
Hudson himself previously attempted to explain away his old posts when they came to light after he became a minor celebrity, Rolling Stone reported.
“Some tweets that I posted in 2015 are resurfacing and honestly I don’t know what to say, I don’t remember having written such barbarities,” he <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/boycottdoritos-spanish-trans-influencer-samantha-hudson-1234981041/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, according to a translation of his posts. “At that time I dedicated myself to saying nonsense, the heavier the better, because I thought that ‘dark humor’ was funny.”
The backlash over Doritos Spain’s decision to partner with Hudson echoes the reaction in the U.S. to Bud Light collaborating with trans-identifying influencer Dylan Mulvaney last year.
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Bud Light’s parent company <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/03/business/anheuser-busch-revenue-bud-light-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lost</a> $395 million in the aftermath of a boycott.
Target also faced an expensive boycott last year over its Pride Month merchandise, which <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-misinformation-target-lgbtq-1203e875adcc7c86f62252d4ace1a738" target="_blank" rel="noopener">included</a> a kid’s swimsuit with a tag reading “thoughtfully fit on multiple body types and gender expressions” and “The Pronoun Book” aimed at children.

PepsiCo Products Ahead Of Earnings Released

Doritos Fires Trans-Identifying Influencer After Backlash To Sexual Comments About Children

Business

Europe

Food

Social Issues

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Target

Though the San Francisco 49ers came up short at Super Bowl LVIII, losing to the Kansas City Chiefs 25-22, their defeat on Feb. 11 pales in comparison to the one suffered by Bud Light during the weeks surrounding the big game.
This year&#8217;s Super Bowl achieved record viewership numbers, but beer sales declined 5.3% overall for the two weeks ending on Feb. 17 compared to the same period in 2023, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/bud-light-missed-out-on-the-super-bowl-party-a5387584" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to data compiled by Bum Williams Consulting and reported by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Bud Light sales alone plunged a catastrophic 30.1% compared to last year. Its sister brands Budweiser, Busch Light, and Michelob Ultra fared little better, experiencing drops of 17.7%, 7.2%, and 3.1%, respectively.
The brand experienced disastrous sales numbers after the Super Bowl despite a massive ad campaign during the game itself, featuring NFL legend Peyton Manning and musician Post Malone, the WSJ noted.
Meanwhile, rival brands Miller Lite and Coors Lite (both owned by parent company Molson-Coors) cashed in, with the latter seeing a nearly 10% increase in sales while the former saw a more modest 5% bump.
Modelo Especial also saw a 6.9% increase in sales and continued its streak as the nation&#8217;s favorite beer since it dethroned Bud Light back in May. Modelo as well as Corona are owned by the same company that owns Bud Light, but the U.S. distribution rights are owned by the Chicago-based Constellation Brands as a result of an antitrust lawsuit in 2013.
That Super Bowl slump isn&#8217;t even the latest bad news for Bud Light. In fact, it&#8217;s been a rough year for the formerly beloved beer brand after its parent company, Anheuser-Busch, decided to partner with trans-identifying influencer Dylan Mulvaney in the spring of 2023.
According to the fourth quarter earnings report that came out Thursday, AB InBev (the company that owns Anheuser-Busch) lost <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/29/business/bud-light-boycott-ab-inbev-sales/index.html">up to $1.4 billion</a> last year due to the firestorm of controversy that surrounded its Mulvaney partnership. The company identified the U.S. market in particular as the source of the massive loss, claiming its growth “was constrained  by the performance of our US business.”
“Revenue declined by 17.3% with sales-to-retailers (STRs) down by 12.1%, primarily due to the volume decline of Bud Light. Sales-to-wholesalers (STWs) declined by 16.1% as shipments lagged stronger depletions in December,” the company’s report said.
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AB InBev CEO Michel Doukeris told investors that the company was recovering from its losses, but only at a glacial pace — about 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points every 3 to 4 weeks. From May 2023 to February 2024, Bud Light had regained only 1.2 points of its lost market share, according to CNN.
Mulvaney had first promoted Bud Light in a video of himself drinking the beverage in a bathtub on Feb. 11, 2023, but the backlash didn&#8217;t truly erupt until Mulvaney posted a second video for March Madness.
In the April 1 video, Mulvaney, infamous for a series of videos chronicling his transition called “Days of Girlhood,” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/from-dylan-mulvaney-tanking-bud-light-to-the-downfall-of-disney-the-biggest-cultural-shifts-of-2023">showed off</a> a can of the light beer with his face on it. A few days later, Bud Light confirmed that it had indeed signed a brand partnership deal with Mulvaney in an effort to “authentically connect with audiences.”
Bud Light tried to excuse the partnership as just one of dozens it maintains with influencers around the world and noted that the Mulvaney-themed can was not for sale to the general public, but the firestorm had already been unleashed. Almost overnight, a beer brand widely regarded as a blue-collar American beverage became anathema among conservatives.
In the first week of the controversy, Bud Light sales <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/bud-light-sales-decline-dylan-mulvaney-transgender-boycott-1796451" target="_blank" rel="noopener">decreased</a> 11%, and its stock <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/05/31/anheuser-busch-stock-enters-bear-territory-amid-anti-trans-bud-light-backlash/?sh=11c6283e1bfe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plunged</a> 20% by the beginning of June, losing Anheuser-Busch billions in market value. Also in June, Bud Light <a href="https://thehill.com/business/4050296-bud-light-falls-from-no-1-us-sales-spot-for-first-time-in-more-than-20-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lost</a> its place as the best-selling beer in America to Modelo Especial. Anheuser-Busch’s overall U.S. revenue was down 10.5% in the 2nd quarter of 2023 (April-June) compared to the same period in 2022, and the company’s sales to U.S. retailers fell 14% by <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12369087/Anheuser-Busch-lost-staggering-395-MILLION-sales-plunged-14-year-Bud-Lights-partnership-transgender-influencer-Dylan-Mulvaney.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">early August</a>. The company lost nearly $400 million <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/03/business/anheuser-busch-revenue-bud-light-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in revenue</a> during the 2nd quarter alone.
The 3rd quarter (July-September) of 2023 was even worse for the company, which reported a 13.5% drop in revenue per 100 liters, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/31/investing/bud-light-anheuser-busch-earnings/index.html">according</a> to CNN, while sales to American retailers decreased 17% in the same period.
In response to the backlash, the beer industry&#8217;s self-regulating body, the Beer Institute, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/one-year-later-how-bud-lights-dylan-mulvaney-fiasco-pushed-beer-industry-to-rewrite-its-ad-standards">revised</a> its ad standards and added new language regarding brewers&#8217; partnerships with social media influencers. Under the new standards, Mulvaney would not be an acceptable partner for a beer company because of the high percentage of his audience that is under the legal drinking age.
Prior to its Super Bowl LVIII ad campaign, Bud Light <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bud-light-budweiser-release-camo-harley-davidson-limited-edition-cans-as-sales-continue-to-plummet">released</a> patriotic-themed ads that emphasized the company&#8217;s American roots and even released camo and Harley Davidson cans to try to win back disgruntled consumers, to no avail. Anheuser-Busch&#8217;s CEO, Brendan Whitworth, was roundly criticized for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/anheuser-busch-ceo-breaks-long-silence-amid-dylan-mulvaney-pr-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a statement</a> he made two weeks after the controversy began that failed to make mention of Mulvaney, transgenderism — or offer an apology to offended customers.
It&#8217;s been a rough year for Bud Light, and despite the brand&#8217;s best efforts it hasn&#8217;t been able to recapture its old market share or mollify the anger of conservative customers. The Super Bowl weekend, instead of the nice boost in sales it usually represents, instead crowned nearly a year of financial disaster for Anheuser-Busch.
Bud Light has tried everything from celebrity cameos to pandering, nostalgia-laden commercials to practically giving away free beer, and it has so far failed to bring people back to what was once America&#8217;s favorite beer. Without a genuine redress of grievances from the executives at Bud Light, the brand may not see the end of this long, financially painful road in 2024.

The Sphere Arena displaying Super Bowl LVIII signage

Bud Light Was The Real Loser Of The Super Bowl — And 2023

Anheuser-Busch

LGBT

Super Bowl

Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, is estimated to have lost over one billion dollars in sales after the brand faced boycotts from conservatives over its partnership with trans-identifying influencer Dylan Mulvaney.  
Anheuser-Busch’s organic revenue dropped $1.4 billion in North America last year, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/29/business/bud-light-boycott-ab-inbev-sales/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to company data reviewed by CNN. Much of this drop is believed to be related to the company&#8217;s disastrous marketing partnership with Mulvaney, a man who identifies as a woman. 
While the company posted strong returns around the world, the company explained that its growth “was constrained  by the performance of our US business,&#8221; according to a <a href="https://cdn.builder.io/o/assets%2F2e5c7fb020194c1a8ee80f743d0b923e%2Ff89b71d38e724014b04e717e021b0e26?alt=media&amp;token=59b398c4-487c-4a10-8a9f-bb79334d4960&amp;apiKey=2e5c7fb020194c1a8ee80f743d0b923e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> put out by the company on Thursday.
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&#8220;Revenue declined by 17.3% with sales-to-retailers (STRs) down by 12.1%, primarily due to the volume decline of Bud Light. Sales-to-wholesalers (STWs) declined by 16.1% as shipments lagged stronger depletions in December,&#8221; the report said of the company&#8217;s fourth quarter.
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Anheuser-Busch said that its American beer sales were picking up a little bit, but at a very slow pace. 
“The beer industry remained resilient in FY23, with volumes improving sequentially throughout the year and with beer gaining share of total alcohol by value in the off-premise, according to Circana. Our beer market share has seen continued gradual improvement since May through the end of December. While our mainstream beer revenues declined this year, our above core beer megabrands continued to grow,” the report said. 
Sales of Bud Light plummeted after Mulvaney partnered with the company last year and conservatives called for the company to apologize. The boycott rippled throughout the company as it laid off hundreds of employees and parted ways with top marketers. 
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While Bud Light dealt with the public outcry and a nationwide boycott over its partnership with Mulvaney, it was also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/one-year-later-how-bud-lights-dylan-mulvaney-fiasco-pushed-beer-industry-to-rewrite-its-ad-standards" target="_blank" rel="noopener">engaged</a> in a high-profile legal battle over whether the promotion of beer by Mulvaney — who often presents on social media as an entertainer for kids — was compliant with industry standards that ban marketing alcohol to minors.
U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), both members of the Senate Commerce Committee, wrote a letter on May 17, 2023, that sparked a <a href="https://www.beerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/CCRB-Dylan-Mulvaney-Complaint-Packet-with-Decisions-7.18.23.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">formal review</a> by the beer industry’s self-regulating body, the Beer Institute, into whether Bud Light was targeting minors through its ads with Mulvaney.
Soon the beer industry&#8217;s <a href="https://www.beerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Beer-Institute-Advertising-and-Marketing-Code-Updated-Sept2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Advertising and Marketing Code</a> was revised with new policies for social media influencers. The guidelines state that social media posts can only be placed where at least 73.8% of the audience is of legal drinking age — the same standard as for traditional advertisements — and that “age-gating measures” must be used if available.
Brent Scher contributed to this report.

30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards New York – Inside

Bud Light’s Parent Company Lost Over $1 Billion In Revenue After Dylan Mulvaney Partnership: Report

boycotts

Transgenders

Wokeness

It was one year ago, on February 11, 2023, that Dylan Mulvaney, the transgender-identifying social media influencer, posted a video of himself drinking Bud Light in a bathtub — paid promotion that permanently altered not only Bud Light’s reputation, but now also the ad standards for the entire beer industry.
While Bud Light dealt with the public outcry and a nationwide boycott over its partnership with Mulvaney, it fought a less high-profile legal battle over whether the promotion of beer by Mulvaney — who often presents on social media as an entertainer for kids — was compliant with industry standards that ban marketing alcohol to minors.
U.S. Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), both members of the Commerce Committee, wrote a letter on May 17, 2023, that sparked a <a href="https://www.beerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/CCRB-Dylan-Mulvaney-Complaint-Packet-with-Decisions-7.18.23.pdf">formal review</a> by the beer industry’s self-regulating body, the Beer Institute, into whether Bud Light was targeting minors through its ads with Mulvaney.
Mulvaney posted just twice as a Bud Light partner, first on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CoiTxPFjU2N/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">February 11</a> in the bathtub timed with last year&#8217;s Super Bowl and then again on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CqgTftujqZc/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">April 1</a> for March Madness, with the latter post generating the outrage that cost the company billions of dollars. The company first reviewed the possibility of hiring Mulvaney in December 2022 and went on to pay him a reported <a href="https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/dylan-mulvaney-bud-light-payout" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$185,000</a> for the two posts.
The senators in their letter state that Mulvaney was brought on as part of Bud Light’s strategy to “<a href="https://nypost.com/2023/04/10/bud-lights-marketing-vp-was-inspired-to-update-fratty-out-of-touch-branding/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attract young drinkers</a>” and pointed to his several posts aimed at children, including <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@dylanmulvaney/video/7212043896430415147?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one</a> in March, right in the middle of his two posts for Bud Light, in which he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-activist-dylan-mulvaney-dressed-as-6-year-old-book-character-eloise-sparks-big-reaction-on-twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posed as a 6-year-old children’s book character</a> named Eloise.
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@dylanmulvaney/video/7212043896430415147" data-video-id="7212043896430415147" data-embed-from="oembed" style="max-width:605px; min-width:325px;">
<section> <a target="_blank" title="@dylanmulvaney" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@dylanmulvaney?refer=embed">@dylanmulvaney</a> 
Childhood dream unlocked ✔️ <a title="eloise" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/eloise?refer=embed">#eloise</a> <a title="plazahotel" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/plazahotel?refer=embed">#plazahotel</a> 
 <a target="_blank" title="♬ Eloise - Emily Christine Peterson" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/Eloise-7024186847911840517?refer=embed">♬ Eloise &#8211; Emily Christine Peterson</a> </section>
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The charge was reviewed by the Beer Institute’s “Code Compliance Review Board,” which in a July decision found that Bud Light did not violate its Advertising and Marketing Code. But just two months later that code was quietly revised — the <a href="https://www.beerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Beer-Institute-Advertising-and-Marketing-Code-Updated-Sept2023.pdf">Advertising and Marketing Code</a> that beer companies are required to adhere to now includes new language on social media influencers that would appear to forbid any brewer from working with Mulvaney.
The guidelines also appear to mandate that Bud Light go back and reassess the Mulvaney posts based on the new standards.
The updated standards state that a brewer must conduct “after-the-fact audits” at least twice a year of all its influencer placements. “If a Brewer learns that an advertising placement did not meet the Code’s audience demographic standard,” the Beer Institute states, recommended steps include having the post removed.
The standards at the time of the initial review made no mention of influencers, and Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, used that to say it wasn’t responsible for reviewing influencer posts, and didn’t with Mulvaney. The company told the review board that influencer campaigns are “unique” because the content is “not controlled by the brewer,” but rather the “influencers develop their own content and post it on their own page.”
That’s no longer an acceptable process. The new standards, which were announced in a September 28, 2023, <a href="https://www.beerinstitute.org/press-releases/member-alert-beer-institute-updates-advertising-and-marketing-code/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a> but received no media attention, say that social media influencer content needs to be held to the same standard as other ads.
The standards were updated just weeks after Cruz urged action in an <a href="https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/7A0CBD95-24A3-4A6C-B299-490F36D90564" target="_blank" rel="noopener">August 15 letter</a> in which he bemoaned the lack of standards for social media posts. “It is concerning, for example, that brewers do not prescreen branded content by social media influencers,” Cruz wrote, noting Bud Light’s initial defense that influencer posts were “unique.”
The guidelines state that social media posts can only be placed where at least 73.8% of the audience is of legal drinking age — the same standard as for traditional advertisements — and that “age-gating measures” must be used if available.
Not only do independent analyses of Mulvaney’s audience call into question whether his audience is sufficiently composed of drinking-aged adults, but there is no indication that Mulvaney is using Instagram’s <a href="https://help.instagram.com/316932422966736" target="_blank" rel="noopener">age restriction tools</a>. The Daily Wire signed up for an Instagram account stating that it was underage and was able to access his Bud Light promotion.
While Anheuser-Busch stated in its initial defense of the Mulvaney posts that it conducted an “audience composition study” and found that roughly 80% of his audience was 21 or older, its review appears to be insufficient. The company conducted a single analysis when it first engaged with Mulvaney in December 2022 and used it to justify both posts in the coming months.
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<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqgTftujqZc/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Dylan Mulvaney (@dylanmulvaney)</a>
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Beer companies are required, however, to continually analyze the audience of their influencers. If Bud Light had, it would have likely learned that Mulvaney wasn&#8217;t an acceptable option.
An <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/02/modash-report-dylanmulvaney-Feb-11-2024.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">independent analysis conducted</a> on the publication date of this story by The Daily Wire using Modash, a leading influencer analysis products, found that over half of Mulvaney’s followers are 24 or under — 7.95% are aged 13-17, and 45.32% are aged 18-24. It is impossible to know the exact composition of his followers based on Instagram’s data because the cutoff date for alcohol, 21 years old, is right in the middle of the 18-24 segment. But if just half of the 18-24 portion were under 21, then Mulvaney would fall below the acceptable threshold.
Cruz, in his August letter that appears to have prompted the updated standards, cast serious doubt about assumptions made by Bud Light in its audience review. One complaint stated by the Texas senator is that Bud Light guessed the proportion of 18-24-year-olds that were actually over 21 based on an assumption that users are evenly distributed by age — it only counts 42% of that group as underage — even though there is no evidence to suggest that’s the case.
It’s likely the case that there are far more young people on Instagram than its data suggests. The social media platform relies on the honesty of users to determine their age, with little to no age verification tools. <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/instagram-tests-child-age-verification-but-falls-short-of-full-id-checks-11655953547" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Surveys show</a> that minors regularly lie about their age to obtain social media profiles. It is therefore likely that the studies overstate the number of users who are adults.
It is unclear whether Anheuser-Busch has conducted a single analysis of Mulvaney’s audience since its initial review before the posts, even though the new standards require it to.
Anheuser-Busch did not respond to a request for comment on the Mulvaney posts, and whether it has reviewed them since the updated standards were released. Mulvaney also did not respond to inquiries.
The Beer Institute declined to comment on whether any action has been taken regarding Mulvaney’s posts since the standards were updated, and whether any action is required.
“The Code Compliance Review Board, an independent review board convened by the Beer Institute, has already carefully assessed the posts and determined that there was no violation of the Beer Institute Advertising and Marketing Code,” a Beer Institute spokesman told The Daily Wire, a statement that disregards the fact that the Advertising and Marketing Code was amended after the review.
Cruz warned the Beer Institute in his August letter that a failure to take his concerns seriously would force him to legislate away the industry’s self-governing situation.
“There are currently no federal laws against advertising alcohol to minors, in part because of the beer industry’s professed commitment to self-regulation,” Cruz wrote. “As Ranking Member on the Commerce Committee, it is my duty to ensure that the Beer Institute’s private regulatory regime is working; if it is not, then our Committee may be forced to consider legislating to protect consumers, including impressionable children.”
Cruz made clear in his latest letter on the topic that the Beer Institute’s absolvement of Bud Light doesn’t mean his inquiries will end. The industry trade group’s <a href="https://www.beerinstitute.org/about-us/leadership/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">board of directors</a>, after all, is currently chaired by Brendan Whitworth, the CEO of Anheuser-Busch.
Bud Light has continued to grapple with its reputation in the year since affiliating its brand with the transgender influencer. It is reportedly using this year’s Super Bowl as an opportunity for a “<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/now/video/bud-light-plotting-brand-revival-in-new-super-bowl-ad-203908677724" target="_blank" rel="noopener">brand revival</a>.”
Both of Mulvaney’s posts tagged with “#budlightpartner” remain unaltered on Instagram.
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Dylan Mulvaney Bud Light

One Year Later: How Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney Fiasco Pushed Beer Industry To Rewrite Its Ad Standards

Marsha Blackburn

Ted Cruz

A conservative group is challenging Oreo&#8217;s partnership with a &#8220;militant&#8221; LGBT organization with a new ad and a shareholder proposal calling out the popular cookie brand.
The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) on Wednesday <a href="https://nlpc.org/oreo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released</a> an ad criticizing Oreo for <a href="https://www.oreo.com/pride" target="_blank" rel="noopener">supporting</a> PFLAG (formerly Parents &amp; Friends of Lesbians and Gays), one of the most prominent LGBT organizations in the country. The group has evolved to develop &#8220;a more militant activist intent with expansionist strategies,&#8221; according to NLPC.
The ad warns that PFLAG supports sexually explicit books that have cropped up in school libraries, including &#8220;This Book Is Gay,&#8221; &#8220;Gender Queer,&#8221; &#8220;Flamer,&#8221; and &#8220;Lawn Boy.&#8221;
In recent years, these four books have been flagged by parents in school districts across the country for their mature and, in some cases, pornographic content. They <a href="https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">all made</a> the American Library Association&#8217;s (ALA) list of the top 13 most challenged books of 2022.
&#8220;Books like these are promoted in our schools and local libraries by PFLAG, and Oreo is supporting them,&#8221; the NLPC ad&#8217;s narrator says.
&#8220;Is your favorite sandwich cookie company grooming children? What happened to the kid-friendly cookie we all used to know and love? Don&#8217;t let PFLAG and Oreo corrupt your children,&#8221; the ad says.
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vkNcmg3dpEDA9hNLdPQaCPROnatD5VRO/preview" width="640" height="480"></iframe>
PFLAG is an official <a href="https://bannedbooksweek.org/sponsors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">supporter</a> of Banned Books Week, an annual event that has <a href="https://bannedbooksweek.org/about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promoted</a> all four books, the NLPC noted.
Oreo&#8217;s website <a href="https://www.oreo.com/pride" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a> the cookie brand partners with PFLAG and encourages people to click a &#8220;support PFLAG&#8221; button that takes them to the LGBT organization&#8217;s website.
Oreo also <a href="https://pflag.org/press/pflag-convention-comes-to-the-capital/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sponsored</a> last year&#8217;s PFLAG National Convention, which had a <a href="https://pflag.org/events/learningwithlove2023/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">panel</a> on banned books in schools hosted by MSNBC host Ali Velshi.
The NLPC made the Oreo ad &#8220;because of the threat an iconic brand so popular with kids poses by collaborating with the destructive gender ideology advocates and transgender surgery supporters at PFLAG,&#8221; Paul Chesser, the director of the Corporate Integrity Project at the NLPC, told The Daily Wire.
The National Legal and Policy Center also holds stock in Oreo&#8217;s parent company, Mondelez International, and has drafted a shareholder <a href="https://nlpc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Mondelez-Proposal-2024-1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proposal</a> calling for a committee to examine the risks of Oreo&#8217;s associations with groups like PFLAG.
&#8220;Basically the proposal calls for the company to reconsider alliances with divisive political activists like PFLAG, and a report would at least produce more transparency about whatever else the company is doing,&#8221; Chesser said.
The shareholder proposal calls for the committee to issue a public report by the end of March 2025 and publish it on Mondelez International&#8217;s website. The proposal will be presented at the next shareholder meeting. It also notes that other companies have experienced customer backlash and damage to their bottom lines after taking a side on controversial cultural issues.
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Bud Light faced a massive boycott over a partnership with trans-identifying influencer Dylan Mulvaney, resulting in the beer brand no longer ranking as America&#8217;s best-selling beer.
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Target&#8217;s sales also dropped after it <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/target-sales-sink-after-pride-backlash">featured</a> &#8220;tuck-friendly&#8221; swimsuits for trans-identifying males, a kids swimsuit with a tag reading “thoughtfully fit on multiple body types and gender expressions,” and LGBT kids books for &#8220;Pride Month.&#8221;
The Walt Disney Company lost its special tax status in Florida after publicly opposing the state&#8217;s parental rights law in 2022.
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Lawsuit Seeks To Ban Oreo Cookies In California

WATCH: Oreo’s Partnership With ‘Militant’ LGBT Org Challenged By Group’s Ad, Shareholder Proposal

WATCH: Oreo's Partnership With 'Militant' LGBT Org Challenged By Group's Ad, Shareholder Proposal

2023 is finally coming to a close. Another year, another host of cultural moments and phenomena. Some represented not much more than a passing fad, while others could herald a paradigm shift in American society and politics.
For the last couple of decades, the vast majority of these groundbreaking moments have moved the cultural zeitgeist further to the Left, but this year it seems that conservatives finally racked up more wins than losses. From a massive backlash against woke ideology in the entertainment industry to Democrats in sanctuary cities turning on President Joe Biden over illegal immigration to the most successful conservative boycott in history, conservatives scored several important culture war victories in 2023.
<h3>Bud Light and the Rise of Conservative Boycotts</h3>
One of the most enduring, and potentially influential, shifts of 2023 has been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-conservatives-pulled-off-one-of-the-most-successful-boycotts-in-u-s-history">the boycott</a> against Bud Light after the iconic brand&#8217;s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, partnered with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney back in April.
In March 2023, Bud Light had been the number 1 beer in the United States for over 20 years, dominating other well-known brands like Miller and Coors. By the end of the year, the once-iconic brand&#8217;s reputation was in tatters among conservatives and Anheuser-Busch continues to reel from poor sales in the U.S.
It began when Mulvaney, infamous for a series of videos chronicling his transition called “Days of Girlhood,” showed off a can of the light beer with his face on it on April 1. A few days later, Bud Light confirmed that it had indeed signed a brand partnership deal with Mulvaney in an effort to “authentically connect with audiences.”
<div id="attachment_520808" style="width: 825px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-520808" class="size-large wp-image-520808" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/Dylan-Bud-Light-815x576.jpg" alt="Dylan Mulvaney for Bud Light" width="815" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/Dylan-Bud-Light-815x576.jpg 815w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/Dylan-Bud-Light-300x212.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/Dylan-Bud-Light-768x543.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/Dylan-Bud-Light-1536x1086.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/04/Dylan-Bud-Light-2048x1448.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 815px) 100vw, 815px" />Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images; Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images</div>
In the first week of the controversy, Bud Light sales <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/bud-light-sales-decline-dylan-mulvaney-transgender-boycott-1796451" target="_blank" rel="noopener">decreased</a> 11%, and its stock <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/05/31/anheuser-busch-stock-enters-bear-territory-amid-anti-trans-bud-light-backlash/?sh=11c6283e1bfe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plunged</a> 20% by the beginning of June, losing Anheuser-Busch billions in market value. Also in June, Bud Light <a href="https://thehill.com/business/4050296-bud-light-falls-from-no-1-us-sales-spot-for-first-time-in-more-than-20-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lost</a> its place as the best-selling beer in America. Anheuser-Busch’s overall U.S. revenue was down 10.5% in the 2nd quarter of 2023 (April-June) compared to the same period in 2022, and the company’s sales to U.S. retailers fell 14% by <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12369087/Anheuser-Busch-lost-staggering-395-MILLION-sales-plunged-14-year-Bud-Lights-partnership-transgender-influencer-Dylan-Mulvaney.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">early August</a>. The company lost nearly $400 million <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/03/business/anheuser-busch-revenue-bud-light-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in revenue</a> during the 2nd quarter alone.
The 3rd quarter (July-September) of this year was even worse for the company, which reported a 13.5% drop in revenue per 100 liters, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/31/investing/bud-light-anheuser-busch-earnings/index.html">according</a> to CNN, while sales to American retailers decreased 17% in the same period. Numbers for the 4th quarter won&#8217;t be released until early next year, but it&#8217;s unlikely that they&#8217;ll deliver good news for the embattled brand.
Perhaps most importantly, the Bud Light boycott inspired similar efforts to hold corporations accountable for their political messaging.
Retail giant Target drew conservatives&#8217; ire after it unveiled a Pride Month collection that included LGBT-themed clothes and swimwear for kids. After a boycott campaign similar to the one levied against Bud Light, Target’s 2nd quarter sales for 2023 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/target-sales-sink-after-pride-backlash" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sank</a> 5.4% compared to the previous year — its first quarterly sales decline in six years — and the company lost billions in market value as its stock plunged. Target&#8217;s earnings continued to lag into the 3rd quarter — 4.2% lower than the same period last year, <a href="https://corporate.target.com/getmedia/9166532a-0b63-4101-944f-8fd95d1425be/Target-Corporation-Reports-Third-Quarter-Earnings.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the company&#8217;s earnings report.
<div id="attachment_604987" style="width: 875px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-604987" class="size-large wp-image-604987" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-2400631-865x576.jpg" alt="SPRINGFIELD, VA - AUGUST 14: Customers leave Target August 14, 2003 in Springfield, Virgina. Target Corp. reported a four percent increase in second-quarter profits. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)" width="865" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-2400631-865x576.jpg 865w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-2400631-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-2400631-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/GettyImages-2400631.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 865px) 100vw, 865px" />Alex Wong/Getty Images</div>
Conservatives have learned they can exert considerable economic pressure on corporations that stray too far into political activism, and heading into 2024 companies may think twice before pushing politics alongside their products.
<h3>The Downfall of Disney</h3>
The Walt Disney Company is another corporation paying the toll for trying to indoctrinate audiences in leftist talking points.
Its animated film &#8220;Wish,&#8221; intended as a nostalgic celebration of the company&#8217;s 100th anniversary, instead became the capstone to a year of box office disappointment. After a disastrous Thanksgiving opening weekend, the movie only ended up making $147 million against a roughly $200 million budget (a film generally needs to make 2.5x its budget to be considered profitable).
The company&#8217;s other animated film for the year, Pixar&#8217;s &#8220;Elemental,&#8221; fared little better with an anemic opening weekend, though it managed to barely break even months later.
The live action movies “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania,” “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” “Haunted Mansion,” “The Marvels,” and the remake of “The Little Mermaid” cost over a billion dollars to make (that doesn’t include post-production and advertising costs), and all of them <a href="https://twitter.com/PAHAU6/status/1729451668276723796" target="_blank" rel="noopener">flopped hard</a>.
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Disney has lost almost a billion from their film endeavors for 2023. Woke=Broke <a href="https://t.co/3F4MQjBRWP">pic.twitter.com/3F4MQjBRWP</a>
&mdash; PA HAU (@PAHAU6) <a href="https://twitter.com/PAHAU6/status/1729451668276723796?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 28, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Both the Ant-Man and Indiana Jones sequels were torched by fans for seemingly trying to replace their titular heroes with younger female counterparts. In “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania,” Ant-Man’s daughter <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-cant-hide-disneys-fake-populism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has become</a> a teenage activist fighting against oppression and eventually acquires a super-powered suit similar to her father’s. In the latest Indiana Jones movie, Indy’s goddaughter Helena is also an archeologist on the hunt for rare artifacts and when she is <a href="https://screenrant.com/indiana-jones-movie-woke-controversy-dial-destiny-explained/#:~:text=The%20fifth%20Indiana%20Jones%20movie%20faced%20controversy%20over%20its%20%22woke,attitudes%20in%20the%20movie's%20setting." target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused</a> of stealing items from native people, she quips, “It’s called capitalism.”
The company has practically become the industry leader in pushing leftist propaganda on kids. GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-the-magic-is-leaving-the-kingdom-at-disney" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> in October that Disney is one the top companies in Hollywood for LGBT-inclusive content. Top-ranking employees within the company <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/not-at-all-secret-gay-agenda-disney-employees-break-down-adding-queerness-to-shows-and-degenderizing-theme-parks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have admitted</a> that they are pushing a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” with their programming.
Now, the backlash is starting to affect movies still in production.
The company’s live action remake of “Snow White” also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-worst-woke-kids-content-that-came-out-since-last-thanksgiving" target="_blank" rel="noopener">made headlines</a> for the wrong reasons after star Rachel Zegler made disparaging comments about the 1937 classic and it was revealed the iconic seven dwarfs had been reimagined as “seven magical creatures” who didn’t resemble the original characters at all.
After intense criticism of both incidents, Disney backtracked on the dwarfs design and even pushed back the release date of the movie to 2025.
<div id="attachment_661679" style="width: 854px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-661679" class="size-large wp-image-661679" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/GettyImages-1820921204-844x576.jpg" alt="NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 29: (L-R) Andrew Ross Sorkin and Robert Iger speak onstage during The New York Times Dealbook Summit 2023 at Jazz at Lincoln Center on November 29, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for The New York Times)" width="844" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/GettyImages-1820921204-844x576.jpg 844w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/GettyImages-1820921204-300x205.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/GettyImages-1820921204-768x524.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/12/GettyImages-1820921204.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 844px) 100vw, 844px" />Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for The New York Times</div>
The most remarkable aspect of Disney&#8217;s struggle at the box office is that almost every flop came from a genre or franchise that has historically been a safe financial bet, suggesting that Disney is in serious trouble.
Before the pandemic, Disney enjoyed reliable success with its animated projects, including massive hits like &#8220;Frozen 2,&#8221; &#8220;Zootopia,&#8221; &#8220;Moana,&#8221; and &#8220;The Incredibles 2.&#8221; Every previous &#8220;Indiana Jones&#8221; movie was a blockbuster hit, while the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a veritable cash cow for years.
Disney has been a titan of the entertainment industry for decades, but its recent string of flops as well as robust competition from other studios could cause a massive shakeup in American pop culture.
<h3>Democrats Begin to Turn on Biden Over Immigration</h3>
The crisis on the southern border is nothing new. It&#8217;s been escalating for decades, but has certainly accelerated under the current president.
November alone saw nearly a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/record-set-for-southern-border-encounters-in-one-month-as-nearly-250000-cross-into-u-s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quarter of a million</a> encounters on the southern border, the highest November on record. Customs and Border Protection reported 270,000 encounters in September, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/migrant-encounters-at-border-last-month-mark-highest-october-on-record" target="_blank" rel="noopener">highest number</a> of monthly encounters ever reported. There have been over 7 million encounters on the southern border since Fiscal Year 2021, and the number of &#8220;gotaways&#8221; totals at least 1.4 million since Biden took office.
Polling for Biden on the issue of illegal immigration has been negative for quite some time, but has reached a dismal 62% disapproval rating, <a href="https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2023/06/Fox_June-23-26-2023_Complete_National_Topline_June-29-Release.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a poll released by Fox News back in June. Republicans have hammered Biden and Democrats for years over the border crisis, but now some Democrats are beginning to join the chorus.
The new backlash from Democrats largely stems from the efforts of some Republican governors, notably Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida, to transport illegal immigrants by bus or plane to sanctuary cities farther from the southern border.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been the most vocal about the ongoing illegal immigration crisis and its effects on his city.
<div id="attachment_652115" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-652115" class="size-large wp-image-652115" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/EA-1-1024x576.jpg" alt="UNITED STATES -October 10: Mayor Eric Adams flanked by City Commissioner is pictured during his week off topic press conference at City Hall Blue Room, Tuesday October 10, 2023. During the press conference the mayor discussed his recent trip to South America to see with his own eyes the flow of migrants in Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico and meet with listed countries officials." width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/EA-1-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/EA-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/EA-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/EA-1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/EA-1-2048x1152.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Daily News via Getty Images</div>
During a town hall meeting in September, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nyc-mayor-adams-on-illegal-aliens-pouring-in-the-city-we-knew-were-about-to-lose" target="_blank" rel="noopener">he said</a>, &#8220;I don’t see an ending to this. This issue will destroy New York City. Destroy New York City. We’re getting 10,000 migrants a month.&#8221;
“It’s gonna come to your neighborhoods. All of us are going to be impacted by this,” added. “I said it last year when we had 15,000. I’m telling you now with 110,000. The city we knew, we’re about to lose.&#8221;
During a press conference in October, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-york-mayor-eric-adams-illegal-immigration-is-not-sustainable-cities-are-overwhelmed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Adams warned</a> that the number of immigrants flooding into major cities is &#8220;not sustainable&#8221; and pointed out that mayors across the country were also struggling to deal with the issue.
&#8220;These mayors, my colleagues across America, are doing the best they can, but it’s clear that all of these cities are overwhelmed,&#8221; he said.
And the usually ultra-liberal citizens of New York City are largely in agreement with their mayor that the crisis is a major threat to the city. A Quinnipiac poll from early December <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4345802-new-york-city-voters-concerned-accommodating-migrants/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that 85% of NYC voters are concerned that the city won&#8217;t be able to handle the illegal immigrant surge, while 65% agree with Adams&#8217; sentiment that the crisis will &#8220;destroy&#8221; the Big Apple.
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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass have both criticized Republicans transporting illegal immigrants to major cities, with Johnson <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4379371-chicago-mayor-slams-texas-gov-abbott-as-reckless-after-migrant-bus-arrivals/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">calling</a> it &#8220;reckless&#8221; and Bass <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/09/15/axios-events-karen-bass-los-angeles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying</a> she&#8217;s &#8220;fearful that any day planes could start coming&#8221; to her city.
In late October, Adams, Bass, Johnson, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston <a href="https://apnews.com/article/migrants-big-cities-biden-democratic-mayors-border-f498da66af8fb0ff8df653969f3f7a7a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sent a letter</a> to Biden demanding more aid to deal with illegal immigrants in their cities as well as a meeting with the president to discuss potential solutions.
The pressure being put on Biden by these mayors could be the first step to more assertive demands to help alleviate the crisis, especially as the professed unlimited generosity of sanctuary cities begins to rub against the cold reality of city <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/eric-adams-cuts-police-education-budgets-to-deal-with-ongoing-illegal-immigration-crisis-pounding-nyc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">budget limitations</a>.
The major cultural shifts of 2023 have generally benefitted conservatives, but the long-term consequences of those shifts are dependent on conservatives&#8217; resolve to follow through on them. It&#8217;s been said that politics is downstream from culture, and if that&#8217;s true, the cultural shifts of 2023 may bear political fruit for conservatives in the coming years.

MixCollage-29-Dec-2023-05-58-PM-8335

From Dylan Mulvaney Tanking Bud Light To The Downfall Of Disney: The Biggest Cultural Shifts Of 2023

Transgender Athletes

If you’re on the Right, then you know that the phrase “this is why we lose” has become something of a cliche. Anytime anyone on our side does anything we don’t like, we are bound to declare “this is why we lose,” as if that person is now a symbol for America’s cultural decline. In many cases, the “this is why we lose” charge can be off base, or at least overwrought and overstated. But not always.
So today we begin with an actual case of “this is why we lose.”
Over the past few days, there has been, seemingly out of nowhere, a full-court press by some on the Right to rehabilitate Bud Light and convince conservatives to drop the boycott of the company. Now, we know that some notable figures on this side of the aisle were never on board with the boycott in the first place. Famously, Donald Trump Jr. defended the beer maker from the beginning, saying Bud Light is on our side, despite appearances, and we shouldn’t punish them for their brief foray into trans propaganda. But Trump Jr. and others in that orbit were alone in their pro-Bud Light stance for many months, until just now.
This week, both UFC president Dana White and Kid Rock appeared in interviews with Tucker Carlson to declare their renewed support for Bud Light. Some other prominent voices, like Tim Pool, have come out to defend their position.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1277-hell-no-we-will-not-end-the-bud-light-boycott-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
In fairness to these guys, we will go through these clips one-by-one so you can hear their arguments for yourself. 
First, here’s Dana White:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="003 Dana White Backs Bud Light" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JITqM4qK_w4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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I’ll have plenty to say about the thrust of Dana’s argument after we play all of the clips, but I do want to point out one thing right away. Bud Light is a brand owned by a foreign conglomerate. Putting everything else aside, it’s very hard to make the case that it’s “patriotic” to support a foreign company. I’m not saying we can’t support foreign-owned brands. After all that’s most brands. I’m just saying it’s hard to cast your support for a Belgian multinational corporation as patriotic.
But we’ll get back to Dana’s point in a moment. First, here’s Kid Rock, also with Tucker, agreeing with Dana:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="002 Kid Rock and Tucker" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-JKJAp82mDE?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Many people — myself certainly included — have found Kid Rock’s reasoning here less than compelling. 
But Tim Pool thinks that we’re all missing the point:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="001 Kid Rock ENDS Bud Light Boycott" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qJzBPEHhKyo?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Now, before I explain why this is all horribly wrong, let me begin by stipulating that I like all of these guys. I like Dana White and Kid Rock. Tim Pool’s show is great and I like him personally. I’m obviously a huge fan and supporter of Tucker Carlson and I think he’s one of the most important voices in the country right now. But the Bud Light boycott is still on, and let me explain why.
Bud Light — the foreign-owned brand — tried to push trans ideology. It spat in the face of its own customers. For once in our lives — for once, ever, in modern American history — conservatives fought back in an organized, competent, effective way. We organized a boycott and we stuck with it. We actually made the woke company feel the pain. We imposed our will in a way conservatives have never been able to do. 
The Bud Light boycott is by far (and It’s not close) the most effective conservative boycott of a major company of all-time. There isn’t even a close second. In fact, it’s fair to say this is not just the most effective but actually the only successful boycott we’ve ever staged.
We’d have to have a very compelling strategic reason to end this one single successful boycott campaign. We would have to have extracted some kind of major concession. But what concession have they made? They gave Dana White $100 million. So what? That’s not a concession, that’s not an apology — that’s a marketing ploy. Are we going to end the Bud Light boycott and start giving them our money because we like their new marketing plan? That wouldn’t be us ending a boycott victoriously. That would be a retreat. It would be the very definition of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Something the Right does very often, but never as egregiously and pathetically as this.
Now, as with any boycott campaign, I do agree that you need to give companies an out. You have to give them a way to get back in your good graces. The whole point of a boycott is that you’re withholding support in order to extract some kind of concession. If you get the concession, you win. And if you don’t get the concession then the company is just destroyed, and you win that way. So far we are winning the second way. Bud Light betrayed its customers, it has not conceded defeat, and so the entire company is in shambles. So be it.
What can Bud Light do to get out of this? What’s their out?
Well, they would need to apologize for pushing transgenderism. They would need to apologize specifically and explicitly. They would need to grovel at our feet, in humiliating fashion, and disavow gender ideology entirely. That’s what they would have to do. They haven’t done that. They refuse to do that. Instead, they are hoping they can simply change the subject. But a change of subject is not a concession. It’s not an apology. It’s a trick, a gimmick, a diversion tactic. If we fall for it then we deserve to lose. We deserve everything that’s coming.
Here’s the point. If you are boycotting a company and demanding some kind of concession, and you don’t get the concession, and then you back down anyway — you lose. You have taken your victory and traded it in, in exchange for a defeat. You have said, “No thanks, I’d rather not win. I’ll take a loss instead.”
That’s what it would be if we start supporting Bud Light now. They haven’t apologized. They haven’t conceded. So, screw them. Let them wither and die. Let their brand destroy itself. Let it burn. That’s what they’ve chosen. It’s what they’ll get. Unless we decide to bail them out because we don’t have the stomach to fight the culture war like wars need to be fought. Part of the pitch from guys like Dana White and Kid Rock seems to be a call for a weird sort of mercy.
I’ve even seen some on the Right arguing that we are called, as Christians, to forgive Bud Light for their transgressions. That is an actual argument I’ve seen from more than one person. But fighting back against culture rot, fighting against the people who are deliberately injecting perversion and moral insanity into our society, fighting against the corporate overlords behind it all, is not a time for mercy. These are not homeless, starving people on the street who need a helping hand. These are mega-billion-dollar corporations who are selling degeneracy for profit. If you manage to get your foot on one of their necks, you keep it there. You have no mercy until they grovel and beg and do exactly what you demand that they do. And, again, if we are not willing to do that, if we are not willing to be ruthless, if we will allow ourselves to be paid off, then there is no hope. We will never win this war. And we will not deserve to win anyway.
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Keep in mind the significance of the Bud Light boycott and the whole strategy behind it: We have turned this company into a cautionary tale. The whole point was to put its head on a spike as a warning to others. It’s a trophy for the mantle. We want to show corporate America this is what we will do — this is what we are capable of doing, and willing to do — if you spit in our face the way Bud Light did. But if we just put a dent in their sales for a couple of quarters, get no apology or concession at all, and then go back to supporting them, we will have taken their head off of the spike and put our own on it. We will have sent a very different kind of message to corporate America. We will have shown them that we are not willing to go for the kill shot. That ultimately we will always come crawling back, pathetically, with our tail between our legs.
But what’s happening now is even worse. This is not just an effort to end the Bud Light boycott. This is an effort to actively rehabilitate their brand. Because the truth is the boycott isn’t even really a boycott anymore. It’s worse than that for Bud Light. The problem has metastasized. We didn’t just boycott the company — we rebranded it. The brand itself now seem lame, effeminate, and embarrassing. Even people who don’t care about the boycott, or are only dimly aware of it, avoid drinking Bud Light just because they don’t want their friends to make fun of them. That’s why Bud Light is in such a dire situation.
Even if we officially ended the boycott, it wouldn’t necessarily matter. The brand is lame now. Customers don’t want to be associated with it. Which means that to really end the boycott, we would have to revitalize and repair Bud Light’s brand for them, which is what the Dana Whites and Kid Rocks of the world seem to be trying to do. This is like declaring victory in a war, accepting your enemy’s surrender, and then proceeding to give them back all the land you gained. You’re not just ending the war in that case. You are actively forfeiting your own gains. You aren’t just letting your enemy bow out. You are helping them repair the damage that they themselves caused.
Why would we do that? Why should we? What do we gain?
I know the UFC gains $100 million. But what about the rest of us? What about the movement? What about the culture? What do we get out of this “mercy”? Nothing. That’s the answer.
And on top of it all, it must be said, Bud Light sucks anyway. It’s a bad product. It tastes like stale rainwater scooped out of a murky puddle on the pavement. This is not just the most effective conservative boycott in history, but the easiest. Nobody with functioning tastebuds has any desire to drink that sludge anyway.
That’s what it comes down to. We can do what is effective, what is right, and also what is, at the same time, very easy. Or we can go out of our way to kneecap ourselves and turn an easy victory into a laborious defeat. Those are your options.
And really, you should not have any trouble making the choice.

Hell No, We Will Not End The Bud Light Boycott

Dana White

Kid Rock

Tucker Carlson

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/anheuser-busch-responds-to-dylan-mulvaney-lashing-out-at-bud-light" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Anheuser-Busch&#8217;s</a> U.S. marketing chief Benoit Garbe will resign at the end of the year after the beer company&#8217;s sales disaster following its marketing campaign with trans-identifying male influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Garbe, who&#8217;s been in charge of the company&#8217;s U.S. portfolio of beers, canned cocktails, and non-alcoholic beverages since 2021, &#8220;will be resigning at the end of the year in order to embark on a new chapter in his career,&#8221; Anheuser-Busch said in a statement, <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/11/16/business/anheuser-buschs-marketing-chief-to-exit-after-dylan-mulvaney-fiasco/?utm_campaign=nypost&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Post</a> reported.
&#8220;This week we announced key changes to our US leadership team that reduce layers within our organization and better enable our top commercial leaders to drive our business and legacy forward,&#8221; Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth told the Post.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Anheuser-Busch’s marketing chief to finally exit after Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney fiasco <a href="https://t.co/rmDenTZCd5">https://t.co/rmDenTZCd5</a> <a href="https://t.co/kYxRr3KUJ9">pic.twitter.com/kYxRr3KUJ9</a>
— New York Post (@nypost) <a href="https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1725203183008440333?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2023</a></blockquote>
&#8220;These senior leadership changes will accelerate our return to growth as we continue to focus on what we do best—brewing great beer for everyone and earning our place in moments that matter,&#8221; he added.
Anheuser-Busch’s U.S. Chief Commercial Officer Kyle Norrington will take over Garbe’s duties in the new year, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/15/business/anheuser-busch-cmo-resign-bud-light/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a> reported.
Garbe&#8217;s departure follows the exits of Bud Light marketing VP <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bud-light-marketing-vp-takes-leave-of-absence-amid-dylan-mulvaney-controversy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alissa Heinerscheid</a> and group VP of Anheuser-Busch’s mainstream portfolio Daniel Blake, both of whom were placed on leave shortly after the controversy over the Mulvaney campaign began.
Earlier this year, the trans-identifying activist partnered with Bud Light to sell its beer and a huge backlash ensued against both him and the brand, resulting in a widespread boycott of the beer that sent sales crashing. Bud Light also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/bud-light-loses-top-us-beer-spot-after-mulvaney-ad-boycott-2023-06-14/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fell</a> from the number one spot as the top-selling beer in America, a position it held for more than two decades.
Mulvaney recently lamented the &#8220;hate and vitriol&#8221; he had experienced over the partnership and suggested companies should forge true partnerships with trans-identified spokespersons rather than engaging in &#8220;performative&#8221; marketing catered to those groups, as previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dylan-mulvaney-envisions-trans-focused-bud-light-ad-room-for-all-of-us-beer-drinkers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
&#8220;If you&#8217;re going to ask us to capitalize on our vulnerabilities and our traumas, at least have our backs when the going gets tough,&#8221; Mulvaney told Seth Matlins, managing director of the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2023/10/03/dylan-mulvaney-opens-up-about-bud-light-controversy-hiring-trans-people-should-not-be-political/?sh=36c12a108b42" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Forbes</a> CMO Network, at the 2023 Forbes CMO Summit in Miami.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wapo-desperately-tries-to-spin-bud-lights-massive-plummet-in-sales" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WaPo Desperately Tries To Spin Bud Light&#8217;s Massive Plummet In Sales</a>

Anheuser-Busch’s U.S. Marketing Chief To Resign Following Dylan Mulvaney Disaster

LGBTQ. Dylan Mulvaney

News

UFC CEO and President Dana White said he told one of the sponsors for his mixed martial arts organization to &#8220;go f*** yourself&#8221; when directed by the unnamed company to remove a post on his personal social media account that included former President Donald Trump.
&#8220;One of our big sponsors called and said, take that down,&#8221; White said during an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWvLRcc_R4M" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> with comedian and podcaster Theo Von. &#8220;You know what I said? Go f*** yourself.&#8221;
&#8220;You vote for whoever you want to vote for, and I&#8217;ll vote for whoever I want to vote for,&#8221; White continued. &#8220;That&#8217;s how this works. I don&#8217;t even care who you&#8217;re voting for. It&#8217;s none of my f***ing business. F*** you. Don&#8217;t ever f***ing call me and tell me who to vote for.&#8221;
White — a longtime friend and supporter of Trump — has made numerous public appearances with the former Republican president at UFC events. White even spoke on Trump&#8217;s behalf at the 2016 Republican National Convention before Trump won the presidential election.
White and Trump were most recently seen on November 11 at Madison Square Garden for UFC 295, walking alongside Kid Rock and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
If any UFC sponsors object to White&#8217;s longstanding friendship with Trump, the UFC owner said such companies would receive the same response.
&#8220;I&#8217;m at a point now in my life and my career where I want to be with people that I&#8217;m aligned with,&#8221; White said. &#8220;It&#8217;s not just about the money. It is about the money because it&#8217;s a sponsorship deal, but it&#8217;s not just [about the money]. I&#8217;m not going to take a bigger offer if it&#8217;s not something that I am aligned with and I don&#8217;t 100 percent believe in.
&#8220;When you do a sponsorship deal with somebody, you have to look deep into who they are and who&#8217;s running the company, who&#8217;s making the decisions, and are you aligned?&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s like this whole Bud Light deal — people are talking s*** now, sellout and all this,&#8221; White said. &#8220;Believe me, I&#8217;m the furthest f***ing thing from a sellout. Bud Light is the right move for me.&#8221;
Last month, UFC <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ufc-partners-with-anheuser-busch-to-make-bud-light-its-official-beer-after-transgender-backlash" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> a multi-year sponsorship deal with Anheuser-Busch, making Bud Light the new official beer of the mixed martial arts organization. The announcement comes after Bud Light faced months of declining sales following its partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney and the company&#8217;s subsequent failed attempts to quell the backlash.
&#8220;They&#8217;re exactly who I want to be with right now and we are very aligned as far as core values go,&#8221; he said, noting the company employs tens of thousands of Americans, partners with U.S. farmers, and works with veterans and first responders.
&#8220;Those are you that are hardcore — some of you are fanatical on this s***,&#8221; White said. &#8220;You guys think you&#8217;re all looking for an apology. I&#8217;m not going to f***ing apologize to you.&#8221;
Ryan Saavedra contributed to this report.

US-POLITICS-TRUMP

Dana White Tells UFC Sponsor ‘Go F*** Yourself’ When Asked To Delete Social Media Post About Trump

Donald Trump

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