Days before trolls called for a boycott of Bud Light for its partnership with trans actress Dylan Mulvaney, its marketing vice-president said the brand needed to be more inclusive and ditch its “fratty” reputation – or go out of business.
Alissa Heinerscheid, VP of marketing, expressed her disdain at Bud Light’s “fratty reputation” in an episode of the Make Yourself at Home podcast, which was published on YouTube on 30 March.
The podcast, presented by household management app Nines, talks to people at the top of their career, to discuss how work and home are intertwined, in the hope of inspiring viewers to “live well”.
In it, Heinerscheid touched on evolving and elevating Bud Light, which she said had been “in decline for a really long time”.
She was set the task of attracting young drinkers or facing the reality that “there would be no future for Bud Light”.
She said: “I brought to that a belief in what evolve and elevate means.
“It means inclusivity, shifting the tone, it means having a campaign that’s truly inclusive and feels lighter and brighter and different, and appeals to women and men.
She added: “Representation is the heart of evolution, you’ve got to see people [who] reflect you.”
Heinerscheid said Bud Light has a reputation as “a brand of fratty, kind of out-of-touch humour – and it was really important we had another approach”.
The brand’s Super Bowl advert saw Heinerscheid cast an “incredible female choreographer” and Top Gun: Maverick star Miles Teller, and his wife Keleigh, whom she said was the “heartbeat of the spot”.
Heinerscheid is the first woman to lead Bud Light in the brand’s 40-year history, which she said has been humbling.
