Trump Effect? Clydesdales in Super Bowl Commercials Are Back, Baby

Ah, the trials, tribulations, and crawl back down of the woke mob continues.

Sometimes, they go kicking and fighting. [Beege Adds: Thanks to mo in the comments – this is a Republican content creator who nails her subjects]

Luna the activist teacher gives students an “ICE drill” instead of a math lesson pic.twitter.com/uLErJICuJ4

— Kali Fontanilla (@KaliFontanilla) January 29, 2025

Sometimes, they get caught planning a silent insurrection of malicious compliance…

An enraged US “civil servant” says they’ll sabotage US taxpayers by wasting electricity and constantly flushing toilets as retribution for being ordered to go to work.

Fire these people! pic.twitter.com/EaUeEoMxlU

— Right Blend (@rightblend) January 24, 2025

…and are summarily relieved of their job responsibilities.

SEE YA

The Trump administration has placed more than 50 career civil servants and foreign service officers on administrative leave after receiving information that they may have been conspiring to circumvent Trump’s executive orders requiring the halting of federal aid funds to overseas programs and all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs within the agency.

Jason Gray, acting agency administrator, placed the individuals in question on paid administrative leave so he can conduct an investigation into the matter, according to an agency-wide email Gray sent Monday afternoon and first obtained by RealClearPolitics.

“We’ve identified several actions within USAID that appear to be designed to circumvent the President’s Executive Orders and the mandate from the American people,” Gray, wrote. “As a result, we have decided to put a number of USAID employees on administrative leave with full pay and benefits until further notice while we complete our analysis of these actions.”

Senior leaders in bureaus across the agency were removed, as well as several senior attorneys, sources told RCP. Several hundred contractors based in Washington and elsewhere also were laid off, according to the Associated Press.

From a corporate perspective, in some circles, getting called out by activists over their woke policies has seemed to be a relief from the progressive pressure to comply. In quite a few cases this past year – even before Trump snatched the brass ring for sure – it was as if a letter from Robby Starbuck was all it took for CEO knees to buckle and the corporation DEI structure would begin to crumble like so much bad plaster.

Robby Starbuck is Ending DEI in Corporate America: ‘We Have a 100% Success Rate’

“These are the types of things that are changing. No more racial discrimination through DEI programs that explicitly have ended up discriminating against white people in many cases across many of… pic.twitter.com/XsGWKyiVt5

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) November 27, 2024

It’s almost a collective exhalation of relief.

In other instances, there have been horrific missteps by once beloved brands – behemoth, seemingly invincible brands that dominated their particular market – that have damn near tanked the companies in pursuit of the elusive approval of the progressives, to whom such products never appealed. But to whom a new generation of marketing executives – who were tres cool and over-educated at expensive, mostly Ivy-League liberal arts colleges carrying all that cache – these same products could be pitched successfully, and their appeal made more modern and diverse by shaking up the stodgy, old, misogynist marketing of the past.

Boys, boobs, beer, and bad jokes had to go in favor of inclusivity and gender fluidity.

Yeah.

I’m talking about Bud Light.

I wrote about the chica (a stereotypical Groton-Wharton-Harvard grad) in charge of ‘the crown jewel’ of the Anheuser-Busch brands as the bubbles went flat on the legendary brewski. Thanks…well…entirely to her.

Her attempt to use trans butterfly Dylan Mulvaney so Bud-Light would ‘authentically connect with audiences’ was so far off the mark as to be catastrophic both in regards to Bud-Light loyalists and anyone who gave the slightest crap about gadfly Mulvaney. Never the twain shall meet ‘twixt the two.

 …How many trans and alphabet sympathizer types are going to buy this sad little blue can with the dolled-up man on it? And will they now become customers or are they buying once or twice for the novelty and that’s it? Is there a demand for sad swill among that population that would justify the umbrage caused by the campaign?

Is Bud going to be able to make up for the customers it’s permanently lost insulting them, the women in their lives, and their values?

Bud is already on the major defensive, “Ooo! It was just a PRESENT!”

…The statement added: “From time to time, we produce unique commemorative cans for brand influencers, like Dylan Mulvaney. This commemorative can was a gift to celebrate a personal milestone”- that personal milestone being Dylan’s 365th day of being a ‘girl’

Anheuser-Busch and Belgian [Beege: corrected] owner InBev have been trying to claw their way out of the cavernous hole she dug for them with that single can for two years. 

The King of the Market crown is long gone…

It’s the end of an era for Bud Light: The beleaguered brand is no longer the most popular beer on tap at bars.

Another Anheuser-Busch InBev beer, Michelob Ultra, has surpassed Bud Light in its share of US draft lines, marking an end to several decades of dominance. That’s according to data from Draftlines Technologies, a company that monitors more than 1 million tap lines.

…and last year’s figures were dismal.

…$1.4 billion. That’s how much Bud light lost in U.S. beer sales last year after the controversy. The company lost over $27 billion in value following the controversy, and their U.S. market share slashed by half since, largely fueled by U.S. retailers reducing shelf space up to 7.5% for the brand. While the brewer continues to push out its other brands like Michelob Ultra, the significant market share gained by Constellation Brand’s Modelo Especial changed the playing field. Meanwhile, AB InBev hopes to build more momentum for Michelob Ultra through partnerships at Copa América and the Paris Olympics this summer.

The first attempts to pretend they were still Bubba and the boy’s beer were excruciatingly painful in their obviousness. But they have tempered the frantic message in their ads some and those for Budweiser, as well, which took a beating by association.

It doesn’t hurt that before the Super Bowl a year ago, candidate Trump said Anheuser-Busch should be forgiven.

…But, he added, “Anheuser-Busch is not a woke company.” He also went on to praise the beverage giant’s efforts to support farmers and create jobs, including employment for U.S. veterans. “Anheuser-Busch is a Great American Brand that perhaps deserves a Second Chance?” he added.

I guess they’ve decided enough time has passed that it’s safe to bring out the big dogs without looking too pathetic.

Well. Big horses, actually.

While Bud Light continues to slide off into a beer has-been, big brother Budweiser is hoping a Clydesdale Super Bowl commercial knocks off the funk left over from the 2023 Dylan Mulvaney fiasco. 

On Monday, Budweiser’s marketing team released its Super Bowl LIX commercial that is aimed right at the hearts and minds of Americana and places where grabbing a Budweiser became poisonous to a customer’s social resume. There’s no denying there was a stigma attached to customers drinking Budweiser by association. 

Less woke, more Americana, was the message pop culture sent to Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Forgiveness is in the eyes of God or whoever’s buying the round, as they say.

I never could stand the beer.

But I have always loved these damn horses.

I don’t mind this a bit.

It almost feels like the world is self-leveling, and it’s about time.