Originally Posted By Bama-Shooter:
Bud Light's Comeback Tour Will Hit the Super Bowl, Its Biggest Stage Yet
Anheuser-Busch continues to pump marketing dollars into its Bud Light revival strategy with an ad promising comedy

Bud Light is returning to the Super Bowl with a 60-second ad representing the beleaguered beer's biggest bid to recover from a consumer boycott last year.

Bud Light parent Anheuser-Busch will also run a minute-long Michelob Ultra commercial featuring soccer legend Lionel Messi, as well as a 30-second Budweiser spot highlighting the work of its wholesalers and featuring its Clydesdale horses, the company said.

"We need to make sure for these moments of massive reach that we choose the right brands to meet the moment, not only on the TV screen, but brands that can really scale out the opportunity that Super Bowl and the NFL playoffs and everything else provide," said Kyle Norrington, Anheuser-Busch's chief commercial officer. "These are the brands that we thought deserve that opportunity this year."

..

For this year's Super Bowl, Anheuser-Busch plans to spread its marketing budget at branded events across host city Las Vegas and advertise on the giant digital screen wrapping around the new Sphere arena. The Clydesdales will also be in Sin City to deliver Budweiser beer around town, Norrington said.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bud-light-super-bowl-ad-2024-2824ab06

Originally Posted By Spaceboy:
It will still be fucked up.  The Clydesdales will be transgender my little ponies or some stupid shit and why the fuck would you have a soccer player on a stupor bowl commercial?

Originally Posted By Scoobysmak:

Meh…the stock market is rigged.  Based off of feels and bad data, like last year the Gov said we were not in a recession because of strong jobs numbers.  What never made the headlines….the following months of corrections reducing those jobs numbers. Had the truth been put out the first time…

https://media.giphy.com/media/13cptIwW9bgzk6UVyr/giphy-downsized-large.gif

Originally Posted By SS65:
Will the ad play before or after the black national anthem?

Originally Posted By Scoobysmak:

Meh…the stock market is rigged.  Based off of feels and bad data, like last year the Gov said we were not in a recession because of strong jobs numbers.  What never made the headlines….the following months of corrections reducing those jobs numbers. Had the truth been put out the first time…

https://media.giphy.com/media/13cptIwW9bgzk6UVyr/giphy-downsized-large.gif

Originally Posted By FlashMan-7k:

I wouldn't be surprised if they brought the frogs and the penguins back.

Originally Posted By spidey07:


As stated it’s not a boycott. It’s brand abandonment. That 30% ain’t never coming back.

Originally Posted By spidey07:


As stated it’s not a boycott. It’s brand abandonment. That 30% ain’t never coming back.

Originally Posted By spidey07:


As stated it’s not a boycott. It’s brand abandonment. That 30% ain’t never coming back.

Originally Posted By KalmanPhilter:


Light American lagers are pretty interchangeable. I now avoid all AB products though. They can fuck off.

Originally Posted By KalmanPhilter:


Light American lagers are pretty interchangeable. I now avoid all AB products though. They can fuck off.

Originally Posted By showmeballer:
They just partnered with Shane Gillis too.  That is actually a smart move, and so much for trying to be less fratty.

Originally Posted By spmx7777:
Still trying to give away their piss water today with prices so low they’re illegal in Ohio ( state minimum pricing ).

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/113152/IMG_4994_jpeg-3108518.JPG

Originally Posted By KalmanPhilter:


Light American lagers are pretty interchangeable. I now avoid all AB products though. They can fuck off.

Originally Posted By sheltot:
Trump: Conservatives should give Bud Light ‘a second chance’

Originally Posted By sheltot:
Trump: Conservatives should give Bud Light ‘a second chance’

Donald Trump getting ‘bought out’ after pleading for Bud Light to get ‘second chance’ over transgender fiasco: critics
By Social Links for Ariel Zilber
Published Feb. 7, 2024, 3:35 p.m. ET

Donald Trump called for a cease-fire in the culture war over Bud Light’s transgender fiasco – a move that provoked critics to claim he was getting “bought out” by mega-brewer Anheuser-Busch.

The former president took to his social media platform Truth Social on Tuesday and declared that Anheuser-Busch was “not a woke company” and that it had already paid a “very big price” for Bud Light’s ad campaign featuring transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

Trump added that it was time to move on from outrage over the ads, which he called “a mistake of epic proportions.”

The former president noted that Anheuser-Busch “spends $700 million a year with our great farmers” and employs 65,000 Americans.

Trump urged his followers to give Bud Light a “second chance” and to shun other companies that “are looking to destroy America!”

Trump’s post on Truth Social came just weeks before a top GOP lobbyist for Anheuser-Busch was scheduled to host a fundraiser for the former president’s re-election campaign, according to Politico.

Jeff Miller, the lobbyist who is known to be close to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, announced on the X social media platform that he would be hosting the fundraiser, which is charging attendees $10,000 a head.

Dozens of GOP lawmakers are scheduled to attend — as is the former president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.

Don Jr. has defended Anheuser-Busch in the past. In a podcast last year, he noted that the company donated more to Republicans than to Democrats.

Noah Rothman, a writer for National Review, criticized Trump for his embrace of Anheuser-Busch — accusing the 45th president of getting “bought out of the culture wars.”

Rothman noted that both Trump and Anheuser-Busch have a vested financial interest in a truce since the boycott of Bud Light put a dent in the company’s earnings while the Republican National Committee is “struggling financially.”

“Trump and Anheuser-Busch need one another,” Rothman wrote.

“Their mutual admiration is set to cool the tensions between Bud Light and the customers the brand communicated in no uncertain terms it did not want.”

Rothman also took Trump to task for abandoning the “effective and organic effort by cultural conservatives to convince corporate America that social-justice activism doesn’t pay.”

“Not only does it pay, it pays off all the right people,” Rothman wrote.

Trump’s call for peace with Anheuser-Busch was seconded by Caitlyn Jenner, who called Anheuser-Busch an “incredible American company.”

“They made a huge mistake and have paid a large price,” the conservative reality TV star shared to X on Tuesday.

Anheuser-Busch will look to take another step in reclaiming its dominant position among American beer-drinkers during Super Bowl weekend, when it will air a commercial on the most watched television program of the year.

The perennial Super Bowl marketer is bringing back fan-favorite characters the Clydesdales and a Labrador Retriever — a nod to the dogs that starred in earlier commercials during advertising’s biggest night.

Jason Fried

April 26, 2021
Changes at Basecamp
At Basecamp, we treat our company as a product. It's not a rigid thing that exists, it's a flexible, malleable idea that evolves. We aren't stuck with what we have, we can create what we want. Just as we improve products through iteration, we iterate on our company too.

Recently, we've made some internal company changes, which, taken in total, collectively feel like a full version change. It deserves an announcement.

In the product world, not all changes are enjoyed by all customers. Some changes are immediately appreciated. Some changes take time to steep, settle in, and get acquainted with. And to some, some changes never feel quite right — they may even be deal breakers.

The same is true when changing your company, except that the customers are the employees. And when you get to a certain count — customers or employees or both — there's no pleasing everyone. You can't — there are too many unique perspectives, experiences, and individuals.

As Huxley offers in The Doors of Perception, "We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude."

Heavy, yes, but insightful, absolutely. A relevant reminder. We make individual choices.

We all want different somethings. Some slightly different, some substantially. Companies, however, must settle the collective difference, pick a point, and navigate towards somewhere, lest they get stuck circling nowhere.

With that, we wanted to put these directional changes on the public record. Historically we've tried to share as much as we can — for us, and for you — so this transmission continues the tradition.

1. No more societal and political discussions on our company Basecamp account. Today's social and political waters are especially choppy. Sensitivities are at 11, and every discussion remotely related to politics, advocacy, or society at large quickly spins away from pleasant. You shouldn't have to wonder if staying out of it means you're complicit, or wading into it means you're a target. These are difficult enough waters to navigate in life, but significantly more so at work. It's become too much. It's a major distraction. It saps our energy, and redirects our dialog towards dark places. It's not healthy, it hasn't served us well. And we're done with it on our company Basecamp account where the work happens. People can take the conversations with willing co-workers to Signal, Whatsapp, or even a personal Basecamp account, but it can't happen where the work happens anymore. Update: David has shared some more details and more of the internal announcement on his HEY World blog.

2. No more paternalistic benefits. For years we've offered a fitness benefit, a wellness allowance, a farmer's market share, and continuing education allowances. They felt good at the time, but we've had a change of heart. It's none of our business what you do outside of work, and it's not Basecamp's place to encourage certain behaviors — regardless of good intention. By providing funds for certain things, we're getting too deep into nudging people's personal, individual choices. So we've ended these benefits, and, as compensation, paid every employee the full cash value of the benefits for this year. In addition, we recently introduced a 10% profit sharing plan to provide direct compensation that people can spend on whatever they'd like, privately, without company involvement or judgement.

3. No more committees. For nearly all of our 21 year existence, we were proudly committee-free. No big working groups making big decisions, or putting forward formalized, groupthink recommendations. No bureaucracy. But recently, a few sprung up. No longer. We're turning things back over to the person (or people) who were distinctly hired to make those decisions. The responsibility for DEI work returns to Andrea, our head of People Ops. The responsibility for negotiating use restrictions and moral quandaries returns to me and David. A long-standing group of managers called "Small Council" will disband — when we need advice or counsel we'll ask individuals with direct relevant experience rather than a pre-defined group at large. Back to basics, back to individual responsibility, back to work.

4. No more lingering or dwelling on past decisions. We've become a bit too precious with decision making over the last few years. Either by wallowing in indecisiveness, worrying ourselves into overthinking things, taking on a defensive posture and assuming the worst outcome is the likely outcome, putting too much energy into something that only needed a quick fix, inadvertently derailing projects when casual suggestions are taken as essential imperatives, or rehashing decisions in different forums or mediums. It's time to get back to making calls, explaining why once, and moving on.

5. No more 360 reviews. Employee performance reviews used to be straightforward. A meeting with your manager or team lead, direct feedback, and recommendations for improvement. Then a few years ago we made it hard. Worse, really. We introduced 360s, which required peers to provide feedback on peers. The problem is, peer feedback is often positive and reassuring, which is fun to read but not very useful. Assigning peer surveys started to feel like assigning busy work. Manager/employee feedback should be flowing pretty freely back and forth throughout the year. No need to add performative paperwork on top of that natural interaction. So we're done with 360s, too.

6. No forgetting what we do here. We make project management, team communication, and email software. We are not a social impact company. Our impact is contained to what we do and how we do it. We write business books, blog a ton, speak regularly, we open source software, we give back an inordinate amount to our industry given our size. And we're damn proud of it. Our work, plus that kind of giving, should occupy our full attention. We don't have to solve deep social problems, chime in publicly whenever the world requests our opinion on the major issues of the day, or get behind one movement or another with time or treasure. These are all important topics, but they're not our topics at work — they're not what we collectively do here. Employees are free to take up whatever cause they want, support whatever movements they'd like, and speak out on whatever horrible injustices are being perpetrated on this group or that (and, unfortunately, there are far too many to choose from). But that's their business, not ours. We're in the business of making software, and a few tangential things that touch that edge. We're responsible for ourselves. That's more than enough for us.

This may look like compression. A reduction, an elimination. And it is. It's precisely that. We're compressing X to allow for expansion in Y. A return to whole minds that can focus fully on the work we choose to do. A return to a low-ceremony steady state where we can make decisions and move on. A return to personal responsibility and good faith trust in one another to do our own individual jobs well. A return to why we started the company. A return to what we do best.

Who's responsible for these changes? David and I are. Who made the changes? David and I did. These are our calls, and the outcomes and impacts land at our doorstep. Input came from many sources, disagreements were heard, deliberations were had. In the end, we feel like this is the long-term healthy way forward for Basecamp as a whole — the company and our products.

When you've been around 20 years, you've been through change. You're used to it, and comfortable with it. These changes are part of a continuum in the experiment of independence that is Basecamp (and 37signals before that). We'll eventually run headlong into big change again. This is what we've done, and this is what we'll do — time guarantees it.

We're very much looking forward to this new version of the company. Once the construction site is cleaned up, and the dust settles, we believe we'll see a refocused, refreshed, and revitalized Basecamp. Here we go, again.

About Jason Fried
Hey! I'm Jason, the Co-Founder and CEO at 37signals, makers of Basecamp and HEY. Subscribe below to follow my thinking on business, design, product development, and whatever else is on my mind. Thanks for visiting, thanks for reading.

Sent to the world with HEY

February 10, 2024
Forgive Anheuser-Busch over Bud Light? Not yet.
By W.A. Eliot

On Tuesday, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that Anheuser-Busch made a very bad mistake with Bud Light, but it is not a woke company, and among other things, it helps farmers and employs veterans.  He then says, “Anheuser-Busch is a Great American Brand that perhaps deserves a Second Chance?  What do you think?”

I’m glad you asked, Donald.  My answer is no, not yet.  First, some other opinions.

On the same day Trump posted the above, Brandon Morse, writing for RedState and without mentioning Trump (the time stamp for Morse’s article is 2:15 P.M., while for Trump’s it is 3:30 P.M., so it appears that Morse posted first), claimed that A-B has done enough by firing the executives responsible for the ad, teaming with UFC, and hiring a “conservative-friendly comedian” as a representative.  Furthermore, realistically, a big company like A-B will not be destroyed, so it’s time to declare victory and end the boycott.  Nowhere does he mention the need for an apology.  Stephen Green, writing for PJ Media, is more neutral, acknowledging that A-B has not really apologized, but, referencing Trump, asks if it’s time to end the boycott.  Shawn Fleetwood, writing for The Federalist, claims in the title that “Trump’s Defense of Anheuser-Busch Undermines Conservatives’ Most Effective Boycott Yet.”  He wonders aloud whether “a top Anheuser-Busch GOP lobbyist ... hosting a fundraiser” for Trump next month or Trump’s financial investments in A-B has anything to do with Trump’s plea.  Fleetwood emphasizes that A-B has never apologized, both for promoting transgenderism — in fact, it continued to push it by sponsoring LGBT pride events — and for insulting its customers.  He says ending the boycott now would just embolden other companies to continue pushing radical leftism down our throats.

I couldn’t agree more.  The reality is that companies have decided they’d rather support groups pushing woke causes — even if it means smaller profits — rather than be singled out for withering criticism by a loud woke mob and a compliant MSM, as well as risk being blacklisted (which could sink the company altogether).  When the NFL gives $250 million to BLM and puts BLM logos on the field and helmets, is it because it shares BLM’s Marxist vision for America (just think what that would mean for NFL profits) and approves of wanton death and destruction, or is it because it’s just easier to pay mafia protection money?  When MLB moved the All-Star game out of Atlanta (hurting mostly minority businesses) shortly after President Biden said it would be a good idea, and Atlanta companies such as Coke and Delta joined the movement, is it because they really believed that Georgia’s sensible reforms minimizing election fraud would restrict Blacks and other minorities from voting?  Of course not.  Coke and Delta backed off after they sensed there might be a boycott against them.  Do all these companies pushing DIE training labeling all whites as racist believe it will eliminate racism, is good for morale and the bottom line?  Of course not.  These companies are starting to back off DIE only because of messy lawsuits charging them with violating the Constitution and civil rights laws.  A-B thought it was just another company pandering to the woke mob and was stunned to get burned.  Ending the Bud Light boycott now sends the wrong message.

I’ll add another reason not to end the boycott just yet.  We live in an era in which those with conservative or traditional values are not allowed to express genuine views that used to be mainstream and common sense just a short time ago without being labeled racist, getting removed from social media, and possibly losing their jobs.  Add in government-sponsored censorship targeting just this one side.  The stakes are too high.  Rather than forgive and forget, we should be increasing the penalties for corporate woke excesses so they think twice.

Is there anything Anheuser-Busch can do to get back in our good graces?  For starters, a sincere apology.  No, “We’re sorry we lost money” doesn’t cut it.  I don’t expect the apology to be one rejecting transgenderism outright, but it could be one in which the company says it is sorry it pushed support for an alternative lifestyle on consumers who may not share those views and will refrain from doing so in future, and it is so sorry the executive inappropriately insulted the customers and that the company did not repudiate her comments immediately.  I would also recommend changing the beer name slightly, say from Bud Light to Buds Light, the plural indicating the camaraderie of drinking bud(die)s and also an eternal reminder of the change we effected.  I think I’d be willing to forgive under those conditions.  I might even buy Buds Light.

W.A. Eliot is a pseudonym.