Shane Gillis ad for Bud Light signals trouble for corporate DEI efforts

Following a disastrous collaboration with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney that allegedly resulted in over $1 billion in lost sales for the brand last year, Bud Light has returned to its origins.

The journey towards redemption began with a 2024 Super Bowl advertisement featuring Peyton Manning and Post Malone. Recently, Bud Light unveiled a new ad starring comedian Shane Gillis — and it’s a complete embrace of the brand’s frat boy, lighthearted essence that, for many years, made their ads iconic in popular culture.

And Dilly Dilly to that.

If 2023 was the peak of woke culture, 2024 will be remembered as the year that DEI lost its significance — with companies finally recognizing it as a scheme by leftist activists.

Lately, brands like Harley-Davidson, Ford, John Deere, and Lowe’s have all reversed their DEI initiatives, largely due to the efforts of individuals like Robby Starbuck who called them out.

Enter “The Dean’s Office,” where Gillis portrays a college football coach supporting a dean who is coaxing a star player to confess to plagiarism. In exchange for the admission, the dean offers a bucket of cold Bud Lights. Surprisingly, the coaxing works on Coach Gillis, a professor, and the dean himself, who all start divulging information like canaries.

Alcoholic canaries.

While it may not match the brilliance of the “Real Men of Genius” ads from the late ’90s and early 2000s, it’s fun and nostalgic. The commercial harks back to a time when everything wasn’t analyzed through the lens of the most obnoxious progressive individual you might know.

It’s also an acknowledgment that Bud Light made a mistake — a big mistake in straying from its brand identity and disowning its core audience to join the diversity, equity, and inclusion trend.

In particular, the ill-fated partnership with Mulvaney in the spring of 2023: a move that turned the once beloved American brand into a pariah and sent sales plummeting.

At that time, Mulvaney, with nearly 10 million TikTok followers, was endorsing multiple companies: Kate Spade, Ulta, Nike. When the influencer posted a video in a bath with a customized Bud Light can, it sparked a strong backlash. Boycotts were initiated. Bars canceled orders. Kid Rock took a stance.

Upon closer inspection, this misguided shift wasn’t a mere oversight. It was the brainchild of Alissa Heinerscheid, a marketing VP who touted herself as the “first woman to lead the biggest beer brand in the world.”

In a March 2023 interview with the “Make Yourself At Home” podcast, she expressed a desire to move past the brand’s “fratty” and “out of touch” humor and to “evolve” and “elevate.”

“What does evolve and elevate mean? It means inclusivity… It means shifting the tone,” she remarked. “It means having a campaign that’s truly inclusive, lighter, brighter, and different. And appeals to both women and men. Representation is at the core of change.”

This coming from the woman responsible for the most forgettable Super Bowl ad in Bud Light’s history, starring Miles Teller and his wife dancing.

“Consumers, young and old, desire a brand with a clear message,” Heinerscheid stated at the time.

Executives like Heinerscheid, out of touch with reality — in the vein of Gillette razors denouncing “toxic masculinity” — disrupted their messaging to eventually correct it. Yet, it was never truly broken in the first place.

They argued that beer ads were misogynistic, but in reality, most portray men as simple beings and the subject of humor. And yes, some ads feature women in bikinis. Surprisingly, people also appreciate a good set of boobs. Just ask Sydney Sweeney.

In the aftermath of the Mulvaney catastrophe, a Miller Lite ad starring Ilana Glazer emerged — apologizing for past sexist beer ads and celebrating women brewers. Oh, the pandering!

Americans want beer commercials to entertain, not preach hollow progressive values. I fondly remember the era of Bob Uecker or John Madden. Arguments over whether Miller Lite is great-tasting or less filling. We loved watching Spuds MacKenzie shine at the party.

It’s meaningful that Gillis would be the one to mend the damage caused by this self-inflicted wound. After facing backlash in 2019, when he was hired and promptly fired by “Saturday Night Live” for past use of controversial terms, he resolutely continued his stand-up career and, surprisingly, gained more popularity. His resurgence led to him being a featured host this past February on the show.

Through Gillis’ rise, we witnessed the disparity between cultural elites and the genuine appetites and values of everyday Americans — the so-called silent majority.

Last week, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, declared a reduction in support for shareholder proposals connected to environmental and social issues in its recent annual general meeting season to a mere 4.1%.

Corporate entities that previously fretted over ESG and being assessed by investors on the extent of their “inclusive” initiatives — graded by the far-left Human Rights Campaign — are now wary of association with such discriminatory and divisive practices.

Anticipate more companies conceding defeat. And to that, I raise a toast with a Bud Light.