Bud Light's Marketing Blunder and SCOTUS's Political Influence | The Answer | Ep. 20

Get ready to have your perspectives challenged as we dissect the Bud Light debacle and its controversial 'trans-woke' marketing campaign. We'll unravel its impact on sales and dig into the headlines from New York Times, Yahoo Finance, Fox News, and Fortune. Listen as we discuss Anheuser-Busch CEO's plea to stave off the boycott and how the company's failure to respect theirs customers, pointed out by Trish Regan on Fox Business News, landed them in this mess.

We're also tackling the political landscape and the significant role of Supreme Court rulings. Hear how President Trump's conservative justice appointments - Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett - have influenced these rulings. We'll examine Biden's student loan debt relief plan and how the Supreme Court striking it down affects the nation.

Click here to learn more about Ben: http://bit.ly/3WJ1Czl
---
Today’s Sponsor(s):
Kickin' Crab - go to https://thekickincrab.com/houston-tx-1
Gambit Construction – go to www.gambitconstruction.com
---
Socials:
Follow on Twitter: http://bit.ly/3CeR2YJ
Follow on Instagram: http://bit.ly/3XfBADV
Follow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/3vw8ww4

Transcript

Ben Armenta: 0:00

Hey everybody, today we spend a little more time reflecting on the ongoing saga of the Bud Light debacle And we chat about the recent Supreme Court rulings, all of which would not have been possible Had we not elected President Trump in 2016?. Be sure to share this podcast with your family and friends. Follow me on Twitter and Facebook at Ben Armenta, texas. You can also find out more about my story at BenArmentacom.

Ben Armenta: 0:34

The other day I was at this train stop in the little town in Texas where I live. It's called I guess it's not that little anymore, but I was in the old old part of Katie and And across the street is this typical corner gas station like eight to ten pump, like nothing huge eight, ten pumps. There's a subway restaurant attached to it, kind of busy But not like overly crowded, just typical gas station. And and so I'm at this train stop and As I look across the gas at that gas station, there's this Bud Light truck and This old boy is unloading cases of drinks to bring into the store, like in the. You know He's pulling, he's got the, the side doors open and he's pulling them out, loading them into onto his dollies. I I kind of suspect this is probably his regular route and the. But the first thing that comes to my mind as I'm looking at this was Just feeling horrible for this poor guy who has to drive around every day all across town in this Bud Light truck. And look, i know it's not his fault and It's not even it's not the fault of the distributor, which I think That the distributor in that part of Texas is the largest, if not maybe even the largest, anhyzer bush distributor in the country. But it just sucks for that guy who's going around town and This Bud Light truck. So I'm what I'm what like the train is kind of stalled out there. So I'm at this, this light, and it's so there's a light and a train tracks. So I'm stuck here for a while. I'm watching and watching and he is unloading case after case after case, and none of which are Bud Light or Budweiser cases, and like he's bringing in a bunch of Michelobes, he's bringing in ultras, he's bringing in Corona's, all other kinds of brands, and And he pulls that dolly aside and he starts doing the same thing on a second dolly, and on and on, and on. It goes. Eventually he wraps up like he takes the dollies in into the store, comes back. I mean, this whole thing unfolds over about 15 minute period here as I'm waiting at this train stop and and Eventually he's done and he's completed his full stop and he didn't unload a single case of Bud Light or Budweiser and I Just blew me away that this fairly busy corner store which is Got, you know it's out of light I mean it's a active part of town That on his route he did not have to unload a single case of Bud Light or Budweiser. We talked about this before.

Ben Armenta: 3:58

The the whole Bud Light controversy with the trans woke marketing campaign were almost three months into this bizarre Ploy that that they did. Let me read you some recent headlines about this from the New York Times Cheaper than water, retailers try to unload Bud Light From Yahoo Finance In Bev. So those are the guys who own Anheuser-Busch. Now It's a Belgian company in Bev. In Bev announces new ad campaign as Bud Light sales continued to crater Fox News Bud Light sagging sales becoming business as usual following disastrous promotion. Fortune Bud Light boycotters decimate sales over Dylan Mulvaney promotion should think about employees. Anheuser-busch CEO says This is how bad it's gotten.

Ben Armenta: 5:11

The CEO of Anheuser-Busch is now trying to guilt trip the rest of us into purchasing their beer.

Ben Armenta: 5:22

They spent decades upon decades building up this brand and they ruined it all over a dumb, woke marketing campaign. Some idiot vice president of marketing thought it would be cute to have some trans bizarre campaign. They even printed his trans face on a can. They ruined it. Just like everyone else, i cannot see into the future. At the time when all this went down, i said right then and there and I even said it, i think, on this podcast that sometimes these boycotts stick, but sometimes they don't and the companies bounce back. But when you think about it, this one isn't about just skipping a latte at Starbucks because they've got gender neutral bathrooms. This is bigger. Would you ever want to be seen in public holding a Bud Light? No way. There is no way you could convince me to be seen with a Bud Light can or bottle in a bar or picking up a six pack of Bud Light from the grocery store. You couldn't even pay me to do it, because the price of my reputation and my values is greater than the benefit of drinking that beer.

CBS News: 7:12

You're just furious, i get it, you're totally furious because they clearly didn't understand who their customer base was. Frankly, if you ask me, they didn't respect their customers at all.

Ben Armenta: 7:24

That was Trish Regan on Fox Business News. She is exactly right. Anheuser-busch did not respect their customers. I don't respect you, didn't respect me. I was not really a big Bud Light drinker. I certainly was a fan. I remember all the old commercials. They used to have the three frogs, budweiser and the Clisdales, and they're playing football. It was a piece of Americana. Certainly, anheuser-busch was a Bud Light strayed away from their customers like you and me, people that hold our values. These fools thumbed their noses at the individuals who built the brand See CEOs and business owners who think that they built their brand. Marketers, chief marketing officers who think that they build the brand. They're fools. The customers build the brand. The customers build the reputation of that brand over time.

Ben Armenta: 8:49

In the week of June 17th, sales of the Anheuser-Busch brand Bud Light fell by 28.5% versus a year ago. This is according to Nielsen, iq and Bump Williams Consulting. That eclipses the prior week's 26.8% decline, which beat the previous week's fall of 24.4%. It's getting worse as time goes by. Sales aren't improving, they're getting worse. I thought to myself what about the other Anheuser-Busch brands? They have a bazillion other beers. Sales of Budweiser has dropped 12.3%, michelob Ultra 4%. Bushlight saw its sales dip by 8.1%. It's unbelievable.

Ben Armenta: 10:07

Can you imagine your business? Maybe some of you are small business owners yourselves, so just imagine you run I don't know a local dry cleaners or a print shop or a convenience store And imagine overnight losing up to 25% of your sales Like overnight. It would be catastrophic. You'd have to redo all your business processes, your labor structure. You'd have to cut costs everywhere. You'd have tremendous risk. If you haven't have any kind of debt maybe a loan that you've got on business equipment or a mortgage because you've got some standalone store, it would be. I mean, you'd be on a path towards bankruptcy. You'd have to restructure. 25% one week to the next. But 25% week over week over week over week, sustained losses. It crush you. It crush you. And to make matters worse, imagine that if it was super easy for your customers to go to your competitor and spend their money there, because that's what's happening here. I mean, it's not like people stop drinking beer. So here's what happens when you're on a business trip. Here's what's happened Sales of Modelo have risen 8.6% in that same week the week ending June 17th. Miller Light up 16%, coors Light up 21.8% And Yingling Lager, which is the oldest brewery in America and I think it's might be out of Pennsylvania Northeast, but it's now everywhere across the country. Up 25% Customers said we're gonna go take our money and we're gonna go spend it elsewhere.

Ben Armenta: 12:24

I have found over the years that Americans we can be forgiving. Americans have short-term memories, but only if you apologize and if you mean it. I don't know who's been advising Anheuser-Busch during this craziness, but the dumbest thing they did was avoid facing the music. They never came out and took ownership and really apologized. They literally fell victim to the woke mob. They felt such tremendous fear of what they'd perceive as retribution from the lefties They just cowered away. They never came out. They never really owned the mistake. I mean they said mistakes have been made, but they never came out right and said we lost sight of what was important, which were the people who built our brand. Look, they are running a risk that this may never be recoverable. It might not. Might not To grow their sales, they ultimately have to make Bud Light cool.

Ben Armenta: 13:46

Think about it. I said at the beginning of this that I'd never be caught dead drinking Bud Light in public because of the reputation. What does that brand mean? It means woke. It means idiots. It means foolishness. It means everything that is the opposite of my values. It does not mean hard work. It does not mean discipline. It does not mean God fearing. It does not mean faithful. It does not mean proud to be an American. It doesn't mean any of those things anymore. They threw that all away. They are going to have to do something dramatic because, as you heard from those headlines earlier, free ain't working.

Ben Armenta: 14:42

What would Bud Light have to do to make it cool again? I Have no, i have no idea. I Don't know they'd have to do something. It's dramatic. Dramatic, i mean they'd have to start, i don't know, paying for for veterans to receive health care, or covering the cost of of education for children, of slaying police officers, or Paying to build the border wall. I don't know they. I don't know what they'd have. They would have to be whatever you think is counterculture to Democrat policies and ESG bullcrap. It's basically what they'd have to do. I Don't know.

Ben Armenta: 15:41

They've started running some ads, some dumb ad with Travis Kelsey and not dumb because he's in it, but I think he, i think it's just an ongoing Commercial of him burping and some other people belching. I, i don't know, i haven't seen it. I just heard about it, saw it on ticker, but that's not going to do it. That I That's see that. That doesn't make me. When I grab a bud light and You know, order it from or order it from a bar, that doesn't change the reputation of their company. They took something, a political beer, something that can and should appeal to everyone, and they ruined it.

Ben Armenta: 16:42

We're, we are witnessing the next, latest and greatest MBA case study. It's like blockbuster flaming out like the Hindenburg. Do y'all remember when there was a beer called Bud Light? So this past week we had several critical Supreme Court rulings and we've had a bunch over the last few years, and I want to take a pause and reflect on the fact that none of this would have been possible without President Trump. Sure, we we Probably would have grabbed some light conservative rulings every now and then with With the Chief Justice Roberts but he's not really a conservative if he kind of sits right on on the on the middle on the fence but overturning Roe v Wade and all these other Recent cases, they would not have been possible without the work that President Trump did and the work that the US Senate did in order to Approve and get all those federal judges put on their respective benches. I know people who only voted for Trump in 2016 Because he came out with his list of potential candidates for Supreme Court justices. remember he put three on the court and These are lifetime appointments Kavanaugh Gorshitz Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett And that was huge because we've had a bunch of these rulings go right down conservative and liberal lines. This is this is from Time Magazine.

Ben Armenta: 18:47

In 2016, speaking at the construction site of his new hotel in Washington DC Monday, trump said he will make a list public in the next week of 10 conservative judges that he would consider nominating to the Supreme Court If elected. Trump said he would only pick from that list, which is being made in consultation with the conservative heritage foundation. Quote I'm going to submit a list of justices potential justices of the United States Supreme Court That I will appoint from that list. Trump said I won't go beyond that list. Some people say maybe I'll point a liberal judge. I'm not appointing a liberal judge.

Ben Armenta: 19:33

Then he goes on to talk about what would happen if a third-party candidate ran and got Hillary elected. If they want to embrace this, that's great, trump said. And let me tell you, if they don't win, they're going to have probably four and could even be five Supreme Court justices approved. That will never allow this country to be the same. It'll take a hundred years, but that won't work. So they better be careful, and they certainly should be careful with third-party stuff. A third party means that the Democrats are Going to win, almost certainly. You can't be that spiteful. You can't be that spiteful because you'll destroy the country. Third party will destroy the country, and he was right. The Democrats would destroy the country if they could, and it takes a solid conservative bench, which President Trump delivered, for us to hold the line. Last week, some significant decisions were handed down one that pertained to the rights of a graphics designer who objected to doing designs for a gay wedding, and you know, she didn't oppose taking up clients who were gay.

Ben Armenta: 20:55

She just stood her ground on religious beliefs and refused to do designs if it was for gay marriage. She won. by the way, a second major case overturned decades of affirmative action in higher education And this ruling allows college applicants they can still discuss how race affected their lives. but it requires the decision process and the people who decide who gets accepted into the college or the university. It requires that they strictly focus on the merit of the individual. We will no essentially we will no longer have universities and colleges, you know, take race-based quotas and make decisions around placement of students or acceptance of students in order to meet those quotas. But a third ruling, one that I never would have thought would have been necessary, was the Supreme Court striking down the ridiculous Biden student loan forgiveness plan. Here's CBS News.

CBS News: 22:14

We begin with this morning's top story, a significant setback for the Biden administration and as the Supreme Court strikes down the president's student loan debt relief plan. In the 6-3 ruling Friday, the conservative justices in the majority said the president overstepped his authority when he tried to cancel up to $400 billion in student loans. The high court's decision comes more than 10 months after the president tried to deliver on one of his top campaign promises. But Mr Biden says the fight is not over. On Friday he laid out a new path to wave or modify student debt and the defiant Biden blamed Republicans for snatching away the hope of tens of millions of borrowers were given. Christina Rafini is at the White House with more Christina. Good morning.

CBS News: 23:01

Good morning, dana. Well, president Biden was asked if his student loan program overstepped his authority, and he said he thinks the court misinterpreted the Constitution. So the administration is going to try another route to go about forgiving student debt, but it's going to take longer and is likely to end up back in the very same court with possibly the very same results.

Pres. Joe Biden: 23:20

I believe the court's decision to strike down my student debt relief program was a mistake, was wrong.

CBS News: 23:25

Hours after the ruling came down, President Biden was at the podium with a new plan.

Pres. Joe Biden: 23:30

It's going to take longer. In my view, it's the best path to be managed, providing for as many borrowers as possible with debt relief.

CBS News: 23:38

Using something called the Higher Education Act to carve out a new authority to forgive student debt. If you're more secure that this is a legal route to do it, why didn't you just use this in the first place?

Pres. Joe Biden: 23:47

We believe the Heroes Act does give me the authority.

CBS News: 23:50

The administration had argued that COVID and the emergency powers granted under a 2003 law called the Heroes Act gave it the authority to relieve $400 billion worth of student loans, but the Supreme Court disagreed. Writing for the court's conservative majority, chief Justice John Roberts said the law quote does not permit basic and fundamental changes in the scheme designed by Congress. That was really hoping they were going to do the right thing in the name of democracy and all the millions of families who would have benefited from this. Tiffany Lofton says the $20,000 forgiveness program would have almost eliminated her $27,000 in student loans. My demand for the next step is that Joe Biden finds another authority to do this very quickly and does it expeditiously.

Ben Armenta: 24:34

Who the heck takes out a loan with the expectations of not having to pay it back? Of course, the youth. This is by far the most ludicrous way of living your life. In fairness to the Democrats, it's brilliant. It's a brilliant tactic to buy votes, which is what they did, because there are millions of people just like I said, there was a lot of people, if not millions of people who voted for Trump in 2016 because they wanted to get conservative justices on the court and overturn Roe v Wade. There are millions of people who voted for Biden because they wanted their student loans to be forgiven.

Ben Armenta: 25:24

Did you hear the part in that story that the original approach that Biden used was to take advantage of the COVID laws? the heroes act. Listen, folks. If you give the government an inch, they will always, always, always, always, always take a mile, and I promise you that if we were still in a pandemic situation, they would probably have allowed that forgiveness to go through. Borrow money to start a business pay it back. Borrow money to buy a home pay it back. Borrow money for a college education pay the damn thing back. It's not my job to cover your debts. It's not the job of the banks, the lenders to eat that expense. It's not the job of hard-working Americans who didn't take out loans or didn't go to college or who are retired to pay off your debts. It's your freaking job to own your responsibilities, take accountability and pay off your own loans. Get off your ass. Get a job, save some money, pay back your loans. It's not a grant, it's a loan. Pay it back.

Ben Armenta: 26:57

We know the Democrats don't share our values And we know the Democrats love to bribe Americans, duping the younger generations. Try to get as many votes as possible. It's what they do. We need stronger leadership from the GOP. They're going to throw that case and things like it back to the legislature. Biden's next plan, his plan B, is to crank up a bill and to get it through Congress, which is the right process. But we need leadership in Congress to hold firm. We need character leaders who are willing to protect the rights and freedoms of Americans. We need principled candidates who are willing to stand up to tyrannical behaviors from all sides of the aisle and ensure your rights and mine are not trampled on by those leftist whack jobs.

Ben Armenta: 28:07

Thank you so much for listening. As always, you can email me your thoughts to ben at benermentacom. Say what you want about President Trump, but he delivered on his promises and we continue to benefit from that today. We now live in a world in which the woke mob gets called out for what it is. We live in a world with row overturned and government overreach is crushed by the Supreme Court. Just be sure to remember all of this as we look towards what lies ahead in 2024. Until next time, thank you again and God bless. The answer with Ben Armenta is sponsored by the Kicking Crab, the latest and greatest Cajun concept to hit the Southwest. They offer down home flavors and it's one of those places where you'll want to take the kids. No plates, just good times brought to you by folks that have strong conservative values, just like you and me. Consider them today, off Highway 6 in Houston or at thekickingcrabcom.