The moral panic of right-wing Americans over Bud Light sponsoring a single Instagram post from a trans person hasn’t even managed to slink off into the sunset yet, and we’ve already got a new conservative meltdown on our hands. Proving their equal opportunity capacity for outrage, it would seem that right-wing American influencers are now siccing their followers on Miller Lite as well, in reaction to an ad spot featuring comedian Ilana Glazer that first aired back at the start of March, but was only pounced upon now. We’re sure that Molson Coors will surely be thrilled to be keeping pace with AB InBev in this capacity.
The ad, embedded below, announced a program in which the Miller Lite brand confronts its previously sexualized advertising, by acquiring those old print ads and composting them, ultimately using the compost for female hop growers–and then women brewers–to create beer. They say “shit” a lot, it’s mildly amusing, and the entire campaign refers to itself as “Bad $#!T to Good $#!T” You get the point they’re going for, but the campaign’s main failing is arguably in just being unnecessarily complicated and arcane–I mean really, how much random Miller advertising would they have to collect in order to produce any significant amount of fertilizer? The point, ultimately, is just the brand refuting its previous use of misogynistic advertising, and this is of course what sticks in the craw of conservative Americans, who no doubt see it as just one more assault on wholesome, traditional American life. Which contains plenty of Miller Lite bikini ads, apparently. No doubt it’s already being processed as fodder by the kind of grifters who brought us $35 six-packs of patriotic, anti-woke Ultra Right Beer!
One can only imagine that widescale boycotts may follow, in the mold of the conservative boycotts that have seemingly resulted in a genuine downturn in beer sales for Bud Light. Naturally, the rage of the right wing also resulted in ceaseless internet hounding of all the advertising executives involved at AB InBev, who were peppered with death threats in the way that is sadly commonplace in our current politicized hellscape. AB InBev then responded in about the most cowardly way imaginable, distancing themselves from those employees while begging for forgiveness from conservative Americans, insisting that “We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people” in their exceedingly wishy-washy response. This likely only emboldened the abuse-slingers, who are probably racing to the store now to buy Miller Lite so they can take it home and shoot it with an AR-15.
To their credit, Molson Coors has already responded in a more assertive and proactive manner, coming to the aid of its own chief marketing officer, who is currently receiving the same sorts of threats. Take note, companies: When the right-wig mob comes for you, tell them to go fuck off rather than trying to appease them. Or as Molson Coors put it:
“People can take issue with our ads or our brands, but we won’t stand by as people personally attack our employees – especially given that these are company decisions, and are never made by one single person.”
It may not be a profanity-laced condemnation of some of the worst people on the internet, but coming from a megacorporation that makes Miller Lite, it’s not bad. Now, we just have to ask ourselves: What kind of Coors Light ad campaign will have Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson up in arms within the next month? Is it woke to call a beer “cold as the Rockies” these days?