WASHINGTON (TND) — As Bud Light continues to face backlash over its controversial partnership with a transgender activist, fellow light beer brand Miller Lite is facing heat from its own critics over a recent advertisement.
Miller Lite's video advertisement, titled "Bad $#!T to Good $#!T," features comedian Ilana Glazer announcing an initiative from the beer company that would see it try to make up for not always doing "right by women."
Part of that initiative includes taking old, "sexist" beer advertisement and transforming it into fertilizer to be used by women brewers to grow hops, according to a March news release.
Here's a little-known fact, women were among the very first to brew beer ever. From Mesopotamia to the Middle Ages to Colonial America, women were the ones doing the brewing," Glazer says in the Miller Lite ad.It's time beer made it up to women," Glazer continues. "So today, Miller Lite is on a mission to clean up not just their s*** but the whole beer industry's s***."Elizabeth Hitch, senior director of marketing for Miller Lite, said in the March news release that for Women's History Month, "Miller Lite wanted to recognize that without women, there would be no beer."
In the same March release, it was announced that purchases of Miller Lite products supported a $60,000 donation to the "Pink Boots Society," which "aims to assist, inspire and encourage women and non-binary individuals in the fermented/alcoholic beverage industry to advance their careers through education," according to its website.
The video debuted on March 7 for Women's History Month, but critics recently began sharing clips of it on social media, leading the beer brand to trend on Twitter Monday.
It seems Miller Lite doesn’t understand their audience either," one Twitter account, whose video has received 1.7 million views in under six hours so far, said. "All light beer ads must include a lesson on gender studies to improve their ESG score," the account added, referring to Environmental, Social and Governance [ESG] efforts.Miller Lite has joined the woke cult," the conservative publication Citizen Free Press said on Twitter.Miller Lite said to Bud Light, 'hold my beer,' and decided to create a new ad campaign straight out of early 2010s 'I hate all men' feminism to sell a drink to customers they hate," conservative political commentator Ian Miles Cheong said.The Miller Lite controversy comes on the heels of Bud Light's partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney, which was revealed at the beginning of April.
Mulvaney's partnership with Bud Light consisted of the social media personality sharing with her nearly 2 million followers that the beer company was celebrating her first anniversary of transitioning genders by creating a beer can with her face on it. It was apparently part of Bud Light's more extensive Pride campaign: "Celebrat[ing] everyone's identity."
The transgender activist and social media personality also shared a few other posts featuring her promoting Bud Light. One was for March Madness and another featured her soaking in a bathtub while drinking the beer brand.
Backlash towards the partnership was fierce. Calls to boycott the light beer brand spread like wildfire, with a poll showing that more than half of Americans supported boycotting Bud Light. Some social media videos have gone viral for showing the apparent effects of the boycott, including empty lines for Bud Light vendors at baseball games. People have also allegedly been attacked by others who thought they broke the boycott.
The parallels between Miller Lite and Bud Light, two light beer companies, are being constantly drawn by critics on Twitter. Outkick.com founder Clay Travis tweeted that "Miller Lite saw the Bud Light disaster and decided they needed their own woke beer ad."
Others agreed. Conservative speaker and comedian Tim Young says that "Miller Lite went full woke feminist." American conservative political commentator and television presenter Tomi Lahren lamented the news, as Miller Lite "is [her] beer."
Who is running these companies?! Bad bad move," Lahren said on Twitter.Data seems to back the claims that boycotts of the beer brand are working. Bud Light sales for the third week in April were down 21.4% compared to the same time last year. The week before, sales were down 17%.
Bud Light has made some moves following the backlash and calls for a boycott of its product over the partnership with Mulvaney. Alissa Heinerscheid, the vice president of marketing for Bud Light, has reportedly taken a leave of absence following the fierce outpouring of backlash her beer brand recently experienced.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Bud Light has begun giving away its product for free to distributors following the backlash. Bud Light has also reportedly hired consultants who have experience within conservative circles of Washington D.C. to advise the beer brand as it attempts to move forward.
Other companies, such as the iconic American clothing company Levi Strauss & Co., have been receiving criticism for similar advertisement campaigns.
The National Desk has reached out to Molson Coors, Miller Lite's parent company, for comment but did not receive a response before publication.
Once a response is received, it will be added to this article.
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