Bud Light: Beer or Life style

 

Let me state for the record that I have never enjoyed Budweiser beer and I cannot recall if I have ever had a Bud Light (Lite??).  I reacted to the current uproar over Bud Light's new promotional campaign with the mother of all eye rolls.  I really had no interest in spending any time or resources understanding the controversy.  I had even less desire listening to the reaction of those directly or indirectly affected by Bud Light's decisions.  Just to catch you all up, Bud Light decided to change it's marketing focus to a younger "hipper" demographic.  To that end the parent company of Bud Light, Anheuser Busch contracted a Trans women as a spokesperson.  The reaction was swift and thunderous.  Everything from simply boycotting the product to unloading several rounds of ammunition on unsuspecting cans of Bud Light.  You can search the web for Kid Rocks video.  I am not going to provide a link.

Why am I writing about this when my initial reaction was an eye roll and who the heck cares?  Do I think the world is coming to an end because of Bud Lights Marketing decisions?  Will I ever buy Bud Light?  Do I care if people boycott Bud Light?  My answer to all of these is no.  My interest in this is understanding things in our lives that we are emotionally invested in.  So much so that it clouds any ability to rationally assess a situation and make a sound decision.  I am thinking that boycotting a product may be a rational way of breaking your association.  Where as, unloading a magazine of high velocity bullets on a stack of cans may be a bit over the top.

Why get so emotionally vested in a product that any change in it would foster such unbridled response.  Bud Light is a mass produced product.  There is nothing really unique about it.  It is mass produced to a generic formula.  It is sold in most retail outlets that can sell beer.  I did not know that it is the best selling beer in the U.S..  As I said I don't ever recall purchasing or drinking a Bud Light.  Where does this deep seated emotional attachment come from?  This emotional attachment is emphasized in the fact that the change was a branding change.  Bud Light did not change the formula so this is not a New coke/coke classic issue.  Regardless of what image is on the can the contents remain unchanged.

I am having difficulty thinking back to similar situations.  This difficulty is due to the fact that nothing really radically changed.  I remember the Baseball strike in the mid 1990's (Baseball Strike 1994).  I remember people saying that when the strike was over they would never go back to watching games.  It is 2023 and Baseball seems to be doing just fine.  I am sure that there were similar sentiments during the NHL lockout (NHL Lockout).  As with baseball the NHL seems to be just fine.  The most prevalent one is the Coca Cola reformulation in 1985 (New Coke).  It probably sticks out since the backlash from the market actually triggered a change by the company.  New coke was out and coke classic was back.

Our emotional investments goes beyond products.  It expands to sports teams, community and religious organizations.  You can also include musical bands in there as well.  Living in the Dallas area I have come across a number of people who think the Dallas Cowboys can do no wrong.  There are also those that think they cannot do anything right.  I will always be a Toronto Maple Leaf fan but I do feel I can look at there teams and rationally assess their chances of winning the Stanley Cup.  I really like Bruce Springsteen music but if he told me to jump off a bridge I doubt I would assent.  There is a line somewhere between devotion and an unhealthy emotional investment.

It is difficult to say where that line is.  A theme I keep returning to is control.  To this I add perspective. Given a situation who controls my response?  As for perspective is my response in proportion to the situation.  I like the products from the Kona Brewing Company.  But even though I like them, Kona Brewing does not make them specifically for me.  I have not been asked to approve a recipe.  In short I may have an association with them but they do not have an association "specifically" with me.  The association would be with a particular demographic that I may belong to.  In the way I view this relationship, any changes by Kona brewing are not directly targeted at me.  I may not like the change and I may choose to change my drinking habits but I do not think that Kona is doing this to spite me.  That is my perspective.  That perspective then dictates how I react to changes.  In the end I keep control of my perspective.