Oldest Brewery in America Shows Bud Light What It Means to Actually Understand Its Customer Base
Editor’s Note: The following is one of the Western Journal’s most popular patriotic-themed stories, re-posted in honor of Independence Day.
Maybe Bud Light’s executives can take a lesson: Truth in advertising can pay off big, if you have a truth worth selling.
As Anheuser-Busch and its international ownership continue to deal with the fallout from a disastrous decision to bring woke politics into its Bud Light marketing campaigns, an American-owned competitor is capitalizing in a way that’s as simple as it is effective.
And for the nation’s oldest brewery, there’s already one big return on investment.
D.G. Yuengling and Son, based in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, was a largely local beer for most of the years between now and 1829, when it was founded as Eagle Brewery. But it started its expansion from the mountainous east-central part of the Keystone State into the Philadelphia area in the late 1980s and has been spreading since.
The secret to that success is straightforward, the company wrote in a Twitter post that has rocketed around social media.
Yuengling, The Oldest Brewery In America. Independently Owned and Family Operated since 1829 because we make good beer. pic.twitter.com/5TdmGiUc5R
— Yuengling Brewery (@yuenglingbeer) April 14, 2023
“Yuengling. The Oldest Brewery In America,” the post stated. “Independently Owned and Family Operated since 1829 because we make good beer.” There’s no talk of dredging up wannabe drag queens and posting their simpering faces where they have no place being. Nothing to do with “equity.”
Just the one thing Americans who like beer are looking for: good beer.
Imagine that. Making good beer and bragging about it beneath the red, white and blue.
The tweet has drawn more than 3.5 million views, more than 5,000 retweets, and more than 39,000 “likes.” Those are the kinds of numbers sales and marketing divisions love to see. They’re going to do nothing but boost the bottom line.
Some of the responses had to do with beer quality, of course. But many, many were just relieved that an American company was behaving like an American company — selling a product, not politics, and doing it proudly under the Stars and Stripes.
This is how you market beer. Kudos. https://t.co/9bGtsoRi2Z
— Deebs (@DeebsFLA) April 15, 2023
Currently looking for a new favorite beer. I’ll try some
— Ⱥmerican Trucker (@taylorbilt) April 15, 2023
Oh, how I wish again you were in Michigan.
Yeah, I get it. Distributors, exclusives, and politics. But still.
— X-ray (@XrayFactor) April 15, 2023
This company got a huge boost from Budweiser’s marketing misstep.
— Mike Jones (@MikemanCommeth) April 15, 2023
Thank you for not getting political.
— Georgetta Pullen (@georgiegirl1216) April 16, 2023
The previous tweets on the company’s Twitter account haven’t drawn anything like those numbers.
The sudden interest in Yuengling is likely a consequence of Bud Light’s utterly unforced error in bringing transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney on board in a bid to boost the brand’s image out of the “fratty” circles it inhabited, in the insulting word of Alissa Heinerscheid, Bud Light’s now-former vice president of marketing.
It was bad enough that the company paid Mulvaney for a “March Madness” bit on Mulvaney’s Instagram page, but when the company celebrated Mulvaney’s “day 365 of womanhood” by sending him cans of the beer with his face on them, the whole gig exploded.
Bud Light, a company that built its consumer base on blue-collar America outed itself. It’s being denounced by entertainers like Kid Rock and Riley Green, been boycotted in conservative regions and, most importantly, lost $5 billlion in market value when the Mulvaney gambit blew up.
Talked to the @budlight beer salesman at the store today. He shared that he has never seen such non-movement of their products in his 15 years. Even in rural communities no product is being sold. The cooler was completely full of Bud products-not 1 case was sold since yesterday… pic.twitter.com/sNCjDIWmjQ
— TennesseeTruthSeeker (@TennesseeMAGA13) April 16, 2023
So, the timing of the Yuengling tweet was about perfect — and the company’s consumer base that has always been decidedly middle class was getting ready to expand again. Yuengling, as chance would have it, began distributing in the St. Louis, Missouri, area — the home turf of Anheuser-Busch in February, as KTVI reported. Does anyone else think that might be making Bud Light’s sales division a little sick right now?
Anheuser-Busch used to be as American as Harley Davidson, but it lost that edge back in 2008 when it was purchased by InBev, the Brazilian-Belgian conglomerate.
Now, it’s not only not American owned, it’s thrown itself feet first into the virtue-signaling world of current corporate America — the kind of place where VPs for marketing have their meetings, park their Porsches, and ponder which private school their children will be attending. (Maybe they’re drinking Bud Light there, too. Anything’s possible, but smart money wouldn’t bet on it.)
And Yuengling, the product of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, can command attention with a simple statement of three things the company is proud of: It’s not just American, it’s America’s oldest brewery; it’s independent; and it makes good beer.
All of that is more true than leftist lies about men who wear makeup and dresses being women can or will ever be.
Bud Light could take a lesson here — and the rest of corporate America could, too.
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