Miller Lite Doubles Down After 'Bad S***' Ad Backlash, Made Massive Donation to Woke Group
Miller Lite is the latest beer brand wading into woke waters, and despite the massive backlash against Bud Light, Miller seems to be doubling down.
Just as Miller Lite was enjoying a bump in sales after Bud Light began suffering a boycott over its partnership with transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney, Miller is in the spotlight for its own woke marketing stunt.
In March, Miller Lite released a YouTube video in which actress Ilana Glazer tells beer fans how sorry the brand is for objectifying women in beer ads from the 1980s and 1990s. She goes on to explain what Miller is doing to make amends.
The ad was practically ignored at the time, of course, but the Bud Light fiasco has brought it to everyone’s attention.
In the video, Glazer says that Miller is taking old sexualized advertisements — such as posters and the like — and turning them into compost by shredding them and feeding the mulch to worms. Then, the worms poop out waste that’s given as fertilizer to women farmers who grow beer ingredients.
“It’s time beer made it up to women. So today, Miller Lite is on a mission to clean up not just their s***, but the whole beer industry’s s***,” Glazer says. “Miller Lite has been scouring the internet for all this s*** and buying it back so that we can turn it into good s*** for women brewers.”
In an odd parallel to the Bud Light brouhaha, Miller Lite had an activist female executive in charge of the “good s***” ad campaign.
“Miller Lite wanted to recognize that without women, there would be no beer,” Elizabeth Hitch, Miller Lite’s senior marketing director, said in a news release in March.
“To honor this we wanted to acknowledge the missteps in representation of women in beer advertising by cleaning up not just our $#!T, but the whole industry’s $#!T while benefiting the future of women and beer.”
As it happens, Alissa Heinerscheid was the feminist in charge of the Mulvaney partnership that has brought so much grief to Bud Light.
After that disaster — and saying that she intended to develop a new customer base that is less “fratty” — Heinerscheid was suddenly placed on “leave.” She was one of two top execs who were seemingly ousted over the Mulvaney debacle.
This week, after the Miller Lite ad resurfaced, many on social media blasted the campaign.
Boycott #247, here we go!
— Abbey Kaiser (@abbeymkaiser) May 15, 2023
After watching the Bud Light fiasco, this is a real ‘hold my beer!’ moment.
Uh, what % of Miller Lite buyers & drinkers are women? Is it even more than single digits?— Michael Openshaw (@mopenshaw) May 15, 2023
If @MillerLite had released an ad campaign returning to its roots with ppl having fun, masculinity and hot women, with a added bonus of dissing bud lite, they wld dominate the market in US for years. Instead, they green light this cringe. It’s like these ppl choose ideology over…
— Marley Q (@Marley_Q) May 15, 2023
It’s a pretty silly, virtue-signaling ad, granted. But now that it’s finally getting some notice, Miller is scolding customers over their criticism and telling them to just “appreciate the humor” and get over it.
“This video was about two things: worm poop and saying women shouldn’t be forced to mud wrestle in order to sell beer,” a company spokesperson said, according to The Daily Wire. “Neither of these things should be remotely controversial and we hope beer drinkers can appreciate the humor (and ridiculousness) of this video from back in March.”
But there is a bit more to this campaign than just “ridiculousness.”
Miller also donated $60,000 to the woke organization known as the Pink Boots Society to “support women in advancing their careers through brewing education.” On its website, the Pink Boots Society says it is made up of “women and non-binary individuals” in the alcoholic beverage industry.
Will Miller Lite find out that going woke means going broke? Time will tell, of course, but Americans are sick and tired of the whole woke marketing movement.
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