After Dylan Mulvaney backlash, Bud Light releases "grunts" ad with Kansas City Chiefs' Travis Kelce
CBSN
Bud Light is reverting to a male-focused tack in its advertising strategy, rolling out a new ad featuring Kansas City Chiefs' tight end Travis Kelce. The retro ad comes in the wake of ongoing conservative backlash related to the beer brand's marketing campaign earlier this year with transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney.
Called "Backyard Grunts with Travis Kelce," the commercial features the football player dressed in casual summer attire among other similarly dressed men as they settle into lawn chairs with grunts and groans. Some of them pop open cans of Bud Light once comfortably sprawled in their seat.
The latest ad, released on Sunday, comes as parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev is seeking to regain its footing after Bud Light sales plunged in May, dethroning the beer from its longtime position as America's best-selling brew. The brand faced a boycott from some drinkers following a promotion debacle with Mulvaney, with some conservatives objecting to the marketing push featuring a trans woman.
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