It has been exactly two years since Bud Light’s ill-fated March Madness partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney, and the beer maker still has not recovered from the financial and PR backlash that ensued. Now its parent company appears to be signaling it is bowing out of the culture wars altogether.
Anheuser-Busch has declined to sponsor St. Louis’ annual LGBTQ festival for the first time in over three decades, leaving the organizers of the event scrambling for funds.
On Thursday’s show, Megyn was joined by the hosts of Ruthless – Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook – to discuss the beverage behemoth’s about-face and what it says about the state of the “woke wars.”
A-B Backs Out
Earlier this week, news broke that Anheuser-Busch, the corporate parent of Bud Light and Budweiser, will no longer financially support St. Louis PrideFest, the city’s LGBT festival scheduled for June 28 and June 29.
A statement from Pride St. Louis, the nonprofit that organizes the annual event, called A-B dropping out “especially painful” because other corporate partners have already reduced their contributions.
St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch had sponsored the event for over 30 years, and Pride St. Louis President Marty Zuniga is blaming the waning support on the Trump administration. “This community is trying to be erased right now, and DEI is becoming a bad word in this country, and we need these partners more than ever,” he said.
‘It’s Progress’
In reality, Megyn believes companies like Anheuser-Busch are simply extracting themselves from the “woke wars” that damaged their businesses. “That is Bud Light learning its lesson…. According to The New York Times, Booz Allen Hamilton, Deloitte, Comcast, an auto dealership group Darcars, and then there is Bud Light all saying, ‘not interested,'” she noted. “This is a huge victory in an important battle that we’ve all been fighting.”
In Holmes’ view, the economics are simple. “All of these companies are ultimately in the business of making money and providing value to shareholders,” he explained. “You look at the election results and, for the first time, they’re not talking to just a far left shakedown artist. They’re looking at the American people, and they want to change it.”
While Pride St. Louis is begging for donations in the wake of the sponsorship declines, Ashbrook questioned why these events need corporate partners to begin with. “I grew up in a very small town. We had a Fourth of July parade every year, and I don’t remember giant corporate sponsors coming in to make people turn out for that,” he said. “So I’m guessing if this parade is as popular as that one, then maybe people will still show up.”
Megyn agreed Pride St. Louis “can make it happen without all these corporate dollars,” and they may have to. “These corporations are looking at people like Chris Rufo and Robby Starbuck who have been doing such a good job of shaming them for continuing DEI policies that are divisive and racist and sexist,” she said. “We’ve all got our eyes on them… They will not be universally praised; they will be publicly humiliated with their core audience like Bud Light was, so I love it. It’s progress.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Ruthless by tuning in to episode 1,036 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.