Archive for the ‘media’ Category

Six months that shook the marketing world: Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney debacle and killing a cash cow

Posted: October 1, 2023 by John Ruberry in business, culture, media, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics, Sports
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By John Ruberry

It was six months ago today–April Fool’s Day no less–when Dylan Mulvaney, to cap off his 365 Days of Girlhood series, did his first of two social media posts hawking Bud Light. Previously, in the words of Alissa Heinerscheid, who was in charge of marketing the brew, it was a “fratty” beer. The effect on Bud Light sales was immediate–a consistent and sustained 30-percent sales drop.

Immediately, the “experts” in the business world and the media, who are in fact narrative-driven morons with crisp, broadcast-friendly speaking voices, immediately ran to defend InBev, the parent company of Anheuser-Bush, with a consistent refrain, as if they were reading the same script, declaring “Boycotts don’t work.”

While that’s generally correct, the sales drop for Bud Light, a brew that tastes the same as Coor Light and Miller Lite, was in fact a walkaway. “Joe Sixpack,” the typical Bud Light drinker who believes that men are men and women are women–despite mutilation surgeries and hormone injections–found a way to scream “F*ck you” to the elites who say otherwise. 

Bill Maher said on his HBO show that the average American is furious because “they’ve had an agenda shoved down their throat.” When one of his guests, US Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) objected to Maher’s truth, he struck back, “You have to accept everything they say or you’re a bigot.”

So true. 

The plummet in Bud Light sales is a major victory for conservatives, as well as the majority of Americans who have known the difference between males and females since they were two years old.

And gender, despite the claims of now former Meet the Press host Chuck Todd, is not “a spectrum.”

Mulvaney, whose ditzy faux female social media posts are about as pleasant as loud audio feedback, as well as the rest of the Anheueser-Busch marketing staff, did what was deemed impossible: killing a cash cow. I had a couple of marketing classes in college. Cash cows were revered by my professors, they are product lines that sell well with minimal advertising support. Heinz Ketchup, Ivory Soap, and Kellog’s Corn Flakes come to mind. The bountiful profits from cash cows are “milked” to support struggling brands. It’s a marketing circle of life.

One of those professors, in a lecture decried the use of celebrity endorsements in advertising, calling it “lazy marketing,” He also warned that celebrities, particularly those from the entertainment world, are known to do things morally objectionable, or get involved with unpopular political causes.

Now Anheuser-Busch is now spending a lot of money on its Bud Light “Easy to Sunday” campaign tied to the NFL as well as producing, again, commemorative cans, but this time with the logos of popular NCAA football programs, instead of a one-off Mulvaney can that was not sold to the public.

Too little too late. 

As sales continue to lag for Bud Light, it’s likely that scarce shelf space in supermarkets and liquor stores will soon be allocated to better selling brews. Modelo Especial this summer surpassed Bud Light as America’s bestselling beer.

The Bud Light cash cow has gone dry.

As I predicted here at Da Tech Guy months ago, using transgendered people to hawk mainstream products, while not completely dead, is now close to it. 

We have witnessed six months that shook the marketing world. 

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Ilia Calderón at last night debate brought back memories…

Posted: September 28, 2023 by datechguy in elections, elections, media, politics, primaries, primaries
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…of attending Trump press conferences as credentialed press during the 2016 campaign.

The thing I most noticed about said press conferences at the time was that every question to Trump seemed to be premised on one of three propositions:

  1. Why do you suck so bad?
  2. Why does the GOP suck so bad?
  3. What are you going to do about the fact that you suck so bad?

That’s why when I asked this question in Derry NH:

and this question in Worcester MA

It was such a shock to the room because it violated the narrative the left wanted advanced.

And that brings us to Ilia Calderón.

Ilia Calderón was there to advance the left’s narrative and make the GOP candidates bow to it. Ron DeSantis called out said false narrative when she tried to play it on him but the real question on the table is this:

“Why is the GOP putting someone whose goal is to advance the MSM/Left: ‘Why do you suck?’ narrative as a moderator at the GOP debate?”

I think that’s a very good question and Fox and the RNC need to produce a very good answer.

But that’s just me

The Less than 1% solution

Posted: September 23, 2023 by datechguy in media
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A couple of days ago Stacy McCain put up a post about CNN’s demographic numbers that have reached historically small levels:

The cable news network logged its worst weekend ratings on record in the all important 25- to 54-year-old demo, according to the latest Nielsen data released Tuesday.
CNN — which launched in 1980 and bills itself as “the most trusted name in news” — totaled just 55,000 viewers for its weekend slate of shows that include Sunday political programs “State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash,” and “Fareed Zakaria GPS.”

But the real news is here:

CNN’s overall viewership wasn’t much better. The network logged 345,000 total viewers, trailing Fox News’ 683,000 and MSNBC’s 424,000.

That’s a tiny amount of viewers, Fox is pulling in nearly double and even MSNBC is doing 20% better than “The most trusted name in news”.

But let’s look at the real story here.

Ok for those who have gone to public school and don’t handle math”

CNN’s 345,000 +

MSNBC’s 424,000 +

Fox’s 683,000

= 1,462,000 Human beings watching these three networks.

Just a reminder the total number of votes cast in the last election for president was 158,000,000.

Even assuming that a million or two of those ballots were created on the night of the election in key democrat districts that would leave 156,000,000 voters.

Simple math tells us that all three networks combined total viewership vs the actual number of voters (subtracting two million for fraud) is 0.9% of the electorate.

And that’s assuming of course that 100% of those viewing those networks are registered voters.

So YES CNN is the runt of the litter, but they’re the runt of a litter of mice.

So given these facts let’s ask a very basic question:

Can anyone tell me why we care one bit about a bunch of people on cable networks say when they aren’t even speaking to 1% of the voting population?

The Answer is: “Joe Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election As Sure as the Cincinnati Reds Won the World Series in 1919”

Posted: September 21, 2023 by datechguy in baseball, election 2020, election 2024, media
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Image via Baseball-Reverence.com

If you look at any list of world series winners you will note that the listed winner of the World Series in 1919 is always the same.

It is the Cincinnati Reds managed by Pat “Pop” Moran (from my city of Fitchburg Massachusetts after whom Moran square in the city is named and to whom a nice monument exists in west Fitchburg).

The 1919 Reds are a team that doesn’t get enough credit but let’s take a look at the actual real numbers involved via that invaluable site Baseball-Reference. com :

The 1919 Reds were a good team, they went 96-44 finishing 9 games ahead of John McGraw’s giants. By comparison their World Series Rivals finished 88- 52 3 1/2 games ahead of the Cleveland Indians.

They had a first rate pitching staff with a team ERA of 2.23 (almost a full run better than their world series opponents at 3.04) this is why they gave up a mere 2.9 runs per game nearly a full run less than their World Series Rivals

At the plate they were 2nd in the National league in batting, slugging and OPS and led the national league in OBP, although all of those numbers were below their AL rivals.

With the Glove the Reds had a fielding percentage of .974 to their AL rivals .969 a slight edge but combined with their pitching lead to their run differential of 1.3 not only led the majors but was a full 30% higher than their vaunted AL rivals.

Put simply the Reds were a team with strong pitching and defense and solid up and down the lineup facing a team in the world series with a solid ace and a stronger batting lineup if you look at the team stats for the season one could easily pick the Reds as the favorite to win. (One might point to their White Sox ace with a 29-7 with an 1.82 record in 35 starts as the deciding advantage, that is if you ignored the fact that Reds Starter Dutch Ruether went 19-6 with an identical 1.82 ERA in 29 starts).

It was to be the classic matchup of a team with an overwhelming offense vs a team with solid pitching up and down the rotation and better defense…

…or rather it would have been if a group of White Sox players had not decided to throw the series. This led to all kinds of scandal, trials, losing of evidence and the appointment of a tough baseball commissioner who ruled the game with an iron fist for the next 20 years.

However it didn’t change the result. In the record books the Cincinnati Reds were the winners of the 1919 world series.

Today everyone remembers the 1919 White Sox but few talk about the excellent Reds team that won the series and everyone assumes that the White Sox would have won if they didn’t throw the series because nobody has bothered to remember how good the Reds actually were but even though the 1919 Reds are only remembered these days as the team that the Black Sox threw the world series to, in 1919, 1924, 1950, 1972, 1999 and even today 104 years later if you look up the question: “Who won the 1919 Major League World Series” the correct answer remains: “The 1919 Cincinnati Reds 5 games to 3.”

And that brings us to the favorite question that the media likes to ask the GOP during the 2024 cycle.

Right now the country is in the worst shape than I have ever seen in my 60 years on this planet. The economy is in a shambles, our position in the world is a joke, our military is in a self destructive cycle, our social fabric is tearing apart our borders don’t exist, laws are not enforced, basic human rights that we had acknowledged as sacred for centuries are cast aside and we have a president who on a good day has the intellectual and physical prowess of John Gill.

The media/academic left is doing all it can to protect the banana republic that this administration has become and as part of this attempt keeps circling back to the 2020 election asking every GOP candidate running for any office from President to dog catcher: “Who won the 2020 presidential election?” figuring that an answer of “Trump” can be used to discredit the candidate with the general public while an answer of “Biden” will discredit them from the base.

There is no question in my mind that election 2020 was stolen and that inaction by the people charged with enforcing the norms to make sure the result is honest led to the final result but the bottom line is as simple as the answer to who won the 1919 world series.

So I suggest that if you are a GOP Candidate for President, or Senator or Congress, or Governor or Dog Catch and the question is asked:

“Who won the 2020 election?”

or

“Did Joe Biden win the 2020 election?”

the proper answer by any GOP candidate who thinks the election was stolen or might have been stolen is: “Joe Biden won the presidential election of 2020 election as sure as the Cincinnati Reds won the world Series in 1919.”

They won’t like the answer and if they challenge it the best response is: “Are you saying the Cincinnati Reds didn’t win the 1919 world series?” and press them on this.

Now I realize that this is to some degree an insult to the 1919 Reds who as I’ve noted above were a great team and were certainly capable of winning the 1919 World Series but as they are all long dead I think they will forgive us in this case.

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