Posts Tagged ‘woke agenda’

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.

Defining Woke: The Four Stages of Woke: Delusional, Crazy Batshit Crazy, Fully Woke

Posted: June 5, 2023 by datechguy in culture
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The left has been insisting we define ” Woke” lately. It’s actually very easy and I shall do so here using my favorite example within.

Woke comes in four stages:

Stage 1: Delusional:

Mr. Shellhammer: But… but maybe he’s only a little crazy like painters or composers or… or some of those men in Washington.

Miracle on 34th street 1947

The first stage of woke is delusional. In this respect “delusional” is defined as believing something that is blatantly false.

This is the most common stage and the one where you can function in society normally. If one is deep into this state the delusional person may act on this delusion but only in their private life. It’s worth noting that most delusional people aren’t woke, but ALL woke people are delusional.

Example: If you believe you’re the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, you’re delusional.

Footnote: At this stage except in casual conversation it’s nobody’s damn business and unless brought up in conversation they should be left alone to think what they want. That’s freedom.

Stage 2: Crazy

Babe Heffrom: Crazy Joe McCulsky

Wild Bill Guarnere: What?

Babe Heffrom: This guy who used to hang at the front of Delancy’s you know and just stare at people.

Band of Brothers Bastonge 2001

The 2nd stage of woke is crazy. In this respect “crazy” is defined as acting on this delusion in your public and personal life to be noticed. This person can function in society to a degree but will always attract looks and stares. It is also the stage where their employment options might be limited as they can be at best disruptive and at worst destructive in the wrong job, particularly if such a job involves interaction with the public or one that requires decision making that effects others.

This can also be the most complicated point. Not only do you see people doing this to themselves but if this involves a group of people there are also those who might go into this stage to fit in. If this involves someone you love or care about this is the place to intervene to try and shake the delusion before it becomes dangerous, but if the person declines, the default position must be to respect their right to make bad decisions for themselves.

Again not all people who are crazy are “woke” but ALL woke people are crazy.

Example: If you believe you’re Napoleon Bonaparte, and then dress like Napoleon, speak like Napoleon and or get your self surgically altered to be Napoleon you’re crazy.

Footnote: This is the point of greatest danger to society in the sense that there are those who will go along or even affirm this person’s crazy delusion thinking they are being “kind” or “tolerant” or loving. What you are actually doing is at best being indifferent and at worst cowardly because you are enabling someone’s self destruction either because you don’t care or don’t want to get involved.

Stage 3: Batshit Crazy

The Joker: As I was saying since every fish in Gotham now bears my famous and frankly fabulous face I should get a profit from every fish product sold. Let’s say a nickel per fish sandwich, fifty cents for sardines. Millions of dollars a day to finance my happily hedonistic lifestyle. So which of your copyright forms do I fill out first? You may speak now.

G Guy Francis: No one can copywrite fish, they’re a natural resource.

The Joker: But they share my unique face. Colonel what’s his name has chickens and they don’t even have mustaches!

G Guy Francis: I can’t help it, it’s the law.

The Joker: Oh trying to cheat the Joker are you? We’ll see who has the last laugh. You have until midnight to change your mind Francis or you’ll be the poorest fish of all

Batman the Animated Series The Laughing fish 1993 adapted from Detective Comics 475 Feb 1978

The 3rd stage of woke is batshit crazy. In this respect “batshit crazy” is defined as demanding that others not just tolerate your crazy delusion but acknowledge it as fact rather than delusion. At this stage the person will use everything from, intimidation to violence to force you to acknowledge a reality that isn’t true. This can be the most dangerous of all the stages in the sense that people who do not actually believe the batshit crazy person’s delusion might decide said person can be manipulated and their batshit crazy delusion used and weaponized against their foes for the sake of power and wealth. There will also be a fair amount of joiners who see this manipulation as a way of personal advancement or will be too afraid to speak out. Such batshit crazy people can only function in society within the woke bubble and will do all they can to create and expand the woke bubble to preserve their delusion.

Example: If you believe you’re Napoleon, and then dress like Napoleon, speak like Napoleon and or get your self surgically altered to be Napoleon and demand that people acknowledge you publicly as Napoleon Bonaparte you’re batshit crazy.

Footnote: Under no circumstances should the person at the batshit crazy stage of woke be affirmed! Not only is it an offence against truth but you will shortly discover that simple affirmation is never enough. If this is not stopped and defeated here then it invariably goes to the final stage

Stage 4: Fully Woke

Jesus Christ: “I have told you this so that you may not fall away. They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God. They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me.

John 16:1-3

The 4th stage of woke is fully woke. In this respect “fully woke” is defined as using the full power of an institution, the law and the state to not only affirm their batshit crazy delusion as fact but to crush anyone who refuses to do so or publicly calls out their batshit crazy delusion for what it is and encourages others to have the courage to do so. The Batshit Crazy woke person can’t get to this stage without allies or acolytes or immense personal wealth. And because their allies are gaining wealth power and prestige from this batshit crazy delusion there is no limit to the steps they will take to silence you once this state is reached. They will destroy you economically, socially or even physically and do it while proclaiming how virtuous they are being in doing so. They will further demonize any bit of society, an institution, a city, a state, that does not go along with the Woke Batshit crazy delusion because the greatest threat to them at this stage is actual reality. Furthermore if you are a member of the fully woke society you will find that any deviation from the Fully woke batshit crazy delusion, however slight, will cause you to be expelled and considered a non-person.

Example: If you believe you’re Napoleon Bonaparte, and then dress like Napoleon, speak like Napoleon and or get your self surgically altered to be Napoleon and demand that people acknowledge you publicly as Napoleon Bonaparte and use the power of the state and the law to punish and/or oppress any who refuse to shout: Vive L’Empereur!  when you walk by, you’re fully woke.

Footnote: The fully woke person can’t be reasoned with, can’t be debated, they can only be defeated and when defeated must be defeated utterly

Addendum: On very rare occasions a person hitting the fully woke stage or even the Batshit Crazy stage might find themselves shocked into reality. These persons are the greatest threat to the Fully woke and are hated by them even more than those who fought them from the start.

The left hates the word “woke,” which is why we must use it more often

Posted: March 19, 2023 by John Ruberry in culture, education, media, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

The left has a new mantra. Well, they always have a new one. And their newest mantra is, “The right doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘woke.'” 

As far as I can gather, the earliest use of “woke” was by African American musician Lead Belly, who added “stay woke” in an afterword of his recording of “Scottsboro Boys,” which was about the injustices faced by nine black youths accused of raping two white women in 1931. 

First, a brief side note: This is the second post in a row of mine at Da Tech Guy where Lead Belly gets a mention.

But words often change meanings. For instance, centuries ago “garble” meant “to sift.” In the spice trade “garbling” was the process of removing impurities from spices. Over time, “garble” evolved into meaning confusing, unclear, and yes, impure. For instance, someone might say, “I couldn’t understand the voicemail message you left for me, it was garbled.”

The definition of woke has similarly evolved. It appears woke made a reappearance in the public dialogue in 2016 after the police shooting of Michael Brown in 2016, but by 2020, conservatives had adopted and co-opted the word. People who are woke–this is my take–are rigidly beholden to far-left political beliefs and they will use mob action to enforce their viewpoints.

“Politically correct,” a term that emerged from the left, was similarly co-opted by the right, so liberals dropped it years ago. 

The word woke is a much more serious problem for the left, which is why libs, in a futile effort, are trying to reclaim it, or at least neutralize its meaning. After all, woke is an unpleasant word with only four letters and just one syllable, it is better suited for our contemporary sound bite and pithy headline culture, compared to the more cumbersome “politically correct.” Over the past week leftist journalists, an intellectually incestuous lot, pushed back. An opening to them was given by Bethany Mandel, the co-author of the best seller Stolen Youth, which is about the dangers of woke culture. Last week, in an interview captured on video–one that went viral–Mandel suffered, in her words, “a momentary brain freeze,” and she wasn’t able to clearly answer a question about the definition of woke.

But shortly afterwards on Twitter, Mandel was able to clarify what woke means.

“A radical belief system suggesting that our institutions are built around discrimination,” Mandel Tweeted last week, “and claiming that all disparity is a result of that discrimination. It seeks a radical redefinition of society in which equality of group result is the endpoint, enforced by an angry mob.”

Since Mandel’s verbal misstep, leftist writers have attacked the woke word. In MarketWatch, Rachel Koning Beals has tried to dial back the new meaning of woke–as has Ross Douthat in the New York Times.

Just now, as I was finishing up this entry, I watched as Jen Psaki, in the premiere airing of her MSNBC show declare, “Republicans have gone all-in on their anti-wokeness.” Psaki, a smug know-it-all, then presented a one-sided view of Mandel’s “momentary brain freeze.”

All but admitting defeat in the word war, Matthew Cooper in Washington Monthly says the word needs to be disposed. The headline of his article is, “Let’s retire the word ‘woke.'”

Too late!

The legacy media is up woke creek without a paddle.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has often said, “Florida is where woke goes to die” and vows that “we will never, ever surrender to the woke mob.”

This month two woke mobs attacked in California. The Federalist Society invited a US Appeals judge, Kyle Duncan, who was appointed to the bench by Donald Trump, to speak at the Stanford Law School. Only the mob, the led by the school’s diversity, equity, and inclusivity dean, Tirien Steinbach, all but prevented the judge from speaking. Diversity to the left hasn’t meant diversity of opinion for years.

Shortly afterwards, the dean of the Stanford Law School, Jenny Martinez, apologized for the beastly misbehavior Duncan received, which led another woke mob to disrupt her lecture hall.

In my opinion, outside of the ten percent or so of the populace who is indeed woke, no one can argue that such boorish antics are justifiable.

As is also the case of the second California campus woke outburst, when Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk spoke at the University California, Davis. “Black-clad goons” goons is how the Daily Mail described the protesters who pepper-sprayed attendees and smashed windows at the hall where Kirk spoke.

Kirk’s UC Davis address is available in podcast form. Unlike Duncan, Charlie was permitted to speak. And in his opening remarks, Kirk vowed, “Tonight, you’re going to see that anyone who disagrees with me tonight is not just allowed–but is encouraged to go ask [me] a question.” Kirk even called for his dissenters to head to “the front of the line.”

Now, that’s what I call diversity.

Those leftist protesters–I believe it’s fair to call them rioters–were probably egged on by a woke Sacramento Bee opinion columnist, Hannah Holzer, who, in a since retracted claim, said Kirk “called for the lynching of trans people.” In his remarks that evening at UC Davis, Kirk responded, “That is a lie. I have never done that,” adding, I’ve always been clear about peaceful activism.”

The unpeaceful ones that night at UC Davis were the members of the woke mob.

The great majority of Americans don’t have politics on the top of their informational diet. But this truly silent majority, the ones who decide the outcome of elections, is aware of the evils of leftist violence, intimidation, misinformation and censorship. And now there is an ugly word for that and more that is now entrenched in the mainstream conversation.

“Woke” is that word.

To my conservative writers and influencers: The other side has betrayed a weakness and a fear. They hate it when we say “woke” to decry radical policies and angry leftist mobs. What is worse than “woke?” Well, those odious things that the word describes, such as the recent outrages at Stanford and UC Davis.

Say “woke” early and often.

We will win.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Doctor Who New Old Doctor That’s Weird and Likely Won’t Work

Posted: October 27, 2022 by datechguy in culture, doctor who, entertainment, Vive L'Empereur
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11th Doctor: I never forget a face

The Curator (4th Doctor): I know you don’t and over time you might revisit a few, but just the old favorites eh?.

Doctor Who Day of the Doctor 2013

As you might know I have not watched a new episode of Doctor Who since the last scene of Peter Capaldi run

Jodi Whitiaker’s Doctor was a disaster for the ratings, for the sales of the show, for the merchandizing and according to my oldest who did in fact watch those episodes was an era with the writing so bad that according to him, A Doctor Who fan all his life, only three episodes of the run might be recognized as Doctor Who Episodes.

Like the Sylvester McCoy era it was all about the agenda and ignoring the fans even to the point of rewriting the canon of the series. In fact it was so bad that they decided that when the current showrunner left with Ms Whitaker they would bring back Russell T. Davies who was the original showrunner of the revival in the hope to get people to start watching again.

But a lot of people like myself still weren’t interested. I understood that Davies would while still writing woke (and believe me his era was plenty woke but it wasn’t in your face and with the exception of the whole “President Obama is going to fix the economy” BS in his final episode “woke” took 3rd place to providing fans with good writing and good characters.

Thus I had absolutely no intention of bothering to watch what was to follow and was content to, in my mind, have Capaldi’s Doctor decide to die, and I suspect a awful lot of those who left the series behind likely had the same idea. So what do you do to gain the interest of those who walked away and took their eyeballs and wallets with them?

Well apparently you do this: (Rather large spoiler)

I didn’t watch the episode so I had no idea this had happened that until I saw something on Youtube.

This was a complete shock to me as it likely was to everyone else who wasn’t in the know. I think it’s in terms of marketing, rather smart. It’s an attempt to get people like me who didn’t want anything to do with the Jodi Whitaker era to give it a shot.

How bad did they want to get away from the Jodi Whitaker era? They wanted to get away from it so bad that for the very first time ever the Doctor’s Clothes regenerated into David Tennant’s clothes so that there would be absolutely NO reminder of the Jodi Whitaker on screen when Tennant, the favorite Doctor for most fans of the new era (Mine was Smith) returned.

In fact think about the episode itself assuming you’ve watched it. Apparently the only thing anybody is talking about concerning the series was cameos by the 1st, 5th, 6th, 7th & 8th doctors which was a good idea in terms of drawing some eyeballs but was a really bad idea because all those cameos underscored just how much better each one of those characters were as the Doctor than Whitaker’s.

I must admit I find myself wanting to see the three David Tennant Episodes they are planning but I may not be in the majority. The good folks at Nerdrotic did a livestream reviewing the show and their reaction in the fan world seems otherwise.

As Nerdrotic put it at the start of his Doctor Who Livestream on the finale:

This is obligation and we’ll certainly talk about the VERY long episode made longer because I was stealing the iplayer and I had to refresh it every five ten minutes for it to work. Yeah she’s gone, it’s over. I know everybody’s going to be excited about David Tennant and then Russell T Davies coming back in two years but I’m not. There were some nice little moments, none of them included Jodi Whitaker the first female Doctor played by Jodi Whitaker Who will now be the last female doctor played by Jodi Whitaker who we will lovingly called Dr. Karen SHE DEAD so now that’s good finally gone.

And that was pretty much the nicest thing they had to say about it in two hours.

Dave Cullen had nothing better to say on his show either.

In conclusion I believe it doesn’t matter if they bring back one of the most popular Doctors in the form of David Tennant. In my opinion the damage to Doctor Who’s lore and it’s legacy is already done.

Will the gamble work. Will it be too little too late and will they decide that the 1st Doctor is William Hartnell after all?

And of course the Doctor as Mr. Cullen reminds us after Tennant the next doctor is going to be portrayed as a Gay Black Doctor with a Trans companion. I kid you not.

Well that’s going to bring the folks back who didn’t want to have an agenda shoved down their throats is it? In fact the whole idea that you will have three episodes of Tennant with Catherine Tate returning as Donna (and hopefully Bernard Cribbins too if he’s physically able) recreating the glory days will, in my opinion draw an even bigger contrast to the in your face gay/trans agenda pushed on a show that was a nationwide English icon.

Given that the woke is dying and losing all over the world maybe they will change their minds. Perhaps this is to give the BBC time to see if the shift is permanent and settle for the first black Doctor rather than pushing a LBBTQRSTURWXYZ card in 2024 and attempt to make the show right again.

I doubt it, the show. No matter how much the country rejects this agenda, the folks in charge at the BBC have embraced it fully and unless and until their own jobs are in jeopardy the agenda trumps all.

I think Nerdrotic & Dave Cullen are right, I think the Tennant gamble will fail to save the show but I’ll give the three episodes a shot to see if it’s Doctor Who or if it’s the Woke agenda delivered by a familiar face.

I have a feeling it’s the latter.

Update: Was not aware that Bernard Cribbins had died in July but it is possible that he shot scenes before his death.