November 21, 2024 - 7:00pm
There’s something perfectly fitting about Shane Gillis appearing in Bud Light’s latest commercial. Here’s a football player-turned-comedian, cancelled by Saturday Night Live in 2019, now helping America’s most cancelled beer find its way back to cultural relevance. The ad isn’t just damage control for a brand still reeling from its disastrous, boycott-inducing partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney — it’s corporate America’s way of declaring that the progressive revolution is officially over.
The timing of the ad, which follows Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, feels right on schedule. Gillis, with his aw-shucks demeanour and decidedly un-PC comedy, represents exactly the kind of normal-guy sensibility Bud Light desperately needs to appeal to after alienating its core audience. His presence in the ad, where he plays a guy who has wandered into a perfume ad by mistake, sends a clear message: Bud Light is for people like him, and people who like him. It’s the kind of cultural realignment we’ve seen before, reminiscent of how the greed-is-good Reagan era transformed ageing, out-of-touch 1960s and 1970s counterculture figures into cautionary tales or the butts of jokes.
Just as the gung-ho cowboy-movie masculinity and straight-laced conformity of the 1950s gave way to the counterculture before swinging back, we’re watching Obama-era progressivism complete its own cycle. What started as “hope and change,” evolved through Trump resistance, and peaked with BLM protests and Covid-19 lockdowns in the summer of 2020, is now facing its own form of cultural exhaustion.
The evidence is everywhere. Celebrity activists who once commanded attention now struggle to impact elections despite a constant mainstream media presence. Corporate DEI initiatives face unprecedented pushback. Previously untouchable progressive orthodoxies are being challenged not just by edge cases like Gillis but even by more controversial figures like Sam Hyde, who’s again finding a modicum of mainstream success despite — or perhaps because of — that reputation.
What makes this moment particularly fascinating isn’t just the shift itself but what it suggests about where American culture is heading. Gillis, with his college football background and everyman appeal, could follow the path of Will Ferrell, transforming from SNL reject to mainstream star. But unlike Ferrell, whose eccentric comedy largely avoided in-your-face progressive politics until recently, Gillis’s appeal rests specifically on his willingness to poke at or push back against progressive norms.
The Gillis ad feels like the moment we’ll look back on as the turning point — the point when the waves of “resistance” finally broke and rolled back. It’s not just that Bud Light chose him for their post-Mulvaney redemption tour; it’s that they clearly believe he represents something their audience wants to return to — a time when beer commercials could just be funny without becoming political statements, when a brand could reach middle America without having to leverage a rogue’s gallery of DEI-mandated inclusive performers. Take note, Jaguar.
This might be the most American resolution possible to the most recent phase of our culture wars: watching them dissipate not through any grand ideological victory, but through the simple mechanics of corporate marketing. After all, what better way to declare the end of a cultural revolution than by turning its most vocal critics and boycotters into brand ambassadors? Corporations will follow the money, and at least for the foreseeable future, the smart money in Trump’s America is on Gillis and the large, still valuable, and deliberately ignored swath of flyover country he represents. This is certainly true for beer companies. Too many companies have let progressive marketing teams run riot for too long. It appears that the corporate world has now entered a new phase of trying to reverse the reputational damage.
Oliver Bateman is a historian and journalist based in Pittsburgh. He blogs, vlogs, and podcasts at his Substack, Oliver Bateman Does the Work
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SubscribeThis is a comical over reaction to a single brand who are spinning wildly trying to fix what was obviously a terrible marketing choice.
The culture wars swing back and forth but the overall direction moves inexorably towards progressivism. Dolts like this writer might think that Trump’s election will change that. It won’t.
Starting to struggle now, i see. We all see.
How does it feel to be “on the wrong side of history”, as we’ve been telling you all along?
He has two black eyes, a bloody nose, a missing tooth and a swollen lip but he’s going stagger on in denial.
Aye up our kid! Not sure what you are rambling about here? You don’t seem to have understood my comment. That’s no great surprise but I’ll be happy to re-state it in words that you can understand.
You’re wrong. I’m right.
There! Were you able to follow that, kiddo?
No, you’re left, i’m right.
By ‘left’ i don’t just mean politically, but left floundering every single time.
#chumpagne
Wit really isn’t your thing, is it, our kid?
I’ll take care of the sophisticated humour. You stick to the mardy whinging.
You’re wrong. I’m right.
There! Were you able to follow that, kiddo?
So sophisticated!!
Regardless of whether fizet says anything sensible or not I cannot help imagining she is addressing her dolls and we are only overhearing her?
You have a very strange imagination! Have you considered entering a program of therapy of some kind?
I work for a large corporation who’s HQ is in a blue state. The number of pronouns on the internal people viewing website and emails was thinning slightly over the course of the year, now they are falling en masse. They looked ridiculous, stilted and insincere when added back in 2021.
HR folk now advise there will be an open, ‘annonymous’ what do you really think of DEI survey about to land our mailboxed imminently.
There is nothing progressive about male rapist in women’s prison. There is nothing progressive about males beating females in women’s sports. Nor will there ever be.
How do you feel about a rapist in the White House? Of that rapist nominating other rapists – Gaetz and Hegseth – to cabinet positions?
Of course neither of those clowns will be confirmed – the first rapist has already slunk away when he realized that even the creeps in the senate GOP wouldn’t approve him. Hegseth won’t be far behind.
I am no fan of Trumps, though unlike the echo chamber of Broadcast Media, Hollywood Royalty and most of the senior Democrats, I can see why he won.
It really doesn’t say much for the ‘Progressives’ with all their current advantages in terms of education, wealthy backers and largely riche voting cohort that they lost to him. Twice.
Sounds like the checks and balances are working and the Death Camps won’t be opening up anytime soon.
Any other Whatabouterys?
Lots.
Why don’t you try answering my questions first? Why are you so hell bent on seeing the Trump cabinet filled with sexual predators? You must be devastated about Gaetz – he’s the perfect MAGA poster boy.
Gaetz nomination was a mistake, and Trump removing him was him correcting that mistake. Trump is much better than in 2017 having suffered the slings and arrows of Russia-Russia-Russia, impeach-impeach, and lie-lie-lie from the MSM and Donkeys.
Desperate whataboutery and false equivalence. You are SO close to an awakening. Just go with it. You’ll be happier.
I ignored the dubious character issues with Trump. I voted for him because he is in the process of nominating 1200 GOP Executive branch Woke-assassins.
No internet-based survey is anonymous.
I rather think dolts like you don’t realise which way the wind is blowing.
Hilarious, you can smell the fear. Clearly you know what happens to champagne socialists when the real revolution comes?
They will be eaten by their own as they search for people to blame for their losses. It’s starting already.
Stalin and Sulla assembled enemy lists every day. That’s coming for the Woke.
Poor old Poo Fash. Now that you’ve shaved your head, cut off contact with your family, and made several Tiktok videos of yourself crying in your car, I don’t suppose there’s anywhere else for you to go. You can’t even drink Bud Light anymore. You’ll probably have to go and live in a furry squat with a mob of obese Antifa maskurbators. Don’t forget your clown make-up!
Sir is getting creative.
Message to the non-woke, as long as the borders are de-facto non existent, every victory is pyrrhic, or a sleight of hand by those who hate you. Your way of life is not a value, but a concrete thing.
Jaguar is like “hold my beer”
Hold my BudLight, you mean.
“follow the path of Will Ferrell, transforming from SNL reject to mainstream star”
That would be noted SNL reject Will Ferrell who was an accalimed cast member of the SNL in the 90’s? The guy they had play George W. Bush in the debates with Gore (“strategery”)? He left to do movies like many of the more well-known SNL alums before him. He was not a reject unless you don’t know what that word means.
If you’re going to try to do cultural commentary and cite a tv show, it is probably helpful if you’ve ever watched it (or at least look it up on Wikipedia).
“alum” would have been a better description than reject. However, he is tone-deaf in his timing of embracing the trans thing. Also a poor comedian.
Celebrating too early. Woke ideology is here to stay. Unfortunately.
What makes you think that?
& if the GOP are in gov for another 8 years?
Come back in another decade and see how much like the wind the winds of fashion are
True. This is why we need to be vigorously proactive in stamping it out.
I am of the opinion that most of the appeal to wokeness from the corporate world, particularly in advertising, was simply another insincere gesture in their never ending quest to appeal to younger demographics and win lifelong customers. Budweiser probably assumed none of their older, traditional customers would pay much attention to a random influencer on a newer media that most people didn’t know existed. After all that’s what usually happens. Nobody boycotted the people who advertised on that controversial new MTV thing back in the 80s nor when they switched to internet banner ads in the 90s or social media in the 2000s.
The problem is that Gen Z’s big new thing “wokeness”, unlike those others before it, was inherently political, divisive, and immediately loathed by older generations who were experienced enough to recognize silly nonsense. Previous generations wanted companies to come to them through new media or using new technologies. The woke generation wanted companies to appeal to their fragile emotional state and show how inclusive and tolerant and diverse they were so everyone would feel comfortable and welcome and nobody would be offended. That was obviously doomed to fail regardless, but it also got drawn into the building political conflict between rising populism and falling globalism, which the same corporations also had a hand in.
The woke generation has some tough times ahead. Now that it’s clear there is no money to be made and plenty to lose from woke virtue signaling, the corporations are dropping it like the live grenade it is. Further, the generation coming behind them is showing signs of being a lot less progressive, which will leave them even more out in the political wilderness. I expect them to become a very bitter, disillusioned and frustrated generation along the lines of the so called lost generation who saw the last great globalist age end in the trenches of WWI.
Would not Marx have simply said Woke another form of false consciousness? And what really needs to happen is a return to an economic appreciation of one’s position?
Thus when one baton is put back on the shelf it does not mean another is not picked up. And of course identity politics has in many ways been v useful to the ‘Advantaged’ and elite Rich. It’s distracted.
Yes. Woke is what you get when middle class ‘progressives’ get rich and no longer want to talk about money.
But we need more than a return to sanity. Those responsible for the open borders policies and all the other injustices – carte blanche for violent criminals, defunding and subversion of police forces, abuse of the justice system, electoral fraud, mutilation of children and the rest of it – must be held to account so that others like Keir Starmer who are employing the same oppressive methods are given a clear warning that there will be consequences.
You are so right. I’ve been trying to make my children understand that “identity politics” is just another way to divide and rule the proles, while making the feel morally superior to the older generations.
‘Trying’? Not working? My advice would be your line of argument could be a little more developed.
You always throw a wide net HB, in hope you catch the odd fish I guess. So Woke is more a middle class thing than, say, a student thing? Or despite your elite Undergrad US education all students are middle class by definition? Therefore making yourself…
And carte blanche for violent criminals – so you’re ok at last with locking up those who tried to fire bomb a hotel of asylum seekers. Good at least we’ve got that clear now. Or do you have exceptions?
As regards oppressive methods, any examples of how your own privileged life been subject to such totalitarian subjection?
Well said. The woke scum need to be hounded out of public life, shunned as moral outlaws, and subjected to the full rigours of criminal prosecution.
If they are to be a Lost Generation, can we pick up the speed and lose them right away?
I realize you were joking, but there’s a real possibility of a world war starting within this decade. I’m not sure we should be so cavalier and flippant to joke about such things.
There’s a simpler aspect that probably explains most of the fuss. The topic of “gender fluidity” (sic) has always elicited a strong negative response from most people. By ‘always’ I mean as far back as written history goes.
Individual issues touching on sexuality were seen, until very recently, as ‘private’; ‘none of my business’. That privacy meant two different salutary things; those directly involved had a right to not have their kinks shouted out to the world, and the rest of us have a right not to have to hear, ad infinitum about other people’s kinks.
Much of the progressive agenda has been about just such issues. I, for one, don’t care who’s wearing women’s panties; in fact I don’t want to know. I have kinks of my own, thank you very much.
One of the links in this article is to someone’s random 350 page undergraduate degree dissertation at Texas University
Acutually PhD (i.e. doctoral) thesis, the result of several years of research and thought, but well spotted
At first glance it looks rather more interesting than this offering.
Quote heading the Conclusions:
“If you look back on the sixties and, on balance, you think there was more good than harm in it, you’re probably a Democrat, and if you think there was more harm than good, you’re probably a Republican.”— Bill Clinton
Clinton was wrong then and wrong now. Does any Democrat – including Clinton – think Vietnam was good? Of course not.
The 60’s was a pivotal decade in many ways both good and bad. But Vietnam and the assassinations swing the balance to bad.
“Let’s try it with the cigar case…hold still.” – Bill Clinton
I wondered if any one else had caught that. It was from this hotlink in the article:
“It’s the kind of cultural realignment we’ve seen before, reminiscent of how the greed-is-good Reagan era transformed ageing, out-of-touch 1960s and 1970s counterculture figures into cautionary tales or the butts of jokes.”
Yes, there was a 349-page doctoral thesis, and I would call the linking inappropriate, in the sense that it did not show evidence of either “cautionary tales or the butts of jokes”. However, it is far from random. I felt that it was a very well written piece about the rise, fall and absorption of the counterculture into the mainstream. Apart from the subject matter, what I really liked about it was that the author noted that too many academics and journalists had referred to a couple of seminal papers on the topic to rehash the same analysis, rather than going to the source materials themself, analyzing them, and drawing their own conclusions, something I wish the MSM would do more of.
I’m late to the party in commenting on this, but only because I wanted to read it through first. It was my weekend long read, and I thought that it was very thoughtful and insightful, and frankly, I would be hard-pressed to argue against any of the conclusions that the author came to.
I highly recommend that you take the time to read it.
The advert was infinitely more interesting the the beer!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdO5cmjnlKk
Good ad, but the ‘beer’ still sucks. Americans, just drink Belgian beer and stop pretending you know how to make it.
British beer and ciders, tariff-free under Trump 2.0, will save America, – just can the soapy craft beer so beloved of hip wokesters.
Remarkable how quickly they reversed direction. The election was two weeks ago.
Bud Lite has been attempting, without much success, to claw back from the insanely stupid Mulvaney campaign for months. The ads are just flailing and desperate. I see Bud Light piled up in stores – admittedly not often since we mostly shop Aldi.
Gillis has done a couple of Bud Light commercials, this is the first one that is objectively hillarious though.
At the end of the day, advertising is simply a means of trying to convince the consumer to part with his money. It’s a matter of who’s pocket they’re trying to pick.
And the beat goes on…