How Budweiser’s Marketing Campaign this Past Summer Backfired

Should foreign corporations selling their products in the United States appropriate domestic patriotism as a marketing tool? 

This past summer Budweiser launched a marketing campaign that rebranded its beer cans to say “America” instead of “Budweiser”. The campaign was a direct response to the company’s dilemma in attracting a millennial customer base. It consisted of repackaging, broadcast commercials, as well as online campaigns through the brands social media outlets in effort to get the word out that when you’re drinking Budweiser at barbeques this summer, you are participating in supporting something greater than just consuming beer. 

However, the campaign flopped and the company’s consumer brand perception actually fell in all categories during the controversial campaign. Budweiser’s attempt to ride the wave of summertime patriotism within millennials ultimately ended up backfiring. Especially when it came to the mainstream media’s criticism of the parent company Anheuser-Busch being a Belgium based company rather than American as it was trying to portray. Some outlets even called the campaign offensive, and in actuality rather unpatriotic.

Some people also felt that the campaign was deceptive to customers who may have purchased the company’s beer thinking their hard earned dollars were going to support an American based company. It was also a risky move on Budweiser’s behalf to go with this campaign since they were, in a way, taking a right wing political stance with the campaign which seems counter intuitive since most millennials hold democratic political views.

I agree with those who criticized the campaign since the company is not in fact American. The average consumer may not have been aware that Budweiser was foreign owned, especially when seeing a can that says America in bold. After all, why would a foreign company brand their product in such a way? I think it was in bad taste for the company to so blatantly try to cash in on the American flag and exploit the people’s patriotism over this past summer. 

Budweiser’s campaign will hopefully serve as an example for other companies considering such a campaign to go a different direction. Ultimately, the brand not only lost trust within their customer base but also faced public backlash that will continue to damage the brands image for years to come, all of which could have been avoided. I’d advise against any company implementing such a campaign all together if their intent is to mislead and exploit their loyal customers. 

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[Aaron Jauregui is a third year student at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. He is interested within the fields of marketing, technology, and will now be publishing articles in his spare time via LinkedIn. What will he be writing about? Probably analytical pieces exploring marketing strategies and campaigns from some of the most influential brands out there.]

This post belongs to the #DigiViewpoint series of Digital Marketing Today, a social media marketing course taught at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business by course instructor Julian Gamboa. #StudentVoices