The Bud Light fiasco happened a few months back, but I think it’s still pertinent to talk about the state of advertising in general. Afterall it’s how companies promote themselves and their products. Sadly though, advertising has become another example of how political correctness and wokeness can so easily destroy something.
How many commercials nowadays actually feature the product rather than trying to force a political agenda down the viewer’s throat? Ask yourself when is the last time you saw advertising for a product that you remember in a good way that stuck with you? I personally cannot remember much that’s had that kind of effect on me in recent years. Certainly not things that make me want go out and buy the product.
It use to be that advertisers goals were to sell the product and/or the company behind the product to as many people as possible. Politics was left out of it, and for good reasons. The recent fiasco with Bud Light is just another example of how far off the Marketing Avenue the folks on Madison Avenue have swerved.
I’m old enough to remember the great Budweiser Clydesdale Commercials. This 1987 Christmas classic with Ed McMahon narrating is particularly heartwarming.
Nothing political in that commercial. Simply a company with a nice tune selling their Company image and their product. Those of us who were around then didn’t even have to hear the words to the music. We knew them by heart and still do.
Coca Cola is another example. Again those who were around way back when remember the by line for Coke. “It’s the real thing”, because well it was. Coca Cola also had one of the best commercials of all times. It first aired October 1, 1979.
I can go on as there are countless others. “Have you driven a Ford, lately” is another one that stands out to me. Or “Pepsi, the choice of a new generation”.
And yes there was a time when cigarette manufacturers could advertise on TV. There was one by RJ Reynolds, “Winston taste good like a cigarette should” promoting their Winston cigarettes. Or Phillip Morris promoting Marlboro with the catchy phrase “Come to where the flavor is, come to Marlboro country”.
These are things that stick with you and you associate with the product in a good way that makes you feel happy about it all. There’s no overt or covert agenda involved other than to simply sell you the product.
Nowadays though everything is about agendas, even companies trying to sell their product. First there was political correctness which morphed into wokeness which seems to be headed toward morphing into insanity.
Those pushing the new woke commercials are simply a result of the times, one small part of it. Hollywood is another part of it. There is very little creativity behind any of it, just a political agenda.
With the left having taken control of most of America’s great institutions and businesses, they’re no longer shy about shoving their radical whacko agenda down the throats of all of us. Advertising is one of the best ways to do it. However, as they often do, they went too far too fast. They didn’t expect the backlash that happened with the Bud Light fiasco. And that backlash is a good lesson in how we fight them.
