Budweiser's missteps highlight culture shifts that should terrify us

Brands don’t shape culture. Culture shapes brands.

Now, as the culture wars escalate, businesses are becoming a battlefront. Disney has filed a lawsuit against Florida governor Ron DeSantis, alleging that Florida is attempting to “weaponize government power” against the company in retaliation for voicing its support for the LGBTQIA+ community and this is hurting Disney’s business. Earlier this month, Anheuser-Busch abandoned its commitment to the queer community and put two ad executives on leave after a marketing stunt intended to ingratiate Bud Light with younger, more diverse drinkers backfired.

It’d be easy for us queers to cast one of these brands as brave and the other as craven as we try to make sense of this scary historical moment. But that would be missing the point. Brands are profit-seeking entities trying to stay alive amid the ricocheting forces of capitalism.

Historically, companies have shown up on the scene after a social movement has had its impact, and they’ve tried to assume credit for taking a stand. Sure, there are outliers. There was American Airlines at the 1982 Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco. But most big brands refrained from taking part in Pride Parades until the local community had already voiced support for LGBTQIA+ rights, specifically same-sex marriage. The annual June rainbow explosion in storefronts followed the Gallup polls suggesting public opinion had shifted: companies had more money to make supporting queers than staying quiet.

For decades, American businesses expanded their embrace of the queer community. A trickle of support in the mid-90s swelled into a river by the time the inimitable Edie Windsor became an icon for bringing her case to the Supreme Court and DOMA was struck down in 2013. Super Bowl ads are a great barometer of this change: by 2020, at least 11 LGBTQ-inclusive ads aired during the Super Bowl. Turbotax declared “all people are tax people” in an ad that featured trans actresses Isis King (When They See Us) and Trace Lysette (Transparent, Hustlers).

That was the year I sold the proposal for my book, The Family Outing. At the time, I believed we would only move in one direction—toward greater freedom of expression for all. How naive I was in retrospect. The following year, there were only four LGBTQ-inclusive ads in the Super Bowl, a reflection of culture’s rather sudden snap back. In 2023? There were once again four ads featured LGBTQ , according to GLAAD, but these ads didn’t necessarily include queer storylines—mostly they involved cameos of white gay men in ads about other things.

As I mentioned above, it would be easy to call out businesses for being cowardly in the face of escalating culture wars that right now place our transgender friends and family members in the line of fire, but that is missing the point. Brands are neither cowardly, nor brave.

It’s more accurate to look at brands as the bellwether for culture’s shifts. That’s where we need to focus our attention as we try to understand Budweiser’s missteps with Dylan Mulvaney. If you missed this story, Dylan is a 26-year-old American actress, singer and social-media influencer, with 10.8 million followers on TikTok and 1.8 million on Instagram. Dylan chronicled her transition on TikTok in videos that garnered more than a billion views.

Budweiser is a brand in decline. (In short: it’s the beer your grandpa drank.) In an attempt to appeal to a new, diverse audience, Budweiser sent Dylan a beer can with her portrait. On April 1, she posted about it on Instagram. That post was met with a barrage of hate speech and threats. Kid Rock posted a video in which he turned a machine gun on cans of beer, an act of transphobia embodied. Ted Nugent declared it “the epitome of cultural deprivation.” Many, many people followed suit.

Budweiser did not immediately condemn this hate speech, nor did it call out the violence that, though visibly focused on beer cans, was aimed toward the trans community. Instead, parent company Anheuser-Busch put two ad executives on leave and nearly two weeks later, the CEO issued a statement that fell well short of support for the young trans activist the company had thrust into the spotlight. The statement began: “I am focused on building and protecting our remarkable history and heritage.”

Um, so what does that mean?

For Anheuser-Busch, this whole event will likely lead to more beer sales. Yes, one can argue that the company had a huge misstep. Sales are down, but they’ve been down. To some degree, all attention is good attention…particularly when you’ve been crowded out by IPAs on the supermarket shelves for some time.

For culture, its evidence that we are sprinting backward. Bud Light has let down Dylan Mulvaney—and by extension, all trans people—just as Republican state lawmakers are proposing legislation that seeks to regulate the lives of young transgender people, restrict drag shows, and demand that schools out transgender students to their parents. Society’s perspectives are closing in, to the peril of everyone within the queer community, especially young transgender people. The vitriol to which Anheuser-Busch is responding is rising up like a tsunami that threatens to destroy our freedom of expression.

Brands don’t shape culture. So who does shape culture? PEOPLE DO. You, reading this. Particularly, but not entirely, if you are young or rich. You shape culture in the direction of a more loving, authentic and safe existence for everyone when you advocate for visibility. So this is your invitation to do inventory: how are you supporting Dylan Mulvaney? If you host a podcast, have you had a transgender guest on to speak about an area of expertise (that doesn’t involve diversity and inclusion)? If you run a business, are there trans people in your leadership team? If you are a teacher, what books are you including in classroom discussions? It’s on you and me not to let Dylan Mulvaney down.

📘 The Family Outing: Check out the book

This month, I’ve been speaking to book clubs, student groups and company ERGs about the themes of the book. This work has never felt more urgent. In the face of rising hatred, this book leaves aside the politics and focuses on the challenges that come when we try to love and get along with people we don’t always understand. If you haven’t gotten your own copy, you can find one here!

📘 The Family Outing: We’re doing an event in Shrewsbury!

Also! At the kind invitation of Peg Harbert, I’m coming to Shrewsbury, MA, the town where I was raised, and I’d love to see you there. Some of my family will be there, too. I’ll do a brief book talk, and hope to mingle and catch up with old friends and new ones. Here are details about the event.