The woke wars apparently now include rival beer companies as Yuengling appeared to jab at rival Bud Light after the Anheuser-Busch brand created a firestorm of controversy.
Bud Light made the regrettable decision to partner with transgender activist and influencer Dylan Mulvaney earlier this month. It issued commemorative cans celebrating his 365 days of “transitioning” into a woman, and the backlash was immediate.
Yuengling, in a subtle but powerful tweet, juxtaposed a can of its product with an American flag. The message read, “Yuengling, The Oldest Brewery in America. Independently Owned and Family Operated since 1829 because we make good beer.”
The brewer has roughly 89,000 Twitter followers, but the posting garnered over 4.8 million impressions. Social media users clearly were swayed by the patriotic announcement.
Yuengling Beer trolls Bud Light with tweet celebrating their status as 'Oldest Brewery In America' https://t.co/tHrhn6HjAh pic.twitter.com/nEriaI0lCJ
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) April 18, 2023
GOP activist Sarah Fields posted her thanks to Yuengling. She declared that “I’m a real woman and your beer is the beer for me. Real women, and now real men, don’t drink Bud Light.”
Another response lauded the company for avoiding going woke by being privately owned and operated. Still another tweeted that the brew is “the beer we didn’t deserve but everyone needed in 2023.”
Anheuser-Busch recently tried a similar approach, rolling out some of its iconic imagery with a patriotic theme. That advertisement, however, was met with derision for its obvious attempt to backtrack from the damage done by its previous actions.
CEO Brendan Whitworth issued a statement saying that “we never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over beer.”
Mulvaney was interviewed recently on the “Onward with Rosie O’Donnell” podcast and said he stirred such controversy by being an “easy target.” He said that conservatives would not have an easy time with a “woman” who’d been trans for 20 years.
He added that “I think maybe they think there’s some sort of chance with me…But what is their goal?”
This is hardly the first conservative stance for Yuengling Brewery. In 2016, owner Richard Yuengling Jr. endorsed Donald Trump in his first run for president. Some gay bars in protest banned the American beer from being served to their clientele.
