Media
April 18, 2023 | 10:33 am
‘The View’ co-host Whoopi Goldberg blasted Anheuser-Busch for its patriotic-themed ad featuring Clydesdale horses, saying Bud Light’s parent company had to ‘get the horses out’ over the backlash negative about her decision to partner with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Goldberg took umbrage at the ad because it suggested “horses are so much more American than trans people.”
“Listen, Budweiser, we’re all Americans here, we enjoy your beer whether it’s light or regular, you have every right and we have every right to buy it if we like it,” Goldberg said. during Monday’s episode of “The View.” on ABC.
“Don’t let them scare you. Let us scare you,” Goldberg said at the end of the segment.
Bud Light’s sister brand, Budweiser, released an advertisement over the weekend featuring the famous Anheuser-Busch Clydesdale horses.
In the ad, the animals cross the country from New York to the Grand Canyon.
“It’s a bigger story than beer,” the ad’s narrator says in the ad. “It’s the story of the American spirit.”
At one point, the ad shows two people waving an American flag as one places her hand over her heart.
The announcement followed a halfhearted apology on Friday from Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth after the company faced backlash over its sponsorship deal with Mulvaney, a social media influencer with 10 million followers. on TikTok.
Goldberg seemed puzzled by the anger over the Mulvaney tie-up, saying: “The company released a statement saying they didn’t want to address an issue that was dividing people, but I want to know why are you so angry? “
“Beer doesn’t have, I mean it’s not Democrat or Republican, it doesn’t have a belief system, it’s just beer!” said Goldberg.
Goldberg co-host Sunny Hostin said the Mulvaney controversy revealed how “highly transphobic” the United States was and that the proposed boycott of Bud Light had become a “transphobic issue.”
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin praised Bud Light for making a “smart move” in teaming up with Mulvaney, as it was a way to make “breakthroughs in the LGBTQ community.”
Griffin said the average LGBTQ drinker “tends to like craft beer and skinny cocktails, not Bud Light.”
On Friday, the top Anheuser-Busch executive issued an apology that critics deemed flat as the beer giant reeled over its sponsorship deal with Mulvaney.
“We never intended to be part of a divisive discussion,” Whitworth said in a press release titled “Our Responsibility to America.”
“Our job is to bring people together over a beer.
Whitworth eventually broke his silence on the brewing controversy, but made no mention of the sponsorship deal with Mulvaney – which has led to calls for a boycott of the country’s biggest beer company.
He also did not address reports that senior executives had been kept informed of Mulvaney’s deployment.
The $132 billion brewing company has seen its market value plummet by some $5 billion since the campaign launched on April 1.
Busch distributors across the country have felt the fallout, with many bars in conservative states from Tennessee to Wyoming refusing to stock Bud Light.