In what’s perhaps the inevitable reaction to its Super Bowl spot and its pro-immigration message, an attempt to boycott Budweiser is burgeoning on Twitter. But like the Starbucks boycott before it, Trump supporters might find themselves unable to fight the free market.
The first problem is pretty simple: Budweiser, and its products, are absolutely everywhere. Bud Light and Budweiser, between them, move nearly 400 million cases of beer in America every single year. Bud Light, for that matter, dwarfs its closest competitor, Coors Light, with more than twice the sales. Budweiser is so pervasive, you can even get a Bud at Coors Field.
The second problem is who brews it. Budweiser is brewed and sold by AB InBev, the largest brewer in the world, which owns 28.4% of the beer market. In addition to Bud, they own Michelob, Natural Light, LaBatt’s, Rolling Rock, St. Pauli Girl, Stella Artois, Shock Top, Busch, Goose Island, and even more around the world. If you drink beers, you’ve probably had an AB InBev product at least once in your life.
It’s always worth looking at who’s behind a boycott. But it’s also worth remembering a boycott only works if those involved are willing to commit all the way down. Banning Starbucks over immigration doesn’t mean much when it’s almost impossible to get coffee itself without importing it, for example. So while everyone has a right to decide where their money goes, they should also know what they’re signing up for.
(Via Business Insider)
