Kid Rock, Travis Tritt, Dan Crenshaw Fight Wokeness And Dump Budd Lite
Fox News??? has barely covered the fiasco over millions of dollars worth of free donations given to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas by a billionaire Republican supporter.
The topic of gun control is only couched in terms of Democratic attempts to squelch the constitutional rights of real Americans.
And the the company that masquerades as a news outlet has devoted scant air time to trump’s indictment and the ex-president’s cascading legal problems. Fox did offer commentary on the indictment by someone who understands right and wrong. That would be Rod Blagojevich, a former governor of Illinois who spent eight years in prison for public corruption and was pardoned by trump in his final, reprehensible days in office.
But Fox has its finger on the pulse of red state America and is now focusing on some real news, pulling out all the stops and sparing no expense in its all-out, all-American anti-woke campaign. The latest target is that icon of America, Budd Light beer, and its parent, Anheuser-Busch, the largest brewer company in the world, because the company featured transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney on one of its collectible cans.
Mulvaney gained prominence last month when she interviewed President Biden about LGBTQ issues in 2022, and revealed a partnership with Anheuser-Busch that included packs of Bud Light with Mulvaney’s face printed on the cans as part of an ad for the beer company’s March Madness contest and as a way to celebrate a full year of “girlhood.”
LGBTQ representation in advertising has become more common in commercials, billboards, and social media, and activists say the impact can be positive, but the queer community warns about superficial corporate support, known as “pinkwashing.” In addition to Anheiser-Bush, other major brands that have begun featuring trans actors, models and influencers in their ad campaigns include Nike, Hershey, Adidas, Pantene, KitchenAid, Tampax and Kate Spade.
The transgender support is enough to drive a number of right wing, white, mostly, country western entertainers, to drink, although not Budd Light.
Country western singer Travis Tritt has banned all Anheiser Busch products on his concert tour and he had words of warning for anyone still sipping that southern favorite, Jack Daniels, after the company ran an ad of Ru Paul’s Drag Race show teaming up with the whiskey company.
The “Smokin’ This and That BBQ” in Florence, Ky. and country and western singer John Rich’s “Redneck Riviera Bar & BBQ” in Nashville also have stopped serving Bud Light. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, also jumped on the anti-woke bandwagon when he made a video that showed not one Budd Light in his refrigerator. Crenshaw was embarrassed to learn later that his fridge was filled with Karbach beer, owned by parent Anheuser-Busch.
And then there was Kid Rock the self-professed king of white trash, who filmed a video with him using an AK-47 to blow up bottles of Budd Lite. Kid Rock, 52, was not exactly raised on a dirt farm. His father owned multiple car dealerships and Rock (real name Robert James Ritchie) was raised in his father’s large, affluent home where he regularly helped his family pick apples and care for their horses.
In the 1980s, Kid Rock became interested in hip hop, began to breakdance, and taught himself how to rap and DJ while performing in talent shows in and around Detroit. In time, he became one of the biggest rap stars in Detroit, Mich. He also is an ordained minister and has a large gun collection.
A maga-trumper by the name of Seth Weathers, a former Georgia trump campaign director, is marketing his own beer, “Conservative Dad’s Ultra Right,” which is selling for $19.99 for a six-pack not including shipping. In his website rant over wokeness, Weathers ends with a few words of advice, “Remember, when all else fails, Bring Ammo!” Of course, woke fighters also can buy Weathers’ Ultra Right T-shirts, hoodies, beer glasses and shirts with the slogan, “Eat Steak. Lift Weights. Be Uncensorable. Screw the Government.”
Fox recently aired a long story about Weathers and his new beer, amounting to a priceless, free advertisement.
Weathers’ new beer will likely go flat because it is highly doubtful that Wally Six-Pack will fork out $20 for a six of light beer when he can spend half that for any number of woke light beer labels.
In the best trumpian tradition, Seth Weathers is out to profit from the woke wars. Weathers, the CEO of Freedom Speaks Up, a marketing company for right wing merchandise, said companies like Anheuser Busch are “spitting on” conservative values.
“I have kids and I don’t care what their response is, Bud Light has hired a mentally deranged freak to market perversion to little children. I have a problem with that,” Weathers said. “Corporations that do that should be put out of business by conservatives. They are spitting on us. We are half of America — they’re spitting on us. There has to be an alternative.”
The alternative, Weathers said, is his new beer, which he said is available on-line in 42 states.
Weathers’ Georgia-based company, “Freedom Speaks Up,” also is unabashedly hawking trump shirts with a photo of trump above the words “Trump Mugshot Poster American Gangster.” Many other items tout various conservative memes and slogans, including the ever-popular, “Let’s Go Brandon.”
Keep your eyes open for a new campaign to burn sports bras, reminiscent of the bra-burning of the 1960s in support of women’s rights. This time, the focus is again Mulvaney, because, in addition to Budd Light, she will be featured in Nike sports bra ad campaigns. Mulvaney has racked up more than 10 million TikTok followers and another 1.8 million on Instagram.
Wokeness, however, has its price.
One influential Republican group has jumped off the anti-Anheuser Bush attacks. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) deleted reference to the boycott on its fundraising page possibly because Anheuser Busch and its employees gave the NRCC $464,505 last year.
The attempts at a Budd Lite boycott may seem trivial but they reflect a very real, dangerous and burgeoning plan to criminalize transgender people throughout the country.
At least 417 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state legislatures across the United States since the start of the year, a new record and more than twice the number of such bills introduced all of last year, according to American Civil Liberties Union data as of April 3.
Many of the laws directly affect nearly 2 million transgender people living in the United States at a time when 1 in 4 transgender adults say they have been physically attacked, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation/Washington Post survey conducted at the end of 2022. The rate is higher for trans people of color.
Laws have been approved to ban gender-affirming health care for transgender youth, while public schools and libraries are regulating books having to do with gender identity and sexuality. Other laws gaining popularity ban drag shows.
In several states, “forced outing” bills require teachers to alert parents when a student begins going by a different name or pronouns, even without the consent of the student.