Bud Light sales may be down 30%, the company’s market value may be down by $20 billion dollars, but at least they won the woke “marketer of the year” award from the “Oscars for the advertising industry” awards in Cannes. Wonder if it was all worth it for a woke award?
Marcel Marcondes told advertising peers at the Cannes Lions marketing conference in France on Monday that the Mulvaney saga served as a “wake-up call” for the industry.
But like fellow Anheuser-Busch brass, Marcondes stopped short of offering an apology for the Mulvaney partnership — which the company has blamed on an unnamed third-party marketer.
“In times like this, when things get divisive and controversial so easily, I think it’s an important wake-up call to all of us marketers, for us to be very humble,” Marcondes said.
AB InBev is “really reminding ourselves of what we should do best every day, which is to really understand our customers, which is to really celebrate and appreciate every customer that loves our brands, but in a way that can make them be together, not apart,” he said.
Marcondes, who has been at AB InBev for almost two decades, was named the winner of the annual award before the Mulvaney controversy erupted in earl April, though there were whispers that it would have been best for him to decline the prize in light of the boycott, according to The Wall Street Journal.