How a brand crisis plays out in Red states vs. Blue states

Michael Reh, Kraig Schulz, and Ken Favaro

An analysis of five brands that were caught up in the US culture wars, how they were affected in Red states vs. Blue states, and what marketers can take away from the findings.

This article is part of the February 2024 Spotlight US series, ‘How brands can prepare for a contentious political year’. Read more

All it took was one Instagram post in April 2023 for Bud Light – and, in turn, every other major marketer – to become acutely aware of the dangers of being pulled into a political maelstrom.

The beer brand, owned by AB InBev, sent trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney a few cans with her face on. Next, in the blink of a digital eye, it was facing boycott calls from many conservatives, with musician Kid Rock even shooting...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands