That the markets have so brutally punished the brand and company for this profound error points the way to the future.
How in the hell did a hyper-educated wonk get to make the stupidiest decision in history?
The person who made the massive mistake was Alissa Gordon Heinerscheid, Vice President in charge of marketing for Bud Light. She explained her intention was to make the beer King of ‘Woke’ Beers. She wanted to shift away from the “out of touch” frat party image to one of “inclusivity.” By all accounts, she stupidly believed this. More likely, she was rationalizing actions that would earn her bragging rights within her social circle.
Digging through her personal biography, we find all the predictable signs of tremendous detachment from regular life: elite boarding school (Groton, $65K a year), Harvard, Wharton School, coveted internship at General Foods, and straight to top VP at the biggest beverage company in the world.
Somehow through all that, nothing entered her brain apart from elite opinion on how the world should work with theories never actually tested by real-world marketing demands. Would that she had worked at Chick-fil-A at some point in her teen years, perhaps even preserving some friend relationships ever since. It might have protected her from this disastrous error. shocking blindness toward the mainstream of American life, including working classes and other people less privileged. They are invisible to this crowd.
And her type is pervasive in corporate America with its huge layers of management developed over 20 years of loose credit and push for token representation at the highest levels.
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