You can't freedom-fry Bud Light if it's already cooked

Editor’s note: If you work at the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or any other part of the federal government that deals with booze, and you have info to share about about how the Trump/Musk purge is affecting your agency, please contact me on Signal at dinfontay.11. We can speak anonymously or off the record if you prefer. (This goes for anybody else with tips about anything else, too!)—Dave.

Anheuser-Busch InBev’s beer business has a big problem, and it’s called Bud Light. But it’s not what Bud Light is called. Let me explain.

We’ve discussed at length how the country’s biggest brewer got rolled by right-wing trolls in 2023 and has tried to triage its flailing flagship by tacking right ever since. Nearly two years since the transphobic backlash against Bud Light began, ABI has made some progress. But the problem remains: the episode threw the country’s longtime bestselling beer into a dogfight with Modelo Especial for the top spot that was supposed to be still a few years off, and portfolio-mates Michelob Ultra, Busch Light, &c. haven’t been able to pick up the all slack in the meantime.

These are big complicated challenges ABI has on its hands. You know what won’t solve it? Playing some semantic footsie with the faux-populist right wing. And yet.

Subscribe to Fingers to read the rest.