From Dylan Mulvaney to Shane Gillis: Bud Light Partners With Controversial Comedian Who Was Fired From SNL for History of Using Racial, Homophobic Slurs
Bud Light announced is hiring Shane Gillis, a comedian who was fired from Saturday Night Live for speaking racist and homophobic slurs on his podcast. (Photo: Bud Light/Instagram)
On Wednesday, Bud Light announced a partnership with the comedian Shane Gillis. Gillis was fired from Saturday Night Live before ever appearing on screen after the show discovered he had made homophobic and racist comments on his podcast.
The beleaguered beer brand announced the collaboration on its Instagram, and Gillis claimed he was excited to be a partner.
“Greatest marketing comeback of all time,” one user commented.
The comment has received upwards of 940 likes.
“Only man who could save Bud Light,” another user quipped.
On Sept. 16, 2019, Vox reported that Gillis was fired over an episode of “Mat and Shane’s Secret Podcast,” during which the comedian took the time to make racist jokes about the AAPI community.
“Why do the fucking chi–s live there?” Gillis asked, as reported by Vox. “Get those ducks out that window.”
Gillis expressed his hatred for Chinese food and Chinatown on the episode, as well
Gillis additionally used a homophobic slur when he referred to comedian Chris Gethard and director Judd Apatow as “white fa–ot comics.”
When production at SNL got wind of the podcast, Gillis was removed from the show, marking the first time a cast member was removed before a televised appearance.
“After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL,” a spokesperson for Lorne Michaels, the show’s producer, said in a statement. “We want SNL to have a variety of voices and points of view within the show, and we hired Shane on the strength of his talent as a comedian and his impressive audition for SNL. We were not aware of his prior remarks that have surfaced over the past few days. The language is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable. We are sorry we did not see those clips earlier, and that our vetting process was not up to standard.”
From Mulvaney to Gillis — How a Goliath Beer Brand Is Attempting to Win its Customers Back
2023 was quite the year for Bud Light. After the brand hired Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer, many customers expressed outrage.
On April 21, multiple Anheuser-Busch facilities received bomb threats in light of two sponsored Instagram posts on Mulvaney’s accounts with pictures of her face on a Bud Light beer can.
Alissa Gordon Heinerscheid, the company’s marketing vice president at the time, claimed she wanted to make Bud Light a more inclusive brand.
“We had this hangover, I mean Bud Light had been kind of a brand of fratty, kind of out-of-touch humor, and it was really important that we had another approach,” Heinerscheid said, according to Fox.
Needless to say, consumers of the beer brand didn’t react too well to those remarks, and Heinerscheid — along with many other employees — have since been fired.
An “anti-woke” boycott ensued, which proved to be quite effective. Bud Light was dethroned in June to Modelo as the most popular beer in America.
Key Conservative figures in the media, from Ted Cruz to Kid Rock, slammed the brand, which continued to drive sales into the ground.
In October, Bud Light was reported to be offering millions of dollars in “relief funds” to its distributors.
2024 is a pivotal year for the brand to attempt a comeback. The Wall Street Journal reported on Jan. 5 that its Super Bowl commercial is key to this strategy, implying that the stakes have never been higher.
“You’re going to see what … our brand lovers expect, which is some really funny advertising,” Anheuser-Busch Chief Commercial Officer Kyle Norrington said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
On Wednesday, the brand teased its 2024 Super Bowl ad, starring the Grammy-nominated artist Post Malone. As for the brand’s future and whether its partnership with Gillis will help lagging sales — only time will tell.
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