Controversial podcaster Joe Rogan cracked open a can of Bud Light on his show Wednesday amid calls to boycott the beer company after it partnered with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
“Why, if something is good, do you give a f–k who’s got it?” Rogan asked on an episode of his show “The Joe Rogan Experience.” “Like, would we do this with cheesecake?”
Rogan discussed the backlash Anheuser-Busch received from celebs like Kid Rock — who filmed himself shooting Bud Light cans — with comedian Sam Tallent.
“I love Kid Rock’s video because I love that kind of thinking — not even that I agree with it,” the podcast host said. “I like wild people. I like raising hell, man.”
Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light’s parent company, saw its value plummet more than $5 billion since the company announced its partnership with Mulvaney, who has millions of followers on Instagram and TikTok.
The 26-year-old influencer had posted videos of herself drinking Bud Light to promote its March Madness competition.
She also shared photos of commemorative cans the company sent to her with her face on them.
Rogan admitted that he thought it was “funny” people were “super outraged” over Bud Light than much more pressing issues happening across the country.
“How is that the big deal?” Rogan said. “I think it’s goofy. Because I think that person’s goofy. But if you want to hire a goofy person, like, who gives a s–t. It’s kind of hilarious.”
“It was also just a can with that person’s face on it. That’s all it was,” he continued. “It wasn’t like something they were selling.”
Tallent, meanwhile, implied that many critics of the Mulvaney-Bud Light brand partnership were being hypocritical.
“I think that it’s crazy when people get upset about that stuff because the people who get upset about this stuff value liberty and freedom so much and they want to live their lives undeterred by anyone’s rules,” he said.
Rogan said he saw what the beer maker was doing by using “people that are popular” to help them. Mulvaney has more than 10 million followers on TikTok.
“And they’re trying to look more inclusive because of the assumptions people make about Bud Light drinkers,” Tallent said.
Alissa Heinerscheid, Budweiser’s vice president of marketing, has previously said she wanted the brewer to update its “fratty” and “out-of-touch” image.
“I’m a businesswoman. I had a really clear job to do when I took over Bud Light, and it was ‘This brand is in decline, it’s been in a decline for a really long time, and if we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand there will be no future for Bud Light,‘” she said.
In the end, both Rogan and Tallent said they had other beers of choice. Tallent said he preferred Miller Lite, while Rogan said he goes for a heavier beer like Sam Adams.
In the wake of the backlash, Mulvaney said the critics don’t understand her.
“These people, they don’t understand me and anything that I do or say then somehow gets taken out of context and is used against me and it’s so sad because everything I try to put out is positive,” she said on Rosie O’Donnell’s podcast Tuesday. “It’s trying to connect with others that maybe don’t understand me. It’s to make people laugh or to make a kid feel seen.”
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