Bud Light Is Giving Away $10,000 Each Week To Win Back Drinkers

Bud Light has, to put it mildly, had a challenging couple of months. Now the company is looking to win back drinkers with a new giveaway to the tune of $10,000 a week. The prizes are part of a new ad campaign centered around the "Easy to Summer" commercial, a sequel to the "Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy" branding that launched during this year's Super Bowl. The new summer ads will feature NFL stars like Dak Prescott and Travis Kelce and will center around the theme, "make summer easy," according to a press release.

While the company has not yet released details of how the giveaway will work, Bud Light fans will also have the chance to win $100 "towards their tab," and the beer brand will be offering more rebates over the July 4th holiday. Bud Light is even rolling out its first-ever concert tour, the "Bud Light Backyard Tour," featuring musical artists like Tyler Braden and Seaforth. Free tickets to the tour will also be available through the giveaway. 

The campaign is purportedly Bud Light's biggest ever, with new VP Todd Allen telling Variety that the company has tripled media investments this year. This comes on the heels of a big downswing in sales that saw Modelo Especial, another Anheuser-Busch InBev brand, become the first beer to take the top spot from Bud Light in over 20 years.

Bud Light's sales have been plummeting since the start of a boycott over a partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The decision to partner with Mulvaney saw a large backlash from conservatives and even led to threats of violence, including a bomb threat, at multiple Anheuser-Busch facilities. While the announcement of the new campaign and giveaway makes no mention of Bud Light's recent woes, it's hard not to see such a big advertising campaign as a response. In the wake of the backlash, sales of Bud Light have fallen over 25% from the previous year, and Anheuser-Busch InBev's stock has lost 13% of its value even as the rest of the economy grows. The fallout from the controversy eventually pushed Bud Light's VP of Marketing to go on leave.

As for whether or not the new giveaway and ad campaign will work, it's hard to tell. An earlier attempt to give away free beer over Memorial Day weekend did not seem to have much effect on conservative outrage. Sales continued to drop through June, while Anheuser-Busch's swift disowning of the Mulvaney partnership angered other consumers. Maybe the sun-and-barbecue-themed ads will do the trick, or maybe $10,000 is just too much of a giveaway to ignore. Surely, all eyes in the beverage world will be on Bud Light for months to come.