It was back in April that Bud Light, in an attempt to attract young people to their product, sent TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney a case of their beer with her face on every tin. The idea was that she would run a competition for her 10 million followers, the winners getting a share of the booze. A simple enough promotional gimmick. Did it work? Well, since then a boycott of Bud Light has resulted in an estimated $400m drop in sales and a couple of billion shaved off the Anheuser-Busch stock price. The only thing that rose was Kid Rock’s YouTube views, 53 million folks watching a clip of the singer shooting cans of the beer with his semi-automatic rifle, before turning to the camera and saying: “F**k Bud Light and F**k Anheuser-Busch.” What was the problem? Bud Light had dared to do a commercial deal with a transgender woman. In his America at Large column, Dave Hannigan brings us the latest in this bonkers story, the beleaguered brewery now seeking to win back alienated conservative customers by signing the largest contract in UFC history, paying $100 million to become their official beer. How’s that going down? UFC fans are now “threatening to cancel subscriptions and to boycott fights”. It’s truly an exhausting saga.
As is the story of Manchester United’s season, the latest chapter a 3-0 thrashing at Old Trafford by Newcastle in the League Cup. “You’re getting sacked in the morning,” 7,000 jubilant Geordies sang in Erik Ten Hag’s direction. And Eric Cantona isn’t available to take over from him, he’s too busy crooning his way through his new musical career. Ireland’s women are having a significantly happier time of it in their Nations League campaign, promotion to the top tier of the competition already secured with two games to spare. With that, though, will come much sterner challenges, the standard in that top flight, writes Gavin Cummiskey, “light years above second-tier teams”. Ireland must, then, “take a giant leap in performance to last longer than a calendar year among the best in Europe”.
In rugby, John O’Sullivan brings confirmation of the news that David Humphreys will succeed David Nucifora as the IRFU’s performance director, Nucifora stepping down after next summer’s Olympics in Paris by which time he’ll have been in the role for a decade. Big boots to fill too, Nucifora having “overseen an unparalleled era of success in Irish rugby”. Having made his Irish debut in 2020, but had his progress stalled by competition and injuries, Max Deegan hopes to play a bigger international role in the years to come. First, though, “I just really need to focus on how well I’m doing here [Leinster] and pushing the players around me”.
TV Watch: True, there’s no little pressure on players competing in, say, majors and the Ryder Cup, but probably not as much as there is on the field in this week’s Challenge Tour Grand Final in Mallorca (Sky Sports Golf, 11am) - because “a precious full card place on the DP World Tour” is up for grabs. Conor Purcell, the only Irish player in the 45-strong field, is currently 36th on the order of merit so will need to leapfrog his way into the top 20 to claim that prized card.
