Looks like the Culture Cold War just got hot. Does Bud Light mark the Concord Bridge moment of the Normies’ fight against the Elitists? Is Bud Light’s embrace of transgender the high-water mark of Elite’s roughshod ride over Normal America?  Or just a quick Prague Spring to be stamped down by the Elite’s commanding heights? Hard to say. Either way, the battle has been joined.

                And over Bud Light… of all things? Revolutions spark over the weirdest stuff—think Romania’s Ceausescu, overthrown after one bad speech. Or Britain’s Stamps That Lost America.

                So, everyone knows about Bud Light’s decision to anoint as spokesperson, one Brian Mulvaney. Who? Well you should ask. This person is a transgender guy who identifies as a woman and now performs on the PRC platform TikTok as a sort of Audrey Hepburn-Breakfast at Tiffany’s caricature. This act has been quite niche-popular, giving Mulvaney status as an “influencer.”

                Enter Alissa Heinerscheid, Bud Light’s vice president of marketing, since June 22. From Ad Age, 9/19/2022:

                “In June, Alissa Heinerscheid became the first woman to lead Bud Light in the brand’s 40-year history. And she has wasted no time getting to work. Heinerscheid, 38, oversaw a creative agency review that led to the late August hiring of Anomaly, which is taking over from Wieden+Kennedy, signaling big marketing changes ahead for the nation’s largest beer brand.” Yeah, I’d say they called that right.

                She pledged to “evolve and elevate” Bud Light by “having a campaign that’s truly inclusive” in an effort to attract younger consumers. She also said Bud Light was “in a decline for a really long time” and referred to the company’s previous marketing tactics as “fratty” and “out of touch.” So Heinerscheid canned the old ad agency, hired “Anomaly.” This is a young, hip, proudly disruptive 2022 Ad Agency of the Year. We’ll see if they’re Agency of 2023.

                You’d think the key to marketing is “Make New Friends But Keep The Old.” Nope.  Heinerscheid loudly and proudly took a dump on her existing customer base and boldly struck out for a new one. The young, hip proudly disruptive agency chose to bet big on Trans. Result? The biggest marketing disaster since New Coke. Worse, since New Coke was just a crappy product; it didn’t tell its customers to go die.

                So why is this important? Simple: it neatly sums the war between the Elitists and the Normies.

                Let’s start with Alissa Heinerscheid. She holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the prestigious Wharton School of business. Her bachelor’s of arts degree is from Harvard University, where she pursued English Language and Literature/Letters. This is a cliché pedigree of Elite.

The Elite.

                What do I mean by “Elite?” Dictionary definition of elite is the best and the brightest. Those old enough can remember the David Halberstam best seller of that title about how an earlier generation of Elitists mired us in Vietnam. Elite generally means the best, smartest, most accomplished, most successful. But There’s another sense of the word.

                As used today, “Elite” means a certain class. It’s a de facto aristocracy. In the old USSR, it was called the “Nomenklatura,” the Soviet upper class. America’s Nomenklatura is a very definite class, defined by birth, breeding, colleges, and most of all attitudes. Its font is the Ivy League, and this pours down now to most colleges, who inculcate the values, mores, and attitudes of the Boss Class: the “Elite.”

                Note that America’s “Elites” aren’t elite in the sense of being really best and brightest. They fail constantly, and seem to fail upward. The Biden White House is full of Elite failures. So is Hollywood. But the “Elites” certainly believe themselves to be superior people, mentally and certainly morally. So, we’ll call them that. The Elites believe themselves entitled to rule and to enjoy the good things that come from power. They are divorced from and hostile to those they consider lower orders: the Normies.

The Normies.

                “Normies” is another handy term. It refers to Normal Americans. What is “Normal?” Good question. Normal people are everyday, hard-working folks. They pay their bills, take care of their families, obey the laws, try to follow the rules. They pay their taxes. They believe in their community.

                Fascinating point: “Normal-ness” is dynamic. For example: 40 years ago, homosexuals were considered definately not normal. But the Gay Rights revolution normalized homosexuals, to the point where gay marriage is the law of the land. This is interesting from two points. First: the definition of “Normal” is changeable. It can accommodate new and different people.

                But second: Normalization goes both ways. For homosexuality to become Normal, homosexuals had to become normal. The outrageous sexuality of Castro Street parade Gay gave way to sober, homeowning, grass-mowing, PTA-attending parent Gay. Today, gay and lesbian couples are everywhere. They’re no big deal. They’re normal. They mow their lawns and pay their taxes like everybody else. They’ve been integrated into American society. Sure, there are outrageous folks, but they don’t define gays and lesbians any more. Gays and lesbians are Normies. Who’da thunk it?

                Immigrants? They come here to be Normies. Exhibit A: Hispanics. “Hispanic” is an over broad term that encompasses lots of different people—except, oddly, folks from Hispania. But most American Hispanics are folks from Mexico. Lots of power brokers assumed that Hispanic-Americans would be Black folks 2.0. It hasn’t worked out that way. Mexican-Americans are actually developing more like Italians. They come here to work hard, make a good life for their families like everybody else. They’re Normies.

                The Elitists are at war with the Normies. They loathe them. The very Elite Hillary Clinton’s put down of “Deplorables” sums it up. Normies are stupid, short-sighted, racist, violent, evil, and must be ruled with an iron hand, by the wise benevolent enlightened Elites. They should sit down, shut up, and die out. We don’t like them. We don’t even want to know them. We don’t want them to exist.

                The Elitist Alissa Heinerscheid doesn’t like her customer base of Bud Light. She wants a new customer group, “lighter and brighter.” It never occurred to her that anointing a male Audrey Hepburn impersonator as public face would propel her product into deeply divisive cultural conflict. It never occurred to her that the Deplorables were worth even considering. Good riddance to bad rubbish. That’s a very Elite attitude, and I’m sure she was lauded in Elite circles.  

                Except the normies fought back. Anyone could tell you that Annheuser Busch is Normie Beer. Anyone except an inbred Elitist, and her Too Cool-io for School-io Ad Creatives. Normies fight back. Donald Trump was the first Tribune of the Normies, and he won’t be the last. The Democrats today are undisputedly the party of the Elitists. The GOP is becoming the party of the Normies.

                You can’t have it both ways because the Elite are constantly pushing. They won’t leave you alone. They see you as evil and ignorant, in need of correction. They’ve been taking your kids for indoctrination for decades, and now they’re taking the kids for Trans treatment. The Normies know now the Elites hate them & want them off the planet, and are voting with dollars and ballots.

                The war is on. Pick your side. But choose wisely. If your livelihood comes from selling products to Normies, don’t attack them. Bud Light seems to have learned, Disney sure hasn’t. And Fox News, who just canned Tucker Carlson? Enjoy your new respectability with the Elitists. Hope that new audience shows up. Fast.