Donald Trump’s call to end the Bud Light boycott may ultimately win back some disgruntled drinkers, but not before putting the brand where it least wants to be—back in the culture war crossfire.

Between forgiveness from Kid Rock and Trump, a well-received comical Super Bowl commercial and a partnership with a comedian described by some as “Trump-friendly,” the Anheuser-Busch InBev brand is showing improvements in customer sentiment, according to Sprinklr, a customer experience firm that tracks social media data for marketers. 

Sprinklr’s sentiment analysis charts the tenor of the online conversation around brands, mostly on social media, including X (formerly Twitter), in real time. On Jan. 29, Bud Light measured about 55% negative; on Feb. 7, it was 55% positive.

But it’s a delicate momentum.

Trump this week called for disgruntled Bud Light fans to call off their boycott. His remarks, made on his Truth Social platform Tuesday, came ahead of a fundraiser arranged by an Anheuser-Busch lobbyist next month, according to Politico.

“The Bud Light ad was a mistake of epic proportions, and for that a very big price was paid, but Anheuser-Busch is not a Woke company,” Trump wrote. “Anheuser-Busch is a Great American Brand that perhaps deserves a Second Chance? What do you think? Perhaps, instead, we should be going after those companies that are looking to DESTROY AMERICA!”

Conservative politicians spent much of last year joining in on the punishment of Bud Light. Sen. Ted Cruz led an inquiry as to whether the brand had marketed itself to children with its promotion of transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. (The beer industry’s Code Compliance Review Board ruled it had not.) Now, Trump’s post could help de-escalate tensions between Bud Light and its one-time fans who abandoned the brand when Mulvaney’s sponsored Instagram posts were discovered last April. One key figure in igniting the uproar was musician Kid Rock, who in a widely shared social post was shown firing at Bud Light cans with an automatic weapon.

Kid Rock has since backed off, telling Tucker Carlson in an interview in December that Bud Light was forgiven: “Do I want to hold their head underwater and drown them because they made a mistake? No, I think they got the message.”

Of course, as the company wins back some support from conservatives, it does risk losing progressives, especially members of Gen Z, whom Bud Light had been actively courting at the time the Mulvaney promotion occurred. The brewer has already gotten some backlash from the LGBTQ+ community, which has accused it of abandoning Mulvaney, with the Human Rights Campaign in May calling the company’s response to the fiasco “shameful.” Mulvaney also criticized Bud Light for failing to come to her defense at the beginning of the boycott. Trump’s new embrace of AB InBev will not help the brand with these demographics.

Also, not all conservatives were on board with Trump’s forgiveness. On social media, many were still holding out for an apology from AB InBev and sharing anti-trans sentiment. Others felt forgiving AB InBev would undo effective work to make a point about corporate “wokeism.”

“I certainly can’t and don’t speak for Anheuser-Busch but I don’t think it wants any distraction, chatter or endorsements from either Republican or Democrat politicians right now,” said Kimberly Clemens, co-founder of beer business consultancy Pints LLC. “It just wants to turn the page, move on, create fun, positive moments for Bud Light, have a great Super Bowl weekend, and sell more beer.”

Even before the changing sentiment of high-profile figures, Bud Light expressed confidence that the brand would recover. AB InBev CEO Michel Doukeris in an Oct. 31 earnings conference call said that more than 40% of Bud Light’s lapsed drinkers in company surveys said they were “ready to return” to the brand. “This gives us some certainty that we are moving in the right direction,” Doukeris said.

Yet the brand has a long way to go. Bud Light sales fell 20% last year, according to NielsenIQ figures shared by Beer Marketer’s Insights. The sales decline saw Bud Light dethroned as the country’s best-selling beer by Modelo Especial, a product of AB InBev rival Constellation Brands.

AB InBev declined comment for this story.

From September: Bud Light among most polarized brands

Now Bud Light, which pledged to stay out of politics once the Mulvaney controversy erupted, is seeing its motives examined as a result of a newly crafted partnership with comedian Shane Gillis, who has been described as “Trump-friendly.”

Gillis’ story has been interpreted by some as a tale of woke-culture backlash: He was hired by “Saturday Night Live” in 2019, only to be let go shortly afterward when racist jokes he’d made on a podcast resurfaced. As Gillis has gone on to success, including a popular Netflix special, his transgressions appear to be forgiven. He is slated to host SNL on Feb. 24.

Bud Light will be the presenting sponsor of Gillis’ upcoming tour. The comedian has mentioned being an enthusiastic Bud Light drinker in his act. And though some conservative outlets have cheered the move, Gillis’ post detailing his Bud Light partnership still received a share of angry responses.

Bud Light’s focus on comedy extended to this year’s Super Bowl ad, which was revealed earlier this week. The spot, called “Easy Night Out,” from Anomaly, returns the brand to its familiar territory of high-energy comedy. Last year, in an attempt to widen Bud Light’s appeal to new audiences, the brand took a new approach to its Super Bowl ad, showing actors Miles Teller and Kayleigh Sperry dancing to soft music.

This year’s ad, which stars actor Sonny Valicenti as a genie, with Peyton Manning, Post Malone and UFC CEO Dana White, has thus far generated the most engagement of any Super Bowl advertiser, according to social media analytics company Sprout Social, with an 87% positive sentiment rate. Malone’s appearance is significant as a link to Bud Light’s previous Super Bowl ads, as he appeared in its 2020 and 2021 efforts.

Soon after the 2023 Super Bowl, AB InBev’s outreach to new customer groups continued with a social post from Mulvaney on Feb. 11. But it was a March Madness post a few weeks later that hit a nerve with Bud Light fans, with much of the attention on a commemorative can with Mulvaney’s face, shown in the reel.

AB InBev is devoting much of its energies these days to patriotism, not politics, said Jenn Litz-Kirk, executive editor of Beer Business Daily, pointing to the company’s scholarship donations of behalf of Folds of Honor and symbols like Budweiser’s return of the Clydesdales.

And though the boycott noise has “wound down” recently that doesn't mean Bud Light is rebounding, she added. “Even if you aren’t boycotting a brand actively, that doesn’t mean you’re going to automatically start drinking it again.”