Question:
I have had Bud Light on tap since our opening. Recently, some of our regulars have been asking me to take it off our rotation as part of a larger boycott. I don’t feel that strongly about it but want to know what others are doing.
– Owner
Answer:
For those who don’t know, the Bud Light brand has been in the national spotlight for the past couple of weeks over a controversial social media post with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The short promotion has become a polarizing stand-in for larger discussions about LGBT rights and policies. It has been taken up as a cause celebre by politicians and news commentators.
Regardless of your personal politics or what you think about Mulvaney or the ad, I would strongly advise against any changes for a few reasons:
- You run your restaurant and your guests do not. Guests offer feedback; they don’t make business decisions. Just as you wouldn’t change your furniture, chef or linen supplier based on guest comments (but might take their feedback into account over time), you shouldn’t make a reactive decision but a strategic one.
- People have a short memory. The conversation of the day will soon become the conversation of yesterday. There are new controversies daily. This one rose to the top for some reason; others will tomorrow. Who remembers other efforts to boycott Coors and Goya or Ben and Jerry’s in recent years?
- Inclusivity wins in hospitality. Be careful that you are not letting a vocal minority who care about this issue for unclear reasons drown out the majority of a diverse clientele. By bowing to a few loud guests, you may be alienating many more. Hospitality is about offering a variety of food and beverages to make people feel welcome and embraced. If an individual chooses to avoid a brand for whatever reason, there should be other offerings to satisfy them.
Apart from your personal feelings about the controversy, it is hard enough to run a restaurant without alienating a portion of your guests and staff. Restaurants are public places. Due to your hospitality, it sounds like you do a good job making guests feel at home, giving some of them the idea that they can dictate what’s in your fridge. They can’t.