The boycott of Bud Light has undoubtedly been one of the most successful campaigns pulled off by the political right in some time.
The right pressuring corporations over their embrace of the LGBTQ community is nothing new. Back in 1996 the American Family Association -- which the LA Times described at the time as a "Christian pressure group" -- led a boycott of Disney (DIS) over what the LA Times described as the company's "gay-friendly employment policies" and what the AFA called the Disney's "homosexual agenda."
To facilitate the boycott, the AFA distributed boycott information to more than 28,000 church congregations, printed 500,000 postcards and recorded public service announcements that ran on over 1,000 Christian radio stations.
Today all that legwork is unnecessary as boycotters can get the same type of reach with a fraction of the effort.
Just hit send on a tweet, and watch the ravenous culture warriors on social media do their jobs in making the issue go viral.
Anheuser Busch In-Bev (BUD) -- the parent company of Bud Light -- and Target (TGT) have recently found out just how effective this new paradigm can be at hurting their bottom lines.
But as the right celebrates these political victories -- and they are, no doubt, victories for their side -- the scope of the win seems to be getting exaggerated.
This clip of podcaster Joe Rogan celebrating crystalizes the current sentiment on the right.
Bud Light has undoubtedly suffered a major hit from the boycotts and at least one industry watcher estimates that it could lose as much as 15% of its sales permanently as a result of its transgender-focused advertising campaign.
But the idea that AB InBev has "lost $20+ billion" is ludicrous.
Rogan -- and many on the right when they tout these numbers -- is referring to the company's stock price and market capitalization.
Market cap represents how much a company is worth as determined by the stock market. You get a company's market cap by multiplying the number of outstanding shares by the company's stock price.
AB InBev's market cap of $110 billion is down $20 billion from where it was before the Dylan Mulvaney scandal went viral, effectively wiping out the past 8 months of gains the stock has made.
The real victory has been the right's ability to change Budweiser and Target's behavior.
The company's are now trapped in a no-win situation with Bud Light doing perhaps irreparable harm to its brand by alienating its base, while also angering the LGBTQ community to which it has tried to reach out.
Meanwhile Target also angered that community by pulling some items from its store shelves.
Their acquiescence has only served to embolden the boycotters, and now everything from Miller Lite to Barstool Sports is a potential target for the reinvigorated right-wing boycott machine.
Since Colin Kaepernick began taking a knee at NFL games during the national anthem the right has made it its mission to force corporations out of the political discussion.
With their campaigns against Bud Light and Target they are close to achieving that goal as corporations begin to weigh the cost of their political decisions.
At least for now.
This is the true victory of the right's boycott campaign.
