Why Shane Gillis' Bud Light Partnership Is So Controversial

In perhaps one of the biggest turnabouts in history, Bud Light has tapped comedian Shane Gillis as one of their new brand partners. "Excited to announce partnership with Bud Light #budlightpartner," Gillis gushed in a celebratory Instagram post about the opportunity. 

As you may recall, the famous beer brand had a doozy of a year in 2023 when sales nosedived following another strategic brand partnership with none other than transgender influencer and activist Dylan Mulvaney, complete with Bud Light cans featuring Mulvaney's face. The campaign featuring Mulvaney was met with a lot of resistance from their conservative customer base — to put it mildly. (Never forget Kid Rock entering into the group chat with a video of himself shooting up cases of Bud Light with his semi-automatic rifle.) 

Following the PR crisis, Bud Light marketing execs Alissa Heinerscheid and Daniel Blake went on leave. Then, in November 2023, Anheuser-Busch announced that Chief Marketing Officer Benoit Garbe would resign at the end of the calendar year. Still, the company had a lot of work to do to get their sales numbers back to where they were before, and it appears that's where Gillis comes in. Alas, the partnership with Gillis hasn't been without controversy, either. 

Shane Gillis made a name for himself in 2019 when he was hired on the "Saturday Night Live" cast. Alas, the celebration didn't last long. Four days later, Gillis promptly received his "SNL" pink slip. He never even made his debut. "We want 'SNL' to have a variety of voices and points of view within the show ... The language he used is offensive, hurtful, and unacceptable. We are sorry that we did not see these clips earlier and that our vetting process was not up to our standard," a spokesperson for "SNL" producer Lorne Michaels said in a statement about the decision.

In the aftermath of his firing, Gillis apologized for his past remarks, but it was apparent that the damage had already been done. "I'm a comedian who pushes boundaries. I sometimes miss," he wrote in a since-deleted tweet, notes Variety. "I'm happy to apologize to anyone who's actually been offended by anything I've said. My intention is never to hurt anyone but I am trying to be the best comedian I can be and sometimes that requires risks," he added.

As one can imagine, following the news that Gillis was working with Bud Light, many publicly expressed their disdain at the beer brand's decision. "Bud light partnering with Shane Gillis proves they only ever cared about money and it was fake-woke virtue signalling the whole time," one Twitter user wrote. Conversely, journalist and television personality Megyn Kelly, known for her controversial hot takes, quickly inserted herself into the drama and accused Gillis of bending the knee to Bud Light during an episode of her Sirius/XM show. "He went from doing slurs the left finds upsetting to issuing one out of his mouth the right finds upsetting, which is Bud Light," she said (via the New York Post).

Still, Fox host Greg Gutfeld applauded Bud Light for "rediscovering its core values" and even celebrated Gillis, claiming that he had "beat cancel culture." Not only did Gillis secure a partnership with Bud Light following the backlash, but in a rather curious turn of events, "Saturday Night Live" even invited him back to perform the opening monologue in February. "Yeah, I'm here," Gillis said, acknowledging the big elephant in the room right away. "Most of you probably have no idea who I am. I was actually — I was fired from this show a while ago. But if, you know, don't look that up, please, if you don't know who I am. Please, don't Google that. It's fine. Don't even worry about it," he joked.