It will go down as the first commercial to ever air on the White House lawn. After the first fight of the UFC Freedom 250 spectacle on Sunday, a Bud Light ad ran on the event’s screens.
Once the lightning rod for MAGA’s fury against corporate wokeness, Bud Light was now the official beer of President Trump’s birthday party on the White House’s South Lawn. Its logo was plastered around the $60 million mixed martial arts event that hosted 4,300 invite-only spectators (the event also streamed exclusively on Paramount+).
It was all happening mere feet away from the Oval Office, seemingly a million miles from Bud Light’s 2023 Dylan Mulvaney scandal. Other brand sponsors included Monster Energy, Ram Trucks, Polymarket, Scotts Miracle-Gro, and Crypto.com. Requests for comment from Bud Light and Scotts Miracle-Gro were not answered by the time of publication.
The last few years have seen brands advocating for staying in their lane, effectively forcing many to back off on Pride-related sponsorships or any other events or partnerships that may be deemed political. And yet, here were major brands backflipping to perform what is probably the most public act of political sycophancy by brands in American history.
The brands at Trump’s UFC fight weren’t there to chase an audience—only 16% of Americans polled found the event to be acceptable in the first place. Rather, it was more about an audience of one. Paramount CEO David Ellison was front and center, his streaming service broadcasting the event, just days after the Justice Department approved his $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Funnily enough, for a group of brands that are terrified of even pondering a rainbow, this event could incite a backlash of its own.
Less filling
A decade ago, Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen starred in a Bud Light ad as candidates for a new, fictional political party called The Bud Light Party. The crux of their stump speech was all about finding common ground in an increasingly polarized culture. “Beer should have labels, not people! We don’t care: We’ll sell you beer!” shouted Rogen.
On Sunday, fighter Josh Hokit ended his post-match interview by shouting, “And lastly, Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right, America?” as interviewer Joe Rogan laughed, with multiple brand logos visible around them.
This is the safe space these brand sponsors have retreated to from the supposed woke mind virus?
According to a February eMarketer report, 56% of Americans say brands should remain neutral on political issues today, down from 63% last year. It’s an interesting statistic in light of how Bud Light’s own flirtation with political alignment has played out. In the span of a decade, Bud Light has gone from a comic relief amid the polarized culture storm after Trump’s first election win to actively sponsoring this type of rhetoric. Bud Light’s Mulvaney scandal reportedly cost its parent company, AB InBev, $1 billion in sales. On Sunday, it looked like Bud Light was trying to woo the very people whose rage had sparked that decline.
The dramatic swing from Mulvaney scandal to Trump spectacle is all the more surprising, given how well Bud Light has spent the past few years recasting its brand image in the classic funny light-beer mold. Its work with comedian Shane Gillis, including Super Bowl ads with Post Malone, has been largely apolitical and hilarious.
The vibe of UFC Freedom 250 fit more alongside Ram Truck’s 2025 spot “Never Stop Being American,” which could’ve been written by Idiocracy’s own President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho himself.
Seeing as both Ram Trucks and Bud Light have preexisting partnerships with UFC (Bud Light since 2023, Ram Trucks since 2025), one could argue that the brands’ presence on the White House lawn was simply a matter of contract obligation to an otherwise nonpolitical sports league. But more likely, in the shadow of “The Claw,” the overriding message from brands appeared to cut short Seth Rogen’s 2016 Bud Light Party declaration to just: “We don’t care.”