Alright so first, I sat down at my desk wondering what mess to untangle next. Scrolling through trending news, this whole Manning Bud Light thing popped up again, like a bad penny. Everyone’s still arguing about whether that commercial was genius or a total train wreck. Figured hey, why not actually dig into what real people thought?
Step 1: Hunting Down The Reactions
Grabbed my coffee and booted up the laptop. Started simple: just diving into social media comments sections. YouTube was the first stop. Watched the Manning commercial itself – just to refresh my memory. Honestly, it’s pretty straightforward: Peyton and Eli delivering beer, cracking a few dry jokes. Nothing wildly controversial on the surface. But oh boy, the comments section? A whole different beast.
Scrolled for ages. Manually started sorting them in my head as I went:
- “OMG love the Manning brothers! Classic!”
- “Bud Light is trash now thanks to that other thing. Boycott forever! Don’t care who’s in the ad.”
- “Seriously? Bringing in Peyton and Eli won’t save you.”
- “Finally! Some normal people advertising beer. Miss this.”
It was all over the darn place. Felt like reading three different arguments happening at the same time. My eyes were glazing over after about 20 minutes of this chaos.
Step 2: Trying To Make Sense of the Noise
Okay, needed a better system than just eyeballing it. Opened a dumb notes app. Made three columns: Positive, Negative, and “Meh” (which was mostly people talking about the boycott/drama itself, not the ad or the Mannings). Then went back to the trenches.
Checked Twitter next. Big mistake. The hashtags surrounding this were radioactive. Found way more intense anger on Twitter compared to YouTube, tons of folks vowing never to drink Bud Light again, Manning Bros or not. Also saw plenty pushing back hard on that boycott crowd though. Felt like this ad wasn’t actually about beer or the Mannings anymore – it was just ammunition in a bigger culture fight. Weird.
Spent maybe an hour total on YouTube and Twitter, tracking maybe 300-400 visible comments that directly mentioned the Manning part. Rough count in my notes:
- Positive (Liked Mannings/liked ad): About 35%
- Negative (Still Boycotting/Disliked using Mannings): About 45%
- Meh/Neutral/Just Discussing Drama: About 20%
Step 3: The Big Question – Was It Worth It?
Frankly? Hard to tell. That’s the messy part. Based purely on this quick dive into fan reactions:
- Did it appease the boycott crowd? Nope. Not one bit for a huge chunk of them. The anger seemed cemented, independent of the Manning name.
- Did it please people who just like the Mannings? Sure, some folks dug the vibe. They thought it was funny or classic.
- Did it change the conversation? Sort of? But only in a “Look, we’re using Manning Bros!” way, not necessarily “Wow, great beer commercial!” It kept Bud Light trending, but mostly attached to the controversy.
So, was it worth it? From a purely “calm the storm” perspective – seems like a no. It didn’t magically make the boycotters forgive and forget. If anything, it seemed to annoy some of them even more. Maybe it played alright with folks just tuning in for the Super Bowl, unaffected by the drama. But judging by the sheer volume of online backlash still directly tied to the ad? Feels like it might have been throwing expensive gasoline ($$$ Manning payday! $$$) on a fire they were desperately hoping would go out. Just my two cents from this little deep dive.
