Book Notes: Last Call for Bud Light by Anson Frericks

I wondered what made Anson Frericks so brave. A white man who is a businessman by trade is usually more terrified of criticizing DEI than an untenured lecturer of 18th-century English literature. In Last Call for Bud Light, the former CEO of Anheuser-Busch parts ways with his tribe of Harvard Business School graduates with gigantic investment portfolios and explains that race and gender quotas in hiring are not a great idea. Big business is more woke than a  conference of academics in Queer Studies, so I had to wonder why Frericks decided to break the omertà and speak out against performative leftism.

In Chapter 19, Frericks finally lets it slip. He’s friends with Vivek Ramaswamy, and this “my best friend is diverse” positioning fueled Frericks’ rebellion against leftism. He and Vivek started a new venture that aims to bring meritocracy to the world of business. Frericks was embraced by the Right, as anybody who is so unexpectedly rational would be, and got interviewed by Tucker Carlson where I discovered him. I like to end the year by reading a business book, so I read Frericks story of how Anheuser-Busch destroyed its market capitalization by chasing after leftist approval. It’s an excellent book that gives a lot of crucial background for the Dylan Mullvaney fiasco.

While his friend Vivek Ramaswamy has made a name for himself for failing to understand American culture to an almost comical extent, Frericks loves American history and tradition with almost painful passion. He was a perfect Anheuser-Busch sales CEO because he was extremely into the Budweiser culture and everything associated with it. He resigned from the company because his plan to grant Black Rifle Coffee access to Anheuser-Busch’s distribution network was rejected on ideological grounds. Frericks was told that Black Rifle Coffee was too controversial at the exact time when Anheuser-Busch hired Dylan Mullvaney to promote the brand.

Last Call for Bud Light is an excellent book. It explains in great detail how and why business became far more leftist than academia. I’d take that explanation a lot farther than Frericks does but that’s why I’m an academic.