On March 27, 2024, X user @patticakes1722, among others, posted (archived) that "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg signed a deal with Bud Light to become its new brand ambassador. The post read, "Whoopi signs a $10 Billion Dollar Deal with Bud Light to become the new Ambassador! GO WOKE GO BROKE AGAIN!!"
The reference to Bud Light and the phrase "go 'woke' go broke again" was about a kerfuffle from 2023 involving a social media backlash to Bud Light's partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
A Community Note under the X post pointed to a March 22, 2024, story from the Life Today website. The article's headline read, "Bud Light Taps Whoopi Goldberg as New Brand Ambassador to Boost Sales." The article began as follows:
When it comes to unexpected twists, "Whoopi Goldberg, The New Bud Light Savior" was nowhere on our radar for 2023. Yet, here we are, beer in hand, witnessing this saga of corporate reinvention unfold.
Bud Light, no stranger to PR challenges, found itself in a precarious position with plummeting sales. Desperate for a turnaround, the brand reached for a lifeline—Whoopi Goldberg.
Bud Light's bold new strategy, dubbed "From 'Whoops!' to 'Whoopi!'," sounds like a Hail Mary play. The plan? Address recent PR mishaps, tap into controversy, and introduce Whoopi as the wildcard. It may sound like a plot from an '80s movie, but in today's media landscape, any PR could be good PR.
On Facebook, one user shared the Life Today article and said of the purported news, "How frikin STUPID is senior management??? Can you believe the worthless morons in charge???? Fire the entire senior group of pinheads!!"
Another Facebook user commented, "There goes Budweiser's sales!!!"
However, the truth was that this rumor originated on websites that describe their content as satire.
X user @patticakes1722 later posted they made a "mistake" in sharing the story, saying the rumor "was a joke."
Two days before the Life Today website published this story, a Facebook page named SpaceX Fanclub similarly posted, "Whoopi Goldberg Signs A $10 Billion Deal With Bud Light To Become Their New Brand Ambassador."
The first comment in the SpaceX Fanclub's Facebook post linked to an old article on esspots.com published on Sept. 14, 2023. The article's headline read, "'She's Perfect': Bud Light Appoints Whoopi Goldberg as Its New Brand Ambassador to Boost Sales."
A disclaimer on esspots.com specified the website "specializes in satire, parody and humor" and said "we would like to emphasize that nothing on this website is real." The Life Today website also featured a disclaimer mentioning satire.
In fact, the rumor about Goldberg and Bud Light goes back even further to at least August 2023. At the time, we previously reported on a nearly identical claim.