Bud Light is looking to fill a novel corporate position: chief meme officer or CMO.
The new role will help pitch the brand's hard seltzer line in an increasingly crowded marketplace for bubbly, low-calorie alcoholic beverages.
"We have a great tasting hard seltzer and we just want to get the word out there, and we think a great way of doing it is by hiring a chief meme officer to create some great memes and some great sharable content," Conor Mason, senior director of digital for Bud Light, told Cheddar.
Social media firm Doing Things Media is helping Bud Light develop the CMO position, which will emphasize the importance of humor and positivity in product marketing.
"I think humor is more important than ever right now," said Todd Anderman, president of Doing Things Media. "We're going through such a challenging time in the world, and there's a lot of division, a lot of politics. If you look at your feed and look at everyone's individual feeds, there's not as much happiness as could be there."
The chief meme officer's job will be to "infuse a happy moment into someone's day," he added.
In many ways, consumers are meeting Bud Light halfway. Seltzer drinks already have a devoted following of customers, many of whom share their love of favorite drinks on social media.
"It's a category that now has mass awareness," Mason said. "Consumers are really picking it up at a rapid pace, and it's growing."
Now the goal is for Bud Light Seltzer to compete with established brands such as Truly, White Claw, and Bon V!V.
"Our goal, for now, is to get people to really just pick up the product and try it," Mason said.
Bud Light is accepting applications over the next few weeks. But don't expect a normal interview process. The brand is providing templates for applicants to test their meme-making skills.
Over 1,600 have applied so far, according to Mason.
"We're really just looking for originality and creativity," he said.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
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Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
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Tesla, the car company run by Elon Musk, reported Wednesday that it sold more vehicles in the past three months after boycotts hit hard earlier this year, but profits still fell sharply. Third-quarter earnings fell to $1.4 billion, from $2.2 billion a year earlier. Excluding charges, per share profit of 50 cents came in below analysts' estimate. Tesla shares fell 3.5% in after-hours trading. Musk said the company's robotaxi service, which is available in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco, will roll out to as many as 10 other metro areas by the end of the year.
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