Thursday Overnight Open Thread - October 9, 2025 [Doof]

The Thursday night ONT is here. Are you?

Where It All Went Wrong

Former Bud Light consultant speaks out on how brand lost its way

A former Bud Light consultant behind some of the company’s biggest ads is speaking out about how he feels the brand lost its way and what they can learn from American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney ad.

John Immesoete, who worked as the Group Creative Director for DDB Chicago 1995-2005, was the force behind some of Bud Light’s iconic spots, including the Real Men of Genius campaign, told Fox News Digital that he attributes the takeover by InBev as a turning point for the brand.

"When InBev took over, they basically acted like they knew everything better than anyone else. They had their own ways of doing things. There was a famous quote they had with some guys in a meeting where they were showing all the work that was done in the past and there were a lot of Clyde sales commercials that were quite famous. Somebody at Inbev had said, ‘tell me this, how do horses help sell beer?’ It's like well, if you don't know, you don't know."

Immesoete, who has just released a documentary "Once There Was a Brewery" which tracks the history of Bud Light and what led up to their catastrophic partnership with Dylan Mulvaney, said the beer company’s success can be attributed to an ethos spearheaded by its co-founder Adolphus Busch that "making friends is our business." He said that by partnering with Mulvaney, a transgender influencer, the brand needlessly alienated many of its fans and much of the country.

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The beer maker's trouble grew when Bud Light advertising executive Alissa Heinerscheid, who left the company following the disastrous ad, said that Bud Light’s brand was categorized by "fratty, kind of out-of-touch humor" in a 2023 interview. Immesoete said that her comments potentially did more damage than the ad itself.

He feared that the Mulvaney ad may have done irreparable damage to the Bud Light brand.

"I don’t know if they can ever come back from being considered the biggest disaster in marketing advertising history," Immesoete told Fox News Digital.

Immesoete contrasted Bud Light’s Mulvany ad with American Eagle’s Sweeney ad, which saw the buxom blonde actress donning American Eagle Jeans with the slogan "Sydney Sweeney has good genes." This ad also triggered a social media firestorm, but in this instance, Immesoete said the backlash actually helped the brand.

Decent article, worth checking out. Other than referring to Dylan Mulvaney as "her" repeatedly.

Kewl Vids

Travel Stuff

14 Least Visited National Parks in the United States

Most people flock to Yellowstone, Yosemite, or the Grand Canyon, but the least visited national parks offer something just as remarkable: solitude.

Skip the crowds and discover the underrated beauty of coral reefs and mountain peaks.

These lesser-known gems of the National Park Service provide a unique national park experience without the crowds, showcasing pristine wilderness, dramatic landscapes, and rich ecosystems.

Four are in Alaska. Makes sense that they'd be among the least visited. Check out the list and let us know if you've been to any of them!

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Here's a plug for one that wasn't on the list.

This National Park Has Some of the Country’s Best Night Sky Views

I become downright euphoric whenever I spot a shooting star, and standing beneath the towering sandstone in Capitol Reef National Park, I spotted dozens of them. It was the last leg of a four-state stargazing road trip—and what a grand finale.

While I imagined I’d love Capitol Reef National Park just as much as the numerous other stops on this adventure through the Southwest, I had no idea the less-trodden getaway would become the trip highlight, not to mention my favorite national park for stargazing.

But perhaps it’s not that surprising. One look at a light pollution map proves that remote Capitol Reef, located in south-central Utah, has impressively little artificial illumination. Skies this pristine are a rarity in the brightly lit United States, where over three-quarters of Americans can’t see the Milky Way from home.

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

In the 1980s, Anguilla Was Given the .ai Web Domain: Now it’s Making a Killing on the Dot AI Boom

Back when the internet was just starting, nations were all given a URL in order to publish websites official to the nation. The US got .us and the UK got .uk.

Well Anguilla, the small British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, was given .ai, and with investments and startups surging in the field of artificial intelligence, the country has suddenly found itself with something like a new natural resource—as if it found an oil deposit.

Forever the country has depended on tourism and fishing, but now it sells off the domain rights for .ai for literally millions—$35 million last year to be precise.

Dumb luck. Good for them, though.

DJ Doof - Birthday Boys Edition
(from thisdayinmusic.com)

Born on this date in 1948: American rock musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist Jackson Browne.

Born on this date in 1944: English bass guitarist, singer, songwriter John Entwistle from The Who

Born on this date in 1940: English musician and activist John Lennon

SO many great songs from all of those birthday boys. Which are your favorites?

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