Bud Light’s Dilly Dilly “Banquet” Commercial: A Beer Commercial for the Age of Trump

Bud Light recently put out a commercial entitled “Banquet,” airing non-stop during sports programs and whatever other television Budweiser suspects young men might be watching. The commercial is set in the court of a faux medieval king and its most memorable element is the nonsense catch phrase “dilly dilly.” A couple of my friends are obsessed with this commercial, finding it to be a harmless, innocent laugh. But they’re wrong. Under the hood, “Banquet” is a subversive and insidious advertisement that tells the story of America under the Trump administration, one light beer offering at a time.

The setting is the aforementioned court of a medieval king. The king sits behind a dais, next to a young woman, who sits next to a relatively older woman. The court is filled with subjects sitting on a chairs and a line of supplicants waiting to make offerings to the king.

First up at the head of the line is Sir Jeremy. Jeremy says nothing but lowers a six-pack of Bud Light onto the dais (we know his name because the king refers to him as such). The king anoints him (none of the women speak, of course, over the entire course of the commercial and we never learn their positions or roles) a true friend of the crown. He then offers up a toast of “Dilly Dilly” which the subjects repeat in unison.

A woman, Madam Susan, approaches next and lowers a case of Bud Light on to the dais. She is saluted as an even truer friend of the crown, presumably in reference to her presenting a greater quantity of the much valued Bud Light. She is then sent away with another round of “Dilly Dilly.”

An unnamed man follows next. Instead of Bud Light, he brings an unlabeled larger glass bottle with what appears to be a red wax seal forward and onto the dais. When the king inquires as to his offering, seemingly confused by it being anything other than Bud Light, the man explains that it is a “spiced honey mead wine” that he has really been into lately.

The king stares vacantly, as if he’s so shocked by the choice of gift that he needs a moment to decide the man’s fate. Rather than accept the gift, anoint the man a friend of the crown, and leave him with a “Dilly Dilly,” the king instead sends him off to follow “Sir Brad.” Sir Brad, the king recites with unabashed glee, will give him a private tour of the “pit of misery.” For bringing a product other than Bud Light to the King, not only is he not appreciated, he is detained for torture. The unnamed man bleats out a quick “I’m sorry. What?” before being led away. He appears understandably stunned that a seemingly generous offering to the crown is not only disdained but that he is actually penalized for it with an unspecified amount of torture.

A subject then calls out, “To the misery! Dilly Dilly,” which is, predictably, followed by a chant of “Dilly Dilly” in unison from the crowd. Yes, everybody in the room is celebrating a poor civilian getting tortured for having the nerve to bring something other than Bud Light to the king.

“Here’s to the friends you can always count on,” the narrator says.

The lessons of this commercial are manifest and hardly limited to advising the consumption of a disgusting alcoholic beverage.

The commercial teaches us to follow authoritarian leadership without question. The king declares “dilly dilly,” and everyone else follows in unison. The king sends a man off to be tortured, and everyone cheers. There’s something to be said about even merely repeating nonsensical slogans simply because an authoritarian figure is whipping the crowd into a frenzy. Cries of “dilly dilly” might as well have been “lock her up.”

The commercial encourages intolerance to anything and anyone different than yourself. There is only one acceptable gift to the king, Bud light, and anything other doesn’t merely not meet with disappointment or negotiation but rather warrants extreme punishment. Here’s the friends you can always count on; friends who think the same as you.

Falling in line is cherished. Those who don’t should be punished severely. Bud Light has truly created a commercial that could only feel at home in the era of Trump.