A new advertisement from Never Back Down, a super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2024 presidential bid, is centered around his fight with Disney and prominently features transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney who has endured two months of “fear and hiding because of transphobes,” following the furor over her collaboration with Bud Light.
The 30-second television ad, which mimics the style of a classic Disney animated fairy tale, is a seven-figure-buy that will begin airing Wednesday morning in Iowa and South Carolina.
The ad highlights the war DeSantis has been waging in Florida against the LGBTQ+ community, including his ban on gender identity lessons for K-8 students, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by critics, as well as the feuds with corporations that partner with and recognize the LGBTQ+ community.
“Once upon a time, Disney films were for kids, not secret sexual content,” the ad’s narrator says, as it shows a video of a Disneyland worker with facial hair who is wearing a dress.
The ad then attacks Bud Light and Target and showcases DeSantis’ legislative actions against Disney, a feud that began last year after then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek criticized DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
“Target and Bud Light didn’t sell extreme liberal agendas,” the narrator states.
Bud Light has been the subject of a conservative boycott after it collaborated with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. In a video posted to Instagram on April 1, she said that the beer brand had sent her a can with her face on it to commemorate 365 days of her living as a woman.
Mulvaney’s partnership with Bud Light drew condemnation from several conservative figures and Republican politicians, including Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw and Gov. DeSantis. Many issued calls for a boycott of the beer brand. During a trip to a Nevada bar last weekend, he joked that he wouldn’t be serving Bud Light to patrons.
Images of Mulvaney and of rainbow displays in Target play as the narrator attacks Target and Bud Light, before attacking teachers for allegedly teaching “CRT,” or critical race theory.
“This isn’t a fairytale,” the ad’s narrator says, as flames consume images. “It’s a nightmare. But one man stood up: Ron DeSantis.”
“We stand for the protection of our children,” DeSantis says in the ad. “We will fight those who seek to rob them of their innocence. We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob.”
Republicans constant attacks on Mulvaney forced her into hiding for several months.
On April 28, Mulvaney broke her silence in a video shared on Instagram. “What I’m struggling to understand is the need to dehumanize and to be cruel,” she told her followers. “I don’t think that’s right. You know, dehumanization has never fixed anything in history ever.
“I’m embarrassed to even tell you this, but I was nervous that you were going to start believing those things that they were saying about me, since it is so loud,” Mulvaney added. “But I’m just gonna go ahead and trust that the people who know me and my heart won’t listen to that noise.”
