A couple of weeks ago ESPN Gameday went to Iowa. During the pregame broadcast one Iowa State fan named Carson King held up a sign that read "Busch Light supply needs to be replenished. Venmo Carson King-25. Clearly a funny guy so a few fans decided to reward him for his humor and actually went on Venmo and donated. Actually more than a few. He received over $1000! When the local media asked him about it he said he was actually going to donate the money to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital. That started a chain of events Carson could have never imagined.
First he became an internet sensation. Anheuser-Busch announced that they would match whatever he raised up to $350,000! They specially created and sent him him a years worth of Busch Light with his face on the cans and the words Iowa Legend. His company allowed him to take time off from work as a security guard to go to NY to appear on news shows to talk about the fund raiser. Next he raised over a million dollars in 10 days! As of Monday morning, he had more than $1,065,000 in total contributions. That drew extra eyes to his past. The Des Moines Register found 2 tweets that he sent when he was 16 years old and printed them yesterday morning.
Carson issued an apology yesterday afternoon. I made some social media posts with my friends that quoted and referenced the show Tosh.0. One of those posts was brought to my attention by a member of the media today. I had no recollection of it. In re-reading it today – eight years later – I see it was an attempt at humor that was offensive and hurtful. I am so embarrassed and stunned to reflect on what I thought was funny when I was 16 years old. I want to sincerely apologize.
Now Anheuser-Busch has denounced him. "Carson King had multiple social media posts that do not align with our values as a brand or as a company and we will have no further association with him". They will still donate the money that they had promised to the Children's Hospital just no longer in his name.