Bud Light is no longer ranked amongst the top 10 in the US, after the Dylan Mulvaney marketing disaster.
In a new YouGov survey, which polled a sample size of 1,468, the public approval of the beer slumped causing it to fall out of the top ten.
While the proportion of Americans who ‘liked’ Bud Light hadn’t changed, the popularity of other rival beers surged, pushing it into a tie for 14th.
The latest slump in popularity comes after a disaster move by brewer Anheuser-Busch in April that saw them pair with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Since then, Anheuser-Busch has tanked more than $27billion in market value and two of its top executives took a ‘leave of absence.’
Mulvaney announced the partnership in a series of videos posted to social media at the start of April
Mulvaney worked with Bud Light in April as part of their March Madness campaign and was gifted a can of the light beer with her face on it – which sparked outrage
According to the poll by YouGov, Guinness is the most popular beer in the United States
For its survey, YouGov polled a nationally representative sample of 1,468 Americans during the second quarter of 2023, which runs from April to the end of June.
They found that Guinness, Corona and Heineken were the three most liked beers of 2023, with approval from 58 percent, 53 percent and 51 percent of Americans, respectively.
In the second quarter of 2022, 42 percent of Americans ‘liked’ Bud Light, according to YouGov, putting it on a par with Corona Extra, Dos Equis and Coors Light.
The Bud Light figure remained the same during the second quarter of 2023, but as other beers saw their approval rise, its relative approval fell into a tie with Pabst Blue Ribbon, Miller Genuine Draft and Miller Light.
Mulvaney had shared images of herself with a personalized can celebrating one year since she transitioned as well as posed with cans of the beer in a bathtub.
The brand where accused of meddling in one of the most hot-button culture war issues there is.
The partnership upset conservative drinkers who were quick to boycott the brand but also enraged liberals who said the company failed to respond in solidarity with Mulvaney.
Mulvaney only recently broke her silence on the fiasco and excoriated the troubled brand for not standing by her.
Heineken and Corona also make up the remainder of the top three beers in the country
The 26-year-old posted a video on Instagram addressing the debacle, which has seen Anheuser-Busch lose $20million in market cap value since the advert for March Madness
Speaking to her 1.8 million followers, she said: ‘was waiting for the brand to reach out to me, but they never did. I’ve been scared to leave my house.
‘For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse than not hiring a trans person at all.
‘I have been ridiculed in public I’ve been followed and I have felt a loneliness that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.’
Recent figures show sales of Bud Light dropped 27.9 percent on last year in the week ending June 24.
This was slightly better than its worst decline on record – 28.5 percent the week before.
The brand has been hit by plummeting sales since they teamed up with the influencer, who called it a brand deal
Kid Rock shot at a case of the beer after discovering the partnership – shouting ‘F*** Bud Light, and f*** Anheuser-Busch. Have a terrific day’
Sales of the beer have continued to decline as the company continued to alienate an increasingly large portion of the market.
This drop in sales coincides with an increase in Modelo sales, indicating that America’s appetite for beer remains strong, but its preferences are shifting.
Modelo Especial’s distribution is controlled by Bud Light parent Anheuser-Busch but its US operations are owned by Constellation Brands, which reported an 11 percent increase in sales for the second quarter of this year.
In mid-June Modelo became the best-selling beer in the US, a position previously held by Bud Light for more than two decades.
