Bud Light sales have plummeted even further after the brand CEO finally broke his silence on their disastrous campaign with Dylan Mulvaney.
Beer Business Daily commented that ‘it’s not pretty’ for America’s flagship brand and their parent company Anheuser-Busch after revealing the numbers for beer across April.
Anheuser-Busch volumes were down more than 12 percent last month, with Bud Light falling a staggering 21.4 percent.
Competitors of the Belgian-owned beer giant both saw their volume rise – with Molson Coors jumping 7.6 percent and Constellation 3.8 percent.
Yuengling took the tumbling sales of Bud Light in their stride, rising up 14.7 percent, while Miller Light had a spike of 12.8 percent.
Coors Light rose 10.9 percent, and Coors Banquet 20.5 percent – while Budweiser was also hit with the knock-on effect of the controversy by dipping 11.5 percent.
Two more Anheuser-Busch brands were also feeling the result of the backlash, with Busch dropping 5.3 percent and Natural dropping 6 percent.
Michel Doukeris addressed the mass backlash over working with trans influencer Mulvaney, 26, for the first time in an earnings call with investors on Thursday
Despite their attempts to disavow the connection, the video Mulvaney posted of herself drinking Bud Light at the start of April 2023 used the hashtag #budlightpartner
It comes after Global CEO of Anheuser-Busch Michel Doukeris blamed ‘misinformation and disinformation’ that was spread online for making people believe cans with Mulvaney’s face were being rolled out for sale across the US.
He addressed the mass backlash over working with trans influencer Mulvaney, 26, for the first time in an earnings call with investors last week.
He added that the company is ‘providing direct financial support’ to the frontline workers impacted by the boycott.
Doukeris told the Financial Times over the weekend: ‘People often talk about this topic in social media like noise.
‘You have one fact and every person puts an opinion behind the fact. And then the opinions start to be replicated fast on each and every comment.
‘By the time that 10 or 20 people put a comment out there, the reality is no longer what the fact is, but is more (about) what the comments were.’
The global CEO added: ‘We never intended to make it for general production and sale for the public…it was one post. It was not an advertisement.’
But as the rumor that it was a campaign spread, he said, there were videos of billboards showing the Dylan Mulvaney can digitally and ’10 million people [were] watching and commenting.’
He addressed the mass backlash over working with trans influencer Mulvaney, 26, for the first time in an earnings call with investors last week
Mulvany posted the content to coincide with the NCAA March Madness tournament, before joking she didn’t know what sport she was promoting
‘That had nothing to do with Bud Light, it was just like pure social media creation,’ he said.
Investors were also told by Doukeris that Bud Light will triple its marketing spend this summer in a bid to woo customers back to the tarnished brand.
The disastrous marketing bid has seen sales for the American flagship beer plummet, despite Anheuser-Busch reporting first-quarter earnings of $1.65billion.
Doukeris said: ‘We need to clarify the facts that this was one camp, one influencer, one post and not a campaign.
‘We will continue to learn, meet the moment in time, all be stronger and we work tirelessly to do what we do best: Bring people together over a beer and creating a future of more cheers.’
Doukeris’ comments came as a letter was sent to retailers, bars and restaurants by Grey Eagle – which distributes Anheuser-Busch products around St Louis.
It read: ‘Anheuser-Busch did not intend to create controversy or make a political statement.
Anheuser-Busch put two of their most senior members of the marketing team behind the campaign on leave. Pictured: Alissa Heinerscheid
A Chicago gay bar, 2Bears Tavern Group, announced Thursday they will no longer serve Bud Light. Pictured: 2Bears Tavern on Argyle street
‘In reality, the Bud Light can posted by a social media influencer that sparked all the conversation was provided by an outside agency without Anheuser-Busch management awareness or approval.
‘Since that time, the lack of oversight and control over marketing decisions has been addressed and a new VP of Bud Light marketing has been announced.’
Bud Light’s VP of marketing, Alissa Heinerscheid, took a leave of absence while the VP for Mainstream Brand, Daniel Blake, stepped down some days after.
Their sudden departure appears premature in light of the recent comments, which also claim there was no ‘management awareness’ of the now-infamous campaign.
The specifics of how the can fiasco erupted remain under wraps. The latest letter claims the Mulvaney can was the brainchild of an outside agency.
It is the first time the brewing giant has addressed the backlash in detail, after they were hit with a major dip in Bud Light sales following the paid partnership.
The defiant rebuttal against the ‘unofficial’ campaign comes as Anheuser-Bush reported first-quarter earnings of $1.65billion, which topped Wall Street expectations.
Daniel Blake, who is the vice president for Anheuser-Busch’s mainstream brands has stepped back from his job, after controversy about Bud Light’s partnership with Dylan Mulvaney
The brewer posted revenue of $14.21 billion in the period, which also beat forecasts, with the shares rising 6 percent since the beginning of the year and 12 percent in 12 months.
It’s unclear if the boycott had any impact on these figures, and whether a larger impact on the firm’s finances will be visible for the second quarter of the financial year if the controversy and boycotts rumble on.
Despite the company’s attempts to disavow the connection, the video Mulvaney, 26, posted of herself drinking Bud Light at the start of April 2023 used the hashtag #budlightpartner.
Todd Allen, most recently the global vice president of Budweiser, has been announced as the new vice president of marketing for Bud Light – after Heinerscheid and Blake took a leave of absence.
Mulvany posted the content to coincide with the NCAA March Madness tournament, before joking she didn’t know what sport she was promoting.
It’s unclear how much Mulvaney was paid to promote the drink, with gay bars and LGBT beer drinkers now joining conservatives in deserting Bud Light.
During a podcast appearance last month, days before the Mulvaney partnership was announced, Heinerscheid said Bud Light was on the wane when she took the helm last summer, but planned to right the ship in the coming months
Locals in Marietta, Georgia, where Travis Tritt is from, have been switching from their usual drink of Bud Light to Coors Light, according to bartenders – who say the impact was ‘immediate’
Unlike right-wingers who say Mulvaney should never have been chosen as a face of the campaign, LGBT supporters say Bud Light acted shoddily by throwing her to the wolves as controversy reached a fever-pitch.
Gay bars in Chicago have pledged not to sell Bud Light in the wake of Doukeris’ statements walking back Anheuser-Busch’s involvement with Mulvaney.
The bar with four locations throughout the Windy City, 2Bears Tavern Group, denounced Anheuser-Busch after the company ‘abandoned’ their support of Mulvaney.
It went on to refer to Doukeris’ response as ‘cruel’ and ‘hateful’ while insisting the beer company simply fed into ‘anti-trans’ criticism.
In a statement they said: ‘Anheuser-Busch’s decision to drop its support of Mulvaney in response to ignorant and hateful objections by some of its customers shows how little Anheuser-Busch cares about the LGBTQIA+ community, and in particular transgender people, who have been under unrelenting attack in this country.
‘CEO Brendan Whitworth’s excuse that Anheuser-Busch ‘never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people’ was tantamount to saying that the rights and safety of transgender people are topics worthy of debate.’
The group will also discontinue other Anheuser-Busch brands, including Busch Light and Goose Island 312, it said.
