An ‘all ages drag show’ slated for next week appeared to take a shot at Bud Light by touting the brand as one of its sponsors – before backtracking the next day as publications started to report on the supposed partnership.
Organized by Flagstaff Pride, the June 17 event is still set to be held in small-town Arizona next Saturday – but contrary to signage posted to social media, will not be funded by the embattled beermaker.
That revelation came Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the 27-year-old LGBTQ group posted promotions that erroneously billed Bud Light as a sponsor, spurring reports from publications such as The Washington Free Beacon.
Organizers at that point, however, released an amended poster – this one without the ‘presented by Bud Light’ tagline. It also included vague explanation as to why they included the company as a sponsor in the first place.
The event, meanwhile, features several drag performers with scantily themed social media accounts, and is still open to ‘all ages’ – but asks attendees under the age of 16 to bring a guardian. The debacle looked to be a lampoon on the backlash seen since the firms’ disastrous flameout with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer.
BEFORE/AFTER: Flagstaff Pride on Tuesday released signage, seen on the right, touting Bud Light as the sponsor for the drag event in small-town Arizona next Saturday. As the partnership started to draw news coverage, the organization backtracked and released the poster on the right, as well as post that claimed the initial sign to be a ‘mistake’
As the propspective partneship drew news coverage, the 27-year-old grou[ released an amended poster – this one without the ‘presented by Bud Light’ tagline. It also included vague explanation as to why they included the company as a sponsor in the first place
The debacle looked to be a lampoon on the backlash seen since the disastrous partnership with Dylan Mulvaney
‘We put out an incorrect promotional poster which included Bud Light as a sponsor,’ a post to Flagstaff Pride’s Facebook read Wednesday evening, as Modelo Especial dethroned Bud Light as the top-selling beer in America after 22 years.
‘Attached is the correct poster,’ the org added, attaching a near identical sign – sporting several men in drag – without the Bud Light callout.
A spokesperson for Bud Light parent Anheuser-Busch – which also owns Modelo – further confirmed to DailyMail.com that the partnership was not on the level, writing that ‘Bud Light was mistakenly listed as a sponsor.’
The rep confirmed, ‘Bud Light is not a sponsor of this event’ – while pointing to the new, ‘corrected’ version of the poster.
AS both parties classified the change as a ‘correction’, outlets such as the Beacon, Fox News and The Washington Examiner picked up the story, creating an air of confusion after organizer later reneged on the artwork shown in the first advertisement.
Both tout the event’s mission to ‘support, unite, and strengthen our LGBTQIA2S+ community,’ while Instagram posts from the performers billed on the posters contain countless scantily clad photos of them in ‘costume’ – as seen in both signs.
Two of the performers tout themselves as ‘sexy,’ while another proudly proclaims about me that she is a good girl.’
The brand has not sponsored drag performances in the past, but recnetly has been subject to scrutiny – as well as a burgeoning boycott following a partnership with transgender influencer Mulvaney.
The partnership was first made public in April, and has since flamed out in pronounced fashion.
As sales dwindle, Anheuser-Busch lost a staggering $27 billion in market capitalization as a result of the backlash.
Months later, conservatives have continued with the boycott, leading to the Belgian based brewer to place two executives responsible for partnership— Alissa Heinerscheid, the vice president of marketing, and her boss, Daniel Blake — on leave in April.
Heinerscheid was hired to overhaul Bud Light’s marketing in June 2022 with the vision of freshening up its image, while Blake had worked at Anheuser-Busch for nearly nine years.
Heinerscheid’s short-lived tenure reportedly included a widely-lauded Super Bowl ad featuring Miles Teller and wife Keleigh Sperry, as well as ‘the Bud Light Carry’ campaign that showed a woman carrying a round of beers to a table of friends without spilling a drop.
‘We put out an incorrect promotional poster which included Bud Light as a sponsor,’ a post to Flagstaff Pride’s Facebook read Wednesday evening, as other Bud Light lost its lnogheld distinction as the top-selling beer in America after 22 years
The partnership sparked protests and backlash and parent company Anheuser-Busch has shed $27 billion in value in mere months
AB placed two executives responsible for partnership— Alissa Heinerscheid, the vice president of marketing, and her boss, Daniel Blake — on leave in April, as backlash continues
Those ads, statements from the beer brand revealed, were part of Heinerscheid’s vision to make the brand more female friendly – something she described only a few months ago as a ‘passion point’.
But that vision was swiftly cut down on April 3 with the brand’s partnership with Mulvaney, a controversial trans activist with a mass following on social media, which proved to be a step too far for Bud Light’s loyal customers.
After the outcry, the Belgian-based company insisted to distributors that Mulvaney’s beer can was not their work, but that of a then-unnamed ‘third-party’ ad agency responsible for the video and several others touting the partnership.
A recent report revealed the company responsible to be an eight-year-old marketing firm out San Francisco, which at some point introduced Anheuser-Busch to the 26-year-old transgender activist
Republican senator Ted Cruz has since launched a probe into the company, looking into whether the company targeted an underage audience through its Mulvaney partnership.
