Michel Doukeris, CEO of Anheuser-Busch InBev, addressed the controversy surrounding Bud Light’s promotion of Dylan Mulvaney on a conference call Thursday, saying it was “not a formal campaign.”
HSBC has downgraded shares of Anheuser-Busch InBev to “hold” amid a “crisis” following Bud Light’s marketing campaign featuring transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney.
Carlos Laboy, chief executive of HSBC’s global beverage sector, told CNBC that following April’s social media partnership with Mulvaney, there were “deeper issues than ABI admits.”
“Is ABI’s leadership doing the brand culture shift right? It’s mixed,” Laboy wrote in a note Wednesday.
“At Ambev, we believe the answer is ‘yes’. In the US, we think it’s no. “The way this bud-light crisis came about about a month ago, management’s response to it, and the loss of unprecedented volume and brand relevance raises a lot of questions,” Laboy continued.
BUD LIGHT PARENT ANHEUSER-BUSCH SUPPORTS DISTRIBUTORS IN MULVANEY CONTROVERSY
Bud Light signage outside a bar in New York City. (Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Laboy cited a note from Beer Marketer’s Insights that reported a possible drop in beer sales of over 25% in April.
“Given the recent experience of other companies, why did US leaders underestimate the risk of a setback? Is AB hiring the best people to grow brands and assess risk?” the analyst added. “If Budweiser and Bud Light are iconic American ideas that have a long history of bringing consumers together, why have these marketers failed to invite new consumers without upsetting the core of the company’s biggest brand?”
Ambev is a Brazilian brewery also owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev.
In the first three weeks of April, Bud Light’s U.S. sales fell to the equivalent of 1% of the company’s global volume for the period.
The controversy surrounding BUD LIGHT’s DYLAN MULVANEY deepens as Chicago gay bars holler about the beer maker’s “mission” for good reason
A logo of HSBC (Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited) is seen in Mumbai, India, on April 26, 2023. (Indranil Aditya/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Fox News)
Bud Light retail store sales also fell 21.4% in the week ended April 22 compared to the same period last year.
In comparison, Coors Light and Miller Lite saw sales increase nearly 21%, according to Bump Williams Consulting’s analysis of Nielsen data.
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Bud Light has faced backlash from longtime clients over a recent campaign with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney. (Instagram/Fox News / Fox News)
“This situation is having an impact on our employees and particularly our frontline workers: the delivery drivers, the sales force, our wholesalers, the Bud owners and the waiters,” said Michel Doukeris, CEO of AB InBev, in a conference call on the results .
Eric Revell of FOX Business contributed to this report.