A “drag show for all ages” planned for next week appeared to target Bud Light by touting the brand as one of its sponsors – before backing down the next day as publications began reporting on the alleged partnership .
The June 17 event, organized by Flagstaff Pride, is still scheduled to take place next Saturday in the small town of Arizona – but, contrary to signage posted on social media, will not be funded by the embattled beermaker.
That revelation came on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the 27-year-old LGBTQ group released promotions falsely citing Bud Light as a sponsor, prompting reports from publications like The Washington Free Beacon.
However, at that point the organizers released an altered poster – this one without the tagline “presented by Bud Light”. It also included a vague explanation as to why the company was included as a sponsor in the first place.
The event, meanwhile, features several drag performers with off-topic social media accounts and is still open to “all ages” – though attendees under the age of 16 are asked to bring a legal guardian. The debacle appeared to be a mockery of the backlash seen since the disastrous standoff between the companies and Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer.
BEFORE/AFTER: Flagstaff Pride released a sign Tuesday (seen at right) touting Bud Light as a sponsor for next Saturday’s drag event in the small town of Arizona. When the partnership began to attract media coverage, the organization backed down and published the poster on the right, along with a post claiming the original sign was a “mistake”.
When the proposed partnership received media attention, the 27-year-old group released an altered poster — this one without the tagline “presented by Bud Light.” It also included a vague explanation as to why the company was included as a sponsor in the first place
The debacle appeared to be a mockery of the backlash seen since the disastrous partnership with Dylan Mulvaney
“We put out a fake promotional poster naming Bud Light as a sponsor,” Flagstaff Pride posted in a Facebook post Wednesday night, as Modelo Especial dethroned Bud Light after 22 years as America’s best-selling beer.
“Attached is the correct poster,” the organization added, including a nearly identical sign with several men in costume without the words “Bud Light.”
A spokesman for Bud Light’s parent company Anheuser-Busch, which also owns Modelo, further confirmed to that the partnership was not on the same level, writing: “Bud Light was incorrectly listed as a sponsor.”
The rep wrote Wednesday night: “Bud Light is not a sponsor of this event” – citing the new, “corrected” version of the poster.
Media outlets including Beacon, Fox News and The Washington Examiner picked up the story before both parties labeled the change a “correction.”
Both flyers tout the event’s mission of “supporting, uniting and empowering our LGBTQIA2S+ community,” while Instagram posts by the artists featured on the posters include countless scantily clad photos of them in “costumes.”
The beer brand hasn’t sponsored drag performances in the past, but recently came under increasing boycott following a partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
The partnership was first made public in April and has since stalled significantly.
As sales plummeted, the backlash caused Anheuser-Busch to lose a staggering $27 billion in market cap.
Months later, the Conservatives continued the boycott, resulting in the Belgian brewery furloughing two executives responsible for the partnership – Alissa Heinerscheid, the vice president of marketing, and her boss Daniel Blake – in April.
Heinerscheid was tasked with overhauling Bud Light’s marketing in June 2022, with a vision to refresh the image while Blake had been with Anheuser-Busch for nearly nine years.
Heinerscheid’s short-lived tenure reportedly included a widely acclaimed Super Bowl commercial starring Miles Teller and his wife, Keleigh Sperry, and the “Bud Light Carry” campaign, in which a woman carried a round of beers to a table with friends without a drop to spill .
Instagram posts by the artists featured on the posters include countless scantily clad photos of them in “costumes.”
“We put out a fake promotional poster naming Bud Light as a sponsor,” Flagstaff Pride said in a post on Facebook Wednesday night, while others saw Bud Light lose its long-held reputation as America’s best-selling beer after 22 years
The partnership sparked protests and backlash, and parent company Anheuser-Busch has lost $27 billion in value in just a few months
AB furloughed two executives responsible for the partnership — Alissa Heinerscheid, vice president of marketing, and her boss, Daniel Blake — in April as backlash continues
According to the beer brand, those ads were part of Heinerscheid’s vision to make the brand more woman-friendly – something she called a “passion point” just a few months ago.
However, that vision was quickly dashed on April 3 by the brand’s partnership with Mulvaney, a controversial trans activist with a large following on social media, which proved a step too far for Bud Light’s loyal customers.
After the outcry, the Belgium-based company insisted to the distributors that the Mulvaney beer can was not theirs, but rather a then-unnamed “third-party advertising agency” responsible for the video and several others responsible for the partnership advertised.
According to a recent report, the company responsible for this was an eight-year-old San Francisco-based marketing firm that eventually introduced Anheuser-Busch to the 26-year-old transgender activist
Republican Senator Ted Cruz, meanwhile, has launched an investigation into the company, looking into whether the company is targeting an underage audience with its Mulvaney partnership.
Anson Frericks, a former chief executive of Anheuser-Busch InBev, also spoke about the ripple effect.
“Good people will start leaving because they’re not making any money,” Anson Frericks, former CEO of Anheuser-Busch InBev, told ABC News.
Some stores are reportedly giving away Bud Light for free, with the company possibly resorting to buying expired, unsold beer from wholesalers, the Wall Street Journal reported.
A president of a Midwest distributor at a meeting with Bud Light sellers tried to reassure his employees and continued to hope the boycott would end soon.
“I’m frustrated about that.” [dragged] keep going for so long,” he said.
“None of this is your fault and none of this is my fault.”
Anheuser-Busch, the parent company of Bud Light and Modelo Especial, saw its market cap drop by $27 billion after a disastrous collaboration with Mulvaney
The driver of a Bud Light truck makes a delivery – some of his drivers have been showered with homophobic remarks, including “gay beer sellers”, while others have been angered
Nearly seven weeks after the fiasco, members who work in distribution at the approximately 500 independent wholesalers that sell Anheuser-Busch products to restaurants, bars and grocery stores had their commissions cut.
Some members of the sales team have reported losing $2,000 over the past month compared to a typical May due to the backlash.
Many of its truck drivers have faced a barrage of homophobic remarks, including “gay beer sellers,” while others have been scammed on their deliveries, ABC News reported.
Michel Doukeris, CEO of Aheuser-Busch InBev, told the news outlet that the boycott had an impact on all channels.
“This situation is having an impact on our employees and especially on our frontline workers: the delivery drivers, sales reps, our wholesalers, Bud owners and waiters.”