Sales of Bud Light beer have fallen by more than a quarter year-on-year following the disastrous partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
The beer brand presented Mulvaney with personalized cans featuring her face, which she promoted on April 1.
Fans of the beer erupted in anger. A boycott was declared, Kid Rock used Bud Light cans as target practice, and $5 billion was wiped from the brand’s value. Two senior marketing executives have been furloughed amid the fiasco.
On Sunday, Beer Business Daily reported that off-premise beer sales volume — the amount of beer sold outside of restaurants and bars — was down 26.1 percent in the week ended April 22 from a year earlier.
Sales fell by 21.1 percent in the previous week. While competitors Coors Light and Miller Lite saw consumers turn to their brands as both saw sales increase.
So far this year, Bud Light’s volumes are down 8 percent.
Bud Light sales outside of restaurants and bars are down 26 percent year-on-year for the week of April 22
“The shocking deterioration in Bud Light Blue’s market share continued into the third week of April – and actually kind of worsened.
“We have never seen such a dramatic shift in national share in such a short period of time,” Beer Business Daily wrote on its website.
Coors Light volume increased by 13.3 percent and Miller Lite by 13.6 percent over the same period.
Last week, senior executives at parent company Anheuser-Busch held a closed meeting with distributors in Washington, DC, where they outlined future plans – and reportedly promised to spend big on Bud Light to salvage its public image.
Benj Steinman, editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights, said spending for the brand “fell off a cliff over the past year,” but Anheuser-Busch executives are promising to rectify the situation, the New York Post reported.
Mulvaney, 26, announced the partnership in a series of videos posted to social media in early April
Mulvaney was sent a personalized beer can to celebrate 365 days since her transformation. Mulvaney documented her journey on TikTok and gained millions of online followers
Some of Bud Light’s biggest competitors saw sales surge in the wake of the backlash
In addition to the marketing blitz, executives working for Bud Light will also go through a more rigorous screening process, according to a Northeast beer retailer who spoke to the New York Post.
“There will be an improved screening process before any marketing reaches the public. Executives need to go through a more rigorous screening process,” Bud Light executives said at Zoom meetings this month.
Last month, Donald Trump Jr. called for an end to the Bud Light boycott in a video posted to his Rumble channel.
During his message, Trump Jr. emphasized the brewer’s conservative credentials and said it was wrong to “blame the entire company for someone’s inaction or stupidity in a marketing campaign that woke up like hell.”
Trump Jr. said he researched Anheuser-Busch and saw that they were mostly donated to Republicans and said his conservative peers sometimes had “a tendency to shoot first and aim later.”
In the video, the former president’s son pointed to Anheuser-Busch’s support of Republicans, including Ohio Sen. JD Vance and California Rep. Kevin McCarthy.
Donald Trump Jr. said Thursday he believes the boycott of Bud Light should end
Dylan Mulvaney announced the partnership himself on Instagram on April 1
Trump Jr. said the decision to work with Mulvaney was reportedly made by a low-level marketing executive rather than senior staff.
“We looked at Anheuser-Busch’s history of political giving and lobbying. And guess what? They actually support Republicans,” Trump Jr. said.
“In the last cycle, your staff and PAC gave about 60 percent to Republicans and 40 percent to Democrats. This is literally almost unheard of in corporate America, where it’s really easy to wake up, where they do this all the time, where there’s a consequence of actually being a conservative. So 60/40 for the conservative side is a big deal.
The 45-year-old said he also respects the corporate approach of the St. Louis-based beer company.
“On the lobbying front, we looked at the bills that Anheuser-Busch was working on,” he said.
“You know what they focus on guys? They have focused on taxes and commercial matters that actually affect their business. They didn’t lobby for the random favorite topics of the day and the nonsense and BLM crap – I didn’t find that – they focused on the things that affect their work.
The CEO, Brendan Whitworth, is a former Navy and CIA agent who was registered Republican for most of his adult life.
Brendan Whitworth, 46, has been CEO of Anheuser-Busch since July 2021. His company is now in the midst of a firestorm over his decision to work with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney
Whitworth issued a public statement two weeks after the controversy began
Trump Jr. said he disagrees with boycotting a 170-year-old company over a mistake.
“So here’s the deal,” he said.
“Anheuser-Busch totally messed up the bed with that Dylan Mulvaney thing.
“However, I am not in favor of destroying an American and legendary company for something like this.”
He added: “If I actually look at this, I’m not going to blame the entire company for someone’s inaction or stupidity in a marketing campaign that woke up like hell.
“The company itself does not participate in the same left-wing nonsense as the other big corporations.”
He said he loves “chasing after people when they screw up,” but felt boycotting Bud Light had gone too far.
His comments echo those of Howard Stern and Joe Rogan, both of whom argued it was an overstatement.
“I think sometimes we tend to shoot first and then aim without paying attention to the details,” Trump Jr. said.
He concluded: “So you have been notified. I leave her alone.
“I think you should probably do the same – if you do it again – you’ve been warned.”