Social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney on Thursday posted a TikTok video addressing the bud-light controversy for the first time since his outbreak in April.
Mulvaney’s TikTok video showed her sipping beer from a glass while telling viewers about her experience since her Instagram post for Bud Light in early April.
“What emerged from this video was more bullying and transphobia than I could have ever imagined,” Mulvaney said in the TikTok video.
“For months I’ve been afraid to leave my house, I’ve been taunted in public, I’ve been followed and I feel a loneliness I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” she said.
Mulvaney added that in the months following the Bud Light ad, she waited for the brand to contact her, but “she never did.”
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Anheuser-Busch InBev (Ticker: BUD), the maker of Bud Light, is also struggling with the reaction: lost sales and anger against employees and the brand. The company sent Mulvaney a personalized tin of Bud Light to commemorate the one-year anniversary of her online series, Days of Girlhood, which documents her transition. Mulvaney showed off the can during the April Instagram video.
An Anheuser-Busch spokesman told Barron’s on Thursday, “As we have said before, we remain committed to the programs and partnerships we have built over decades with organizations in a range of communities, including those in the LGBTQ+ community. “ The privacy and security of our employees and our partners is always our top priority.”
“As we move forward, we will focus on what we do best – brewing great beer for everyone and securing our place in the moments that matter to our consumers,” the spokesperson added.
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In an interview on CBS Mornings on Wednesday, Brendan Whitworth, CEO of Anheuser-Busch in the US, said, “It’s been a challenging couple of weeks and I think the discussion of Bud Light has moved away from the beer and has become divisive.” Bud Light really doesn’t belong there. Bud Light should be about bringing people together.”
Whitworth, whose LinkedIn profile says he was a counterterrorism operations officer at the Central Intelligence Agency from 2001 to 2006, dismissed a question from CBS about whether sending the can to Mulvaney was a mistake.
He said Bud Light has been supporting the LGBTQ community since 1998 and will continue to support the communities and organizations it has supported for decades.
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Mulvaney said on TikTok Thursday, “For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly support them, I think it’s worse than not hiring a trans person at all.”
Write to Angela Palumbo at [email protected]