Brendan Whitworth, CEO of Anheuser-Busch, would not say if he would have allowed Bud Light’s promo with transgender woman Dylan Mulvaney had he known the extent of the backlash.
“It’s been a challenging few weeks. I think the conversation surrounding Bud Light has moved away from beer, and the conversation has become divisive,” the CEO said on “CBS Mornings.”
“And Bud Light really doesn’t belong there. Bud Light should be all about bringing people together. And there’s an impact on the business, and I think that’s publicly covered on Bud Light specifically,” Whitworth continued.
Whitworth added that the company must analyze the impact of the Dylan Mulvaney Bud Light can, noting, “One thing I’d love to make extremely clear is that impact is my responsibility and as the CEO, everything we do here I’m accountable for.”
When asked what his perspective on the matter is in hindsight, Whitworth said, “There’s a big social conversation taking place right now, and big brands are right in the middle of it and it’s not just our industry or Bud Light.”
He added, “It’s happening in retail, happening in fast food. And so for us what we need to understand is — deeply understand and appreciate — is the consumer and what they want, what they care about and what they expect from big brands.”
The CEO then explained that while Bud Light has supported LGBTQ since 1998, “we want to focus on what we do best, which is brewing great beer for everyone, listening to our consumers, being humble in listening to them and making sure we do right by our employees.”
Reporting from Fox News:
Many Bud Light consumers have opted to boycott the brand and other Anheuser-Busch products in response to the promotion, prompting a decline in sales that is yet to rebound from the slump that began this spring. According to NielsenIQ data provided to FOX Business by Bump Williams Consulting, Bud Light sales are down 11.1% on a dollar basis year-to-date through June 17 and 15.6% on a volume basis through the same period.
