Originally published April 25, 2023 1:42 pm PDT
Sales down 21% in volume.
QUICK FACTS:
- Beer giant Bud Light has witnessed a major decline in sales since partnering with trans-identifying influencer Dylan Mulvaney, a biological male, at the beginning of the month.
- According to new data from NielsenIQ, the company’s sales fell 17% in dollars and 21% in volume from the week of April 15.
- “These numbers are staggering,” beer-focused newsletter Insights Express wrote. “Right now this is an extremely difficult scenario for Anheuser-Busch, the Bud Light brand and for Ab distributors.”
- The campaign has given Anheuser-Busch an increasing amount of negative publicity, as the company announced over the weekend that the marketing executive responsible for hiring Mulvaney was taking a leave of absence.
MISSOURI-BASED SPORTS BAR OWNER JEFF FITTER ON BUD LIGHT’S TRANSGENDER CAMPAIGN:
“In Bud Light’s effort to be inclusive, they excluded almost everybody else, including their traditional audience,” Fitter said.
BACKGROUND:
- In early April, Mulvaney posted a video to his Instagram followers promoting a new partnership with the brewing company.
- “This month, I celebrated my day 365 of womanhood, and Bud Light sent me possibly the best gift ever, a can with my face on it,” Mulvaney said at the time.
- Earlier this week, brewing company Anheuser-Busch, the parent company of Bud Light, was accused of “illegal, racist, and sexist hiring practices” in a federal civil rights complaint.
- America First Legal Group filed the complaint against the brewing company with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saying Anheuser-Busch was discriminatory under the “cloak of equity.”
- “This is not a regular corporate program – rather, the company describes the role as focusing on hiring the next generation of leaders within the North American Sustainability and Procurement department,” the group said. “In other words, it is a fast-track program to executive leadership positions at Anheuser-Busch, and it is limited to candidates based on race. The proforma Equal Opportunity Employer language at the end of the posting does mask the company’s discriminatory intent and purpose.”
