Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
- Trans TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney posted a video that was sponsored by Bud Light.
- Angry with the beer brand's LGBTQ marketing, right-wingers have filmed themselves destroying cans.
- Prominent right-wing figures like Kid Rock have participated in the trend to spite Bud Light.
Right-wingers enraged at Bud Light's pro-LGBTQ marketing campaign have started filming themselves destroying the beer cans.
This outpouring of rage came after Bud Light partnered with Dylan Mulvaney, a trans influencer and TikTok star. Mulvaney talked about the partnership in a video on Instagram on April 1, where she cracked upon a can of beer.
Now conservatives, angry with the brand's association with Mulvaney, started taking out their rage on beer cans.
One example was the singer and far-right figure Kid Rock, who posted a video on his Instagram page. In the video, he uses his rifle to shoot multiple cans of Bud Light stacked atop each other on a wooden table.
The video, posted on April 4, has been viewed over 1.6 million times.
Other far-right wingers quickly caught on and found ways to show their displeasure with the brand. Some people — like TikTok user tanmanwho — tossed their beers into garbage cans.
—QENNY living rent free (@AKBrews) April 5, 2023
Others chose a more emphatic approach.
A person with the TikTok username browneyedgirl1010 stuck five beer cans behind her car tire and drove over them, popping them one by one.
A Twitter user named Randy Bump posted a video of a heavy-duty tractor driving over the multiple cans lined up on a farm road.
—Randy Bump 🇺🇸 (@Bumper13) April 9, 2023
The right-wing camp even produced a TikTok sound to go with their anti-Bud Light proclamations.
"Today we salute you, Mr. Budweiser-head-of-marketing-guy," the sound goes. "20 years of amazing ad campaigns, and this is where we end up. What the fuck were you thinking?"
Meanwhile, others — like TikTok user ramrebel1500 — are calling for peace and for people to stop destroying beer cans just to make a point.
"I'm gonna drink my goddamn beer the way I like it. Fucking cold. Who cares? Stop bitching about shit."
Though right-wingers have called on people to boycott the brand following the Mulvaney partnership, Anheuser-Busch has defended its decision.
"Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics and passion points," a brand spokesperson told Buzzfeed News.
It's worth noting that despite the pushback Bud Light faced from the right, the oft-cited alternatives to it — like Coors and Miller Lite — have also run pro-LGBTQ campaigns.
The violent show of displeasure against Bud Light harks back to the right-wing ethos of "owning the libs." This term is often used by right-wing individuals to describe antics meant to target and shame liberals or left-leaning people. They can be anything from destroying a beer can to writing offensive things on social media.
The Bud Light boycott, however, is linked to a deeper, more sinister anti-trans sentiment brewing on the right.
Anti-trans laws are being enacted nationwide: Oklahoma banned insurance coverage for transgender care in February, and the South Carolina Senate passed a bill to ban gender-affirming medical care for minors in March. And down in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis is targeting drag queens, framing his crackdown on drag shows as a crusade to protect children.
Representatives for Anheuser-Busch and Mulvaney did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.