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- Anheuser-Busch is trying to smooth over tensions with its wholesale distributors, WSJ reports.
- Bud Light has reportedly seen dips in sales since a promotion that featured a transgender influencer.
- Amid the backlash, the company is giving out free cases of beer to employees of its wholesalers.
The company behind Bud Light is hoping some free beer will help smooth over any tensions with its distributors, some of whom told The Wall Street Journal they've faced backlash and sagging sales after the brand's promotion featured a transgender influencer.
Anheuser-Busch, the company that owns Bud Light, is gifting a case of Bud Light to all employees who work with the company's wholesale distributors, the Journal reported. The company has also promised new ads are on the way that the beermaker will increase marketing spending on Bud Light to alleviate any impacts to sales, distributors told the Journal.
These changes follow a month-long controversy that led to a reported dip in sales for the beer brand. On April 1, transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney posted a video on Instagram that featured Bud Light cans designed with a picture of her face. Backlash among some of its customers followed, including a conservative-led boycott toward the brand. Later, the Journal reported that Bud Light Sales dropped by 17% by mid-April, per data created by Bump Williams Consulting and analyzed by Nielsen.
In comparison, Bud Light's competitors, including Coors Light and Miller Light, saw sales jump by nearly 18%, per the same data analyzed by Nielsen.
Mulvaney previously spoke out about the criticism she faced on the podcast "Onward with Rosie O'Donnell."
"I think it comes back to the fact that these people, they don't understand me, and anything that I do or say somehow gets taken out of context and is used against me," Mulvaney said.
In a TikTok she posted last week, Mulvaney spoke about how she's been offline for a few weeks, and indirectly referred to the recent controversy. She told her followers, "I think it's okay to be frustrated with someone or confused, but what I'm struggling to understand is the need to dehumanize and to be cruel."
A representative for Dylan Mulvaney did not respond to Insider's request for comment ahead of publication.
Anheuser-Busch's wholesaler distributors, many of which the Journal reported are family-owned businesses, have also dealt with some of the fallout. By April 22, Bud Light sales in US stores dropped 21% compared to the previous year, per the sales data analysis reported on by the Journal. Distributors told the Journal that following the promotion, they dealt with backlash from people in their stores, bars, and over the phone.
Anheuser-Busch did not respond to Insider's request for comment.
In a statement the company released on April 14, Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth said "We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer."
Shortly after the backlash, Bud Light Vice President of Marketing Alissa Heinerscheid, and Daniel Blake, the vice president of marketing for Anheuser-Busch's mainstream brands, both took leaves of absence, the Journal reported. A spokesperson confirmed to Insider that Heinerscheid would be replaced with with Todd Allen, the global vice president of Budweiser.
The statement also said has 47,000 distributors, and more than 18,000 employees.