Bud Light backlash: How the fallout from the Dylan Mulvaney promotion started, and all the chaos that ensued

In the video, Mulvaney, 26, talked about a March Madness contest sponsored by Bud Light, and how she was celebrating her "day 365 of womanhood." She said the brand sent her the beer cans, including one that featured a custom design of her face, to celebrate her one year of transitioning.

After Mulvaney posted the video featuring Bud Light, both Mulvaney and the beer brand were promptly met with a wave of anti-trans backlash.

Prominent figures, including commentator Ben Shapiro and Donald Trump Jr., commented on the Mulvaney partnership, with the latter calling for an end to the boycott. Conservative singer Kid Rock posted a video on his Instagram where he is shown shooting a gun at cases of Bud Light beer.

Source: Insider, Insider

"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," an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson told BuzzFeed News on April 4.

"From time to time, we produce unique commemorative cans for fans and for brand influencers, like Dylan Mulvaney," the statement from Anheuser-Busch read. "This commemorative can was a gift to celebrate a personal milestone and is not for sale to the general public."

Source: Insider

A pinned comment on Nike's Instagram said, "Hate speech, bullying, or other behaviors that are not in the spirit of a diverse and inclusive community will be deleted."

On April 7, Mulvaney posted a video on Instagram of her singing on "No One is Alone," with a caption that read: "This song felt fitting for the week I've been having. All is well!"

Then on April 11, Mulvaney spoke out about the criticism she received 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.

"It's so sad because everything I try to put out is positive." Mulvaney said. "It's trying to connect with others that maybe don't understand me. It's to make people laugh, or to make a kid feel seen."

"We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer," the statement read.

The executive, Alissa Heinerscheid, was replaced by the global vice president of Budweiser, Todd Allen.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the vice president of marketing for Anheuser-Busch's mainstream brands, Daniel Blake, was also taking a leave of absence.

Sales of the beer product in the US dipped 17% by mid-April, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing data from Bump Williams Consulting that was analyzed by Nielsen. In that same period, competitors Coors Light and Miller Light saw their own sales jump nearly 18%, the Journal reported.

Doukeris sought to downplay the Bud Light controversy saying: "This was one can, one influencer, one post, and not a campaign." Doukeris reiterated the point twice on the call. 

On the call, Doukeris clarified that Mulvaney's custom beer can was not made for production or sale to the general public, and the promotion was one post, rather than a formal campaign or advertisement.

Source: Insider

She indirectly referred to the backlash she faced following the Bud Light promotion, telling 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."

The brand said it would give out free cases of beer to the employees of its distributors. Some employees who spoke with The Wall Street Journal in May said they experienced declines in sales and harassment from angry customers. 

Bud Light is still trying to smooth over distributor relations. At the end of May, Bud Light told distributors it would buy back beer that had expired after sitting unsold because of the boycott, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The year before, the advocacy group had given Anheuser-Busch its highest equality rating — a score that weighs a company's corporate policies, practices, and benefits for LGBTQ+ employees.

In response, an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson told Insider that the company remains "committed to the programs and partnerships we have forged over decades with organizations to drive economic prosperity across a number of communities, including those in the LGBTQ+ community."

Source: Insider

At the time, Target told Insider it was pulling some items from the collection because staff had "experienced threats impacting our team members' sense of safety and wellbeing while at work."

"Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior," a Target spokesperson said in a statement for Insider.

The outdoor apparel brand faced calls for a boycott for its "Summer of Pride" campaign, which featured drag queen Pattie Gonia. But the brand stood by its campaign.   

But this wavering LGBTQ+ support could lead to greater reputational problems for brands, Vanitha Swaminathan, the director of the Katz Center for Branding at the University of Pittsburgh's business school, previously told Insider. 

"Problems arise when brands do things inconsistently. When they seem to take a stance and then back away from that, it seems to be that consumers think that that's very gimmicky and they don't forgive a brand for doing that," Swaminathan told Insider. "We call this corporate hypocrisy." 

Even if the beer brand were to experience some improvement to sales in the coming months, the analysis predicted Anheuser-Busch's US sales volume could drop 12% to 13% on an annual basis.

The singer announced he would sell "every brand of beer" — including Bud Light — at his new Nashville bar. 

"I want it to be a place you feel safe in, I want it to be a place where you feel like there are manners and people like one another," Brooks told Billboard in an interview. "And yes, we're going to serve every brand of beer. We just are. It's not our decision to make. Our thing is this: if you [are let] into this house, love one another. If you're an asshole, there are plenty of other places on lower Broadway." 

Source: Insider

Bud Light ceded its title as the best-selling beer brand in the US to Modelo Especial, after Bud Light sales dropped by 23% in May, according to data compiled by consumer-behavior research firm Circana that was previously shared with Insider. 

US CEO Brendan Whitworth wrote in a statement: "Over the last two months, the discussion surrounding our company and Bud Light has moved away from beer, and this has impacted our consumers, our business partners, and our employees."

Whitworth said the company will provide financial assistance to the beer brand's independent wholesalers to support their employees. 

And future advertising for the beer brand will get back to "what you've always loved" about Bud Light, Whitworth said.

Source: Insider

The US CEO, Brendan Whitworth, was asked in the interview about where the brand stands on LGBTQ+ rights. When asked whether the brand would do the promotion with Mulvaney all over again, Whitworth stopped short of answering the question.

"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. It's happening in retail, happening in fast food," Whitworth told CBS. 

"For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse in my opinion than not hiring a trans person at all because it gives customers permission to be as transphobic and hateful as they want," Mulvaney said in the video.

"As we've said, we remain committed to the programs and partnerships we have forged over decades with organizations across a number of communities, including those in the LGBTQ+ community," an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson said in a statement to Insider.

"The privacy and safety 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 earning our place in moments that matter to our consumers."

The video clip posted to Bud Light's Twitter and Instagram showed a woman eating a watermelon, a Bud Light can on a picnic table behind her, while severe wind whips trash and sends people scurrying. The post is captioned, "It's fine, this is fine," echoing a popular meme that originated from a comic strip featuring a cartoon dog smiling and sipping coffee while flames consume his house.

Public relations experts called the post a mistake. Larry Kopp, founder of TASC Group, a public relations and communications firm focused on socially progressive clients, said the post "reinforced the idea that Anheuser-Busch caused the problem, and they're sitting back and letting the problem continue around them. They've damaged their relationship with their main customer base and the LGBTQ+ community." 

Anson Frericks, president of Strive Asset Management, is calling for Anheuser-Busch's US CEO, Whitworth, to resign. Strive is an investing firm that stands against ESG, or environmental, social, and governance, policies.

Frericks was president of sales and distribution at Anheuser-Busch before leaving the company to start Strive. He criticized Whitworth's handling of the backlash, saying the CEO's response failed to "address the problem head-on" and "continued to divide customers and hurt their sales."

"Until we find a CEO that is going to address this head-on, I don't think this situation is going to go away," Frericks told Insider. "In the best interest of shareholders, they need to find a CEO who will address this head on. We'll continue to see sales drop, and shelf space at retailers lost, and that will put thousands of people's jobs at risk, both at Anheuser-Busch and at wholesalers partners."

The Republican presidential candidate suggested Florida pursue legal action against Anheuser-Busch in a letter sent to Florida's pension fund manager, which was obtained by CNN. In the letter, which was sent on July 20, DeSantis wrote that Anheuser-Busch "breached legal duties owed to its shareholders" and that the beer company associated itself with "radical social ideologies." 

The letter was sent to Lamar Taylor, interim director of the state board that oversees Florida's retirement funds for public workers, CNN reported. DeSantis is also a trustee on the board.

"We must prudently manage the funds of Florida's hardworking law enforcement officers, teachers, firefighters, and first responders in a manner that focuses on growing returns, not subsidizing an ideological agenda through woke virtue signaling," DeSantis wrote in the letter.

Source: CNN, CNN

After months of lagging sales, Anheuser-Busch said they laid off less than 2% of its 18,000 US employees, as first reported by the WSJ. Corporate and marketing positions were impacted, but frontline jobs, including in its breweries and warehouses, were unaffected by the layoffs.

"While we never take these decisions lightly, we want to ensure that our organization continues to be set for future long-term success," Anheuser-Busch's US CEO Brendan Whitworth said in a written statement sent to Insider. "These corporate structure changes will enable our teams to focus on what we do best — brewing great beer for everyone."

Source: Insider, WSJ

The percentage of Bud Light beer drinkers who said they were "very unlikely" to buy the beer in the next 3 to 6 months dropped from 18% in June and July to 3% this month, according to a survey from Deutsche Bank. Deutsche Bank said that US consumer sentiment toward the beer brand had been moving in a more positive direction over the last two months. That means, after months of dwindling sales, Bud Light sales in the US could start experiencing an uptick.