Bud Light’s parent company issued a generic statement following pointed criticism from former marketing partner, transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. In the statement, Anheuser-Busch said that it was committed to “LGBTQ+” causes despite a significant public boycott while a former executive called for the company’s current CEO to resign.
“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 an Instagram post on Thursday.
Mulvaney described facing “bullying and transphobia” as the result of the April marketing partnership announced on social media.
“I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me, but they never did,” Mulvaney said.
Bud Light lost over $27 billion since the Dylan Mulvaney ad
Target lost $15 billion in market cap since the Pride boycott began
Disney lost $890 million at the box office on their last 8 releases
The NHL banned LGBTQ team jerseys
We have officially made Pride toxic
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) June 25, 2023
Following Mulvaney’s post, the beer brand issued a statement stating that it remained “committed to the programs and partnerships we have forged over decades with organizations across a number of communities, including those in the LGBTQ+ community.”
The company said that the “privacy and safety of our employees and our partners is always our top priority,” adding that it would “focus on what we do best — brewing great beer for everyone and earning our place in moments that matter to our consumers.”
Bud Light sales plummeted nearly 25% following the announcement of the marketing campaign and the beer brand recently lost its position as the most-sold beer in the United States to Modelo Especial.
Anson Frericks, the former president of Anheuser-Busch’s sales and distribution, called for current CEO Brendan Whitworth to resign following the Mulvaney-linked boycott.
The former beer executive wrote that “Whitworth has clearly shown himself to be incapable of solving the Mulvaney crisis. He’s had multiple chances and he’s failed.”
He specifically cited the decision to work with Mulvaney, which he said had cost the company at least $20 billion in stock value.
Frericks also described Whitworth’s response to Mulvaney’s recent criticism as “predictably weak and indecisive” and that the generic statement meant “absolutely nothing.”
“And it will only deepen the chasm between the brand and its customers,” he wrote.
