Anheuser-Busch’s stock downgraded due to “Bud Light Crisis.”

Anheuser-Busch InBev Downgraded After “Bud Light Crisis”

Anheuser-Busch InBev has been downgraded by an HSBC analyst after the company produced a can with the face of a transgender influencer, anheuser-busch-stock-downgraded-as-it-deals-with-bud-light-crisis/” title=”Anheuser-Busch’s stock downgraded due to “Bud Light Crisis.””>sparking widespread backlash. Carlos Laboy, with the banking giant, downgraded the company’s stock to “hold,” saying there are “deeper problems than ABI admits” after the social media partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney was announced.

Leadership and Management Questioned

Amid the controversy, Laboy also questioned the company’s management in his note. Last month, Anheuser-Busch confirmed that two executives would be departing the company, including one—Bud Light marketing vice president Alissa Heinerscheid—who gave an interview saying that the brand should ditch its “fratty” branding to become more “inclusive.”

• Why did its U.S. leadership underestimate the risk of pushback given the recent experience of other firms?
• Is A-B hiring the best people to grow the brands and gauge risk?
• If Budweiser and Bud Light are iconic American ideas that have long brought consumers together, why did these marketers fail to invite new consumers without alienating the core base of the firm’s largest brand?

But Laboy noted that the company’s strength overseas is helping its stock. Anheuser-Busch has not responded to an Epoch Times request for comment.

Boycott and Sales Drop

Months before the boycott and controversy, UBS downgraded Anheuser-Busch as it warned the company could see sales drop due to post-pandemic trends. Sales for Bud Light since the Mulvaney controversy erupted plunged 23.4 percent year over year in the last week of April, according to Nielsen data. The company’s flagship Budweiser brand also took a 11.4 percent hit in sales for the week ended April 29, while other Anheuser-Busch-owned properties also saw declines in sales, the data show.

Beer Business Daily also reported that Anheuser-Busch sales are down overall by 12.5 percent. Molson Coors’ overall sales is up 7.6 percent, it also said.

Marketing Mistake

Robert Lachky, the former chief creative officer at Anheuser-Busch, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Bud Light using a transgender influencer was a major mistake. He suggested that the corporate executives within Anheuser-Busch appear to be out of touch with the consumer base.

• “The minute you step into the political or religious spectrum, when you know your target audience is going to have a real issue with this, you know you’ve alienated at least half of your target audience,” he said.
• “In the end, people don’t like getting preached to, especially when it comes to drinking beer.”
• “None of these marketing folks has ever been to a NASCAR race, none has been to a football game or a rodeo.”