Bud Light sales drop for 5th week due to Mulvaney partnership backlash.

Sales for Bud Light Plummet After Partnership with Transgender Influencer

Retail data from Bump Williams Consulting and NielsenIQ show that sales for Bud Light have continued to decline, dropping 23.6% in the week ended May 6 compared to the same period last year. This is a slightly worse outcome than the 23.3% decline seen for the week ended April 29. The decline in sales is not limited to Bud Light, as other brands marketed by Anheuser-Busch, such as Budweiser, Michelob Ultra, and Natural Light, have also experienced significant drops in sales.

Backlash and Boycotts

The decline in sales has been attributed to the beer brand’s partnership with self-identified transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The fallout against Bud Light and other Anheuser-Busch brands has been a windfall for competitors, with sales of Pabst Blue Ribbon increasing 21.6% year-over-year in the week ended May 6, and Miller High Life seeing sales rise 10.4% in the same period.

Executives at Anheuser-Busch have attempted to remedy relationships with consumers by downplaying the extent of the partnership and even hiring veteran Republican lobbyists in efforts to win back conservatives who once consumed the beer. However, the attempts to back away from Mulvaney have also provoked a response from the opposite end of the political spectrum as leftists demand that Anheuser-Busch “stand in solidarity with Dylan and the trans community” or face a second boycott.

Meanwhile, social media users criticized a recent expletive-filled advertisement from Miller Lite that blasted the beverage industry’s past marketing campaigns which revolved around objectifying bikini-clad models, instead promising to donate fertilizer so that female brewers could grow hops. A spokesperson for Molson Coors, the firm which owns Miller Lite, told media outlets that customers should “appreciate the humor” of the advertisement and insisted that nothing in the campaign should be controversial.

What’s Next for Anheuser-Busch?

Bump Williams, the chief executive of the consulting firm, said in an interview with the New York Post that the company is “running out of time to fix the problem as the summer selling season unofficially started last weekend and Memorial Day is in two weeks.” Anheuser-Busch met with distributors last week to discuss strategies for responding to the backlash, which may include a redesign of Bud Light and Budweiser aluminum bottles.

Williams remarked that weekly declines for Bud Light have “started to settle” in the negative 20% range and said that the typical Bud Light drinker is still “waiting for a genuine and sincere apology” from Anheuser-Busch, as well as a “crystal clear communication on exactly what happened.”

• Bud Light sales declined 23.6% in the week ended May 6 compared to the same period last year
• Other Anheuser-Busch brands, such as Budweiser, Michelob Ultra, and Natural Light, have also experienced significant drops in sales
• Attempts to remedy relationships with consumers have included downplaying the extent of the partnership and hiring veteran Republican lobbyists
• Competitors, such as Pabst Blue Ribbon and Miller High Life, have seen an increase in sales
• Anheuser-Busch may redesign Bud Light and Budweiser aluminum bottles in response to the backlash

It remains to be seen what steps Anheuser-Busch will take to address the decline in sales and win back consumers. In the meantime, competitors are capitalizing on the situation, and consumers are demanding transparency and accountability from the beer brand.