MAGA Boycott of Bud Light’s Partnership With Dylan Mulvaney Cost Anheuser-Busch Over $1 Billion in 2023
The Bud Light brand has lost 1.4 billion nearly one year after the Dylan Mulvaney controversy. (Photo: AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
CNN reported at the end of February that Anheuser-Busch reported $1.4 billion in losses in 2023, thanks in large part to the conservative-led boycott of Bud Light after the brand’s incendiary Dylan Mulvaney partnership.
Anheuser-Busch claimed in a revenue report that in North America, its revenue dropped due to a staggering loss of volume in sales.
The New York Post reported in June that the boycott hurt employees and distributors, as well, and those working with Anheuser-Busch were threatened with “car horns, middle fingers and jokes.”
“This has really, really killed a lot of guys who are commission-based,” a supervisor explained according to ABC News. “There’s nothing they could’ve done — this was thrown in their faces.”
The Bud Light Boycott Timeline Nearly 1 Year After the Dylan Mulvaney Controversy
On April 1, Bud Light teamed up with Dylan Mulvaney and put a photo of Mulvaney’s face on a can as she celebrated the first year after her transition.
The Daily Mail reported that Conservative women blasted the influencer on social media. A woman with the account “MAGA Barbie,” posted a photo of herself with the caption: “Today I celebrate 12,620 days of real womanhood. Where’s my sponsorship?” and tagged Bud Light.
By mid-April, multiple Anheuser-Busch facilities received bomb threats, and Kid Rock uploaded a video of himself shooting a machine gun at a stack of Bud Light cases while saying “F–k Bud Light” and “F–k Anheuser-Busch.”
The beer brand put two marketing executives, including Alissa Heinerscheid, on leave according to The Standard. Heinerscheid allegedly spearheaded the 365 Days of Girlhood campaign, which featured Mulvaney.
“I had a really clear job to do when I took over Bud Light, and it was: ‘This brand is in decline, it’s been in decline for a long time, and if we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand, there will be no future for Bud Light,'” Heinerscheid said during an interview with the podcast “Make Yourself at Home.“
Yet, it appears Heinerscheid’s efforts did not resonate with the brand’s core clientele.
“At its core it usually appeals to white American men and represents a certain lifestyle,” Beth Demmon, the author of The Beer Lover’s Guide to Cider, explained to The Guardian. “Football, nachos, BBQs, traditional suburban family dynamics, that sort of thing. It’s a stereotype that exists from years of very careful, specific and strategic marketing studies and campaigns, and it’s worked for a long time.”
Bud Light was dethroned by Modelo as the U.S.’s most popular beer in June.
Multiple rounds of layoffs were reported in July, showing signs of trouble for Anheuser-Busch.
By the time August rolled around, one of the figureheads of the boycott appeared to have changed his mind about the brand. Kid Rock was spotted out and about with a Bud Light merely three months after the boycott began.
In October, it was reported that the beer brand was was offering $150 million in “relief” funding to keep the brand on shelves.
In November, Anheuser-Busch’s chief marketing officer resigned.
It appears 2024 is all about the brand getting back in touch with its main base. In early February, Bud Light announced a partnership with Shane Gillis, a comedian who was fired from Saturday Night Live for using racial and homophobic slurs in a podcast.
Kid Rock spoke out in favor of the brand on “The Joe Rogan Experience” at the end of February, claiming the folks over at Bud Light had learned their lesson.
Even the current Republican presidential front-runner, Donald Trump, has expressed support for the brand, asking those on the MAGA front to give it another chance that month.
Whether this was at the behest of UFC President Dana White remains to be seen, as outlets reported that White may have asked the former president for a favor after the brand was made the Official Beer of the UFC.
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