Bud Light Dethroned as America’s Most Popular Beer After Conservative Anti-‘Woke’ Boycotts

Bud Light

Bottles of Bud Light beer sit on a shelf at a grocery store on April 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

For decades, Bud Light was America’s most widely sold beer — until a conservative-led boycott ensued after the brand ran a campaign partnering with the transgender influencer, Dylan Mulvany. The boycott caused sales to plummet, and Modelo now reigns supreme as the most-sold beer in America, according to an article in Forbes.

As part of the campaign, Mulvany received a custom beer can with her face on it and snapped a photo for her Instagram page.

Shortly after the Instagram posts went live, multiple Anheuser-Busch facilities received anonymous threats, including a bomb threat at one of the facilities in Los Angeles.

A boycott of Bud Light ensued, and sales continued to drop. Some conservatives have joined a “woke-free” marketplace named Public Sq., that promotes conservative-leaning businesses, per an article in Newsweek.

Over the course of a four-week period that ended June 3, 8.4% of retail beer sales were Modelo, while Bud Light dropped to 7.3%. This concludes a two-month drop in Bud Light sales that have fallen more than 24% below where they were a year ago, per Forbes.

The brand’s choice to partner with Mulvany seemed like an effort to engage with younger audiences who spend their time on TikTok.

Mulvany’s account had an impressive 10.8 million followers, making her a good candidate for the partnership.

Other celebrities are facing heat for supporting Bud Light, including Garth Brooks, as reported by Insider.

The country music singer received backlash for saying he would serve all brands of beer at his new bar, including Bud Light.

“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 said, per Insider. “And yes, we’re going to serve every brand of beer. We 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.”

Brooks’ comment about other places on lower Broadway in Nashville could have been a veiled reference to Kid Rock’s Steakhouse.

The MAGA icon posted a video of himself using a semi-automatic rifle to shoot bullets at cases of Bud Light. Rock’s video was posted in response to the beer brand’s campaign supporting Mulvany.

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Cynthia Mersten is a former editor for Bottle Raiders and has worked in the Beverage Industry for eight years. She started her career in wine and spirits distribution and sold brands like Four Roses, High West and Compass Box to a variety of bars and restaurants in the city she calls home: Los Angeles. Cynthia is a lover of all things related to wine, spirits and story and holds a BA from UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film and Television. Besides writing, her favorite pastimes are photography and watching movies with her husband.