Bud Light, a brand owned by Anheuser-Busch, lost $3 billion in market value after it partnered up with a transgender social media influencer.
On March 31, the beer company was worth $132 billion. The company said on April 1 that it would work with trans activist Dylan Mulvaney.
People reacted quickly. Kid Rock, a musician, put up a video of him shooting cases of beer. Then Travis Tritt and John Rich, two country music stars, said bad things about the beer company.
The Daily Mail said that Anheuser-Busch’s share price fell to $64.96 on Tuesday, which made the company worth $3 billion less.
Even though it took a big hit, Anheuser-Busch still works with Mulvaney.
Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics and passion points,
vice president of marketing Alissa Gordon Heinerscheid said.
From time to time, we produce unique commemorative cans for fans and for brand influencers, like Dylan Mulvaney. This commemorative can was a gift to celebrate a personal milestone and is not for sale to the general public,
she said.
In the South, Anheuser-Busch distributors were “spooked” by the backlash and have been placing fewer orders.
We reached out to a handful of A-B [Anheuser-Busch] distributors who were spooked, most particularly in the Heartland and the South, and even then in their more rural areas,
according to a Beer Business Daily report reviewed by Fox News.
Consumers across the U.S. have turned against Bud Light since the news came out, say bar owners and beer industry experts from all over the country.
I think society flexes its muscles sometimes and reminds manufacturers that the consumer is still in charge,
Jeff Fitter, the owner of Case & Bucks, a restaurant and sports bar in Barnhart, Missouri, told Fox Business.
In Bud Light’s effort to be inclusive, they excluded almost everybody else, including their traditional audience.
Fitter said that over the past week, sales of bottled Anheuser-Busch products fell by 30%, while sales of draft beer fell by 50%.
Bud sales fell everywhere, not just at Case & Bucks. Brewhouse owner Alex Kesaris told Fox that 80% of Bud Light drinkers ordered something else this week and that the 20% who did order the beer “weren’t on social media and hadn’t heard yet.”
A national beer industry analyst told Fox Business that Bud Light’s move was a “bad decision” that broke “almost every rule in building brands and marketing.”
The analyst gave an example from Texas, where Bud Light has sponsored a weekly dart league for a long time. Every Thursday, more than 100 people play in the league. During the event, the bar usually goes through three kegs of Bud Light, which is about 500 12-ounce glasses.
The bar only sold four bottles of Bud Light this week.
