The boycott of Bud Light has continued apace for many Americans following the company’s disastrous decision to showcase transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney as a brand ambassador. What started with a custom-made can and a few short videos has culminated in huge losses for Anheuser-Busch, and there’s no sign those customers are coming back into the fold anytime soon.

Perhaps that’s behind this latest move. According to a report from The Daily Caller, Bud Light has finally fired the two executives behind the Mulvaney stunt. That comes after they were initially put on “leave” at the outset of the public blowup.

EXCLUSIVE: SOURCE: Top Anheuser-Busch Marketing Executives Behind Boycott Are No Longer Employed

Read my latest for @DailyCaller here first: https://t.co/LzmNP9fv99

— Henry Rodgers (@henryrodgersdc) June 27, 2023

he two top Anheuser-Busch marketing executives who were placed on leave amid the company shakeup no longer work for the brand, a source inside Anheuser-Busch confirmed in texts obtained by the Daily Caller on Tuesday.

Group Vice President for Marketing Daniel Blake and Bud Light Marketing Vice President Alissa Heinerscheid are “gone gone,” according to obtained text messages with a current regional head of marketing. The Caller is granting anonymity to the source to discuss legally fraught internal company policy.

Apparently, Anheuser-Busch is afraid of getting sued so they aren’t publicly announcing the firings. Alissa Heinerscheid is the woman who spearheaded the marketing campaign with Mulvaney and originally defended it. Per the source, Daniel Blake was more caught up in the crossfire, but ultimately, because he hired Heinerscheid, the buck stopped with him.

“To be fair- Daniel Blake was actually awesome. I think he was just caught in cross fire. But also he did hire her… so that’s a fault,” the source continued.

“Wholesalers were told they are both gone for good by leadership during in person conversations. They already shifted all their direct reports to new people and the head of marketing,” the source added in another text message obtained by the Caller.

This feels a bit too little too late. Had Bud Light moved to actually fire these people immediately upon the Mulvaney videos dropping, there would have been time to rescue the brand. That’s exactly what H&K did when they got caught up in a woke controversy, and they came out stronger in the end, having earned even more trust from their customers.

Bud Light took the opposite approach, slow-walking any response, initially defending Mulvaney before spending weeks beating around the bush about the issue. When it became known that the two executives were placed on leave, that only exacerbated the situation, with people feeling as if they were trying to sweep the incident under the rug.

And while I understand there are legal concerns in firing the executives, how much money would a lawsuit have cost compared to the amount of money that has been lost over the controversy itself? I’d venture to guess that the latter number is much larger.

Bud Light completely misplayed this from the beginning. They could have stood up for their customers right away and stopped the freight train that ultimately plowed into them. Instead, they tip-toed around the matter until the boycott solidified, and to be frank, I don’t think many of those customers are coming back at this point. This is no longer about an organized boycott. It’s about learned behavior pushed by a company’s really dumb decision to jump into the cultural wars.