When the news first broke about Bud Light’s ill-fated TikTok deal with pretend transgender (yes, that’s redundant) man-child Dylan Mulvaney, millions of Americans were astounded. How could a company that’s spent decades and millions of dollars building strong brand loyalty make such a brain-dead decision?
Yes, the decision was placed solely on the shoulders of the now-departed (“on leave”) marketing director whose name is irrelevant, but how could a company like Anheuser-Busch (now owned by Belgium’s InBev) allow one individual — who was clearly agenda-driven — to make that call?
As we reported on April 27, Bud Light sales had fallen by 17 percent since the Mulvaney nightmare began. Speaking of Mulvaney, he now wants people who call him a man to be arrested.
As Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh asked, “Do you still think I’ve (we’ve) been too mean to this guy?”
Dylan Mulvaney calls for the arrest of people who call him a man. Do you still think I’ve been too mean to this guy?
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) April 28, 2023
That’s enough about the current shiny trans hood ornament, but not nearly enough about the continuing backlash against Bud from Americans of all stripes — beer drinkers and non-beer drinkers, alike.
As reported by Barron’s on Monday, Bud Light sales continue to plummet, with no end in sight.
Beer Business Daily reported Sunday that Bud LIght’s off-premise sales volume–the amount of beer sold outside of restaurants and bars–was down 26.1% from a year earlier in the week ended April 22, based on scan data.
Volumes were down 21.1% in the prior week, while so far this year, Bud Light volumes are down 8%. The figures include sales at grocery stores, convenience stores, and liquor stores.
Beer Business Daily said on its website:
The shocking deterioration of Bud Light Blue’s market share continued apace through the third week of April–and actually somehow worsened. We’ve never seen such a dramatic shift in national share in such a short period of time.
Not to pile on, but the Bud Light brand deserves every bit of it.
This fiasco has less to do with some dude pretending to be a teenage girl fleecing companies like Anheuser-Busch, Nike, and Maybelline, and more about the mindset of beer drinkers. Whether they prefer near-tasteless beers like Bud Light, Miller Lite, or Coors Light, or Lagers, Stouts, or IPAs, beer drinkers tend to be loyal to a particular beer.
So (how do I ask this, tactfully?) why in the hell would Bud Light make such a dumbass, brain-dead decision to risk its fan base with a ridiculous freak — in the name of so-called “inclusion”?
Simply the most dumbfounding mistake to come down the pike in a while.
And the hell of it? Will other companies inclined to make similar decisions take heed?
What do you think? [winking emoji]
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