When we last left you in the Bud Light controversy, they were trying to run away from responsibility for their relationship with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. They tried to blame an outside firm (which they refused to name) for the decision, but managed to trip over their prior statement recognizing his “personal milestone” of his claim of 365 days of being a “girl.”

At this point, they were getting anger from both sides with Chicago LGTBTQ bars saying that they weren’t going to be carrying any Bud Light products if they didn’t support Mulvaney. Bud Light fired the outside firm but still hasn’t heard what their former customers are saying to them.

As I said, if they don’t get the problem, they’re just going to keep stepping in it and bleeding out.

More data is now in and not only is Bud Light’s problem accelerating, people are figuring out the other brands under the Anheuser-Busch label and the problem is spreading.

Nationwide retail sales of Bud Light were down 23.4% versus a year ago in the week of April 29 — worse than the 21.4% decline it suffered a week earlier, according to Bump Williams Consulting and NielsenIQ data.

Meanwhile, as beer drinkers discover how many other beer brands fall under the Anheuser-Busch umbrella, the backlash is widening, according to the fresh data.

The company’s flagship Budweiser brand took an 11.4% sales hit for the week ended April 29. Sales of Bud’s Michelob Ultra brand — the third-biggest-selling in the US behind No. 1 Bud Light and No. 2 Modelo Especial — were down 4.4%, according to Bump Williams data.

“It’s not just a Bud Light issue,” said Bump Williams, chief executive of the consultancy.

“It’s an Anheuser-Busch portfolio problem now.”

Anheuser-Busch’s smaller US brands also got dinged, with its Natural Light brand down 5.2% and its Busch Light seeing a 1.8% drop.

As Anheuser-Busch brands are cratering, their rivals are on the rise, as former customers are now running to Coors Light and Miller, with each up more than 20 percent.

On top of that, Outkick’s Clay Travis conducted a “free experiment” which showed just how toxic Bud Light is at this point. He offered people at a concert in Nashville free cans of beer from a cooler. He had three different types in the cooler, including Bud Light, and told people to pick whichever one they wanted.

He then posted another video showing the cooler with almost exclusively Bud Light, as the people picked the other beers all night and actively avoided the Bud Light.

Overall consumption of Bud Light is now down 26%. That’s an unmitigated disaster for the brand. And many are now avoiding the beer to avoid being mocked for drinking the beer. There’s no quick fix here, brand is slaughtered in red state beer drinking communities. Bet there is…

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) May 8, 2023

Travis said that was “big issue going forward for Bud Light is many don’t even want to be seen with [the] product. They just pick another brand.”

“There’s no quick fix here, brand is slaughtered in red state beer drinking communities,” he went on to say.

Anheuser-Busch can keep trying to wiggle out of the issue and run away from responsibility. But the problem just keeps getting worse and now is toxic to their whole line. At this point, I’m not even sure what they could do to resolve it.