In-store sales of Bud Light dropped 26 percent in the final week of April following consumer pushback in the wake of the company’s decision to partner with transgender social-media personality Dylvan Mulvaney.
Figures released by Bump Williams Consulting, a firm that specializes in the alcohol beverage market, found Bud Light sales have progressively slumped throughout the month of April. In the second week of the month, they were down 11 percent and plummeted 21 percent the following week.
Overall sales are now reportedly down 8 percent on the year, jeopardizing parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev’s position as the market leader.
“I think it runs the risk of losing that No. 1 position at the end of calendar year 2023 to Modelo Especial,” Bump Williams, the market research company chief, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Monday.
In early April, Bud Light sent Mulvaney decorative cans of beer featuring the influencer’s face as part of a promotion paired with March Madness. Alissa Heinerscheid, Bud Light’s recent marketing manager, was the brainchild behind the scheme and sought to rejuvenate the brand by “shifting the tone.”
“It means having a campaign that’s truly inclusive and feels lighter and brighter and different and appeals to women and to men. And representation is sort of at the heart of evolution.”
The company has defended the partnership as part of a broader campaign to attract new customers.
“Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics. From time to time we produce unique commemorative cans for fans and for brand influencers, like Dylan Mulvaney,” a spokesperson for Anheuser-Busch told the Post-Dispatch on Monday.
Heinerscheid’s “big miss was I don’t think she understood who the core Bud Light shopper was. When she came out with her comments, they were deemed as being derogatory, insulting and juvenile. And the Bud Light drinkers said ‘Enough of that,’” Williams told the Post-Dispatch.
The sponsorship deal also frustrated many with the company’s embrace of identity politics.
Kid Rock, the musician, filmed a video of him shooting a bunch of Bud Light cans. “Let me say something to all of you and be as clear and concise as possible,” the singer says before loading a firearm and emptying the entire magazine into three boxes of Bud Light.
According to the marketing executive, sales have increased for Bud Light competitors — namely, Miller Lite and Coors Light amid the controversy.
“Right now their compass is completely broken. There’s no game plan,” Williams concluded.
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