ST. LOUIS — Sales of Bud Light have been plunging since the company enlisted the help of transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in a marketing campaign a month ago.
In the week that ended April 22, the brand’s in-store sales plummeted more than 26%, according to figures reported by Bump Williams Consulting, a Connecticut-based firm that specializes in the alcoholic beverage industry.
And the decline is only accelerating. The week before, sales dropped by 21%. The week before that, it was 11%.
Bud Light is still the bestselling beer in America by far, said Bump Williams, the founder, president and CEO of the agency that bears his name. In 2022, Anheuser-Busch InBev sold more than $4.8 billion worth of it in stores, he said, far outpacing Modelo Especial ($3.75 billion) and Michelob Ultra ($3.3 billion).
But if the company can’t stop the decline in sales, especially as the peak beer-drinking summer season approaches, “then Bud Light is in serious trouble this year. And I think it runs the risk of losing that No. 1 position at the end of calendar year 2023 to Modelo Especial,†Williams said.
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Already, sales are off 8% for the year.
In early April, Anheuser-Busch sent a can of Bud Light to the 26-year-old Mulvaney with a picture of her face on it. The influencer posted a brief video of herself on TikTok — in black gown and black gloves — drinking a Bud Light, noting that the promotion was part of March Madness and joking that she did not know what sport that was for.
An Anheuser-Busch spokesperson said Monday, “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.
“This commemorative can was a gift to celebrate a personal milestone and is not for sale to the general public.â€
The blowback was swift. Within days, singer Kid Rock posted a video of him shooting cases of the beer. A couple of weeks later, model and influencer Bri Teresi did the same thing but dressed in an American flag bikini top and firing a semi-automatic rifle.
An informal boycott of Bud Light ensued by people protesting the use of a transgender person in the marketing campaign.
Williams said that when Bud Light brand manager Alissa Gordon Heinerscheid took over marketing for the brand last year, sales of Bud Light were already slumping. She tried to increase sales with this campaign by trying to appeal to a younger, politically progressive market.
“Her 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 said.
Heinerscheid explained the shift in marketing strategy by saying Bud Light previously was “a brand of fratty, kind of out-of-touch humor.†She is now on a leave of absence, along with Daniel Blake, vice president for Anheuser-Busch’s mainstream brands.
During the controversy, sales have shot up for Bud Light’s biggest competitors, Miller Lite and Coors Light, Williams said. What is more, he is beginning to see what is known as a negative halo effect — other Anheuser-Busch brands are suffering because of the dispute.
“I also think that what’s happening now is that anybody that is a Bud Light drinker and switches to Michelob Ultra because they don’t want to be seen holding a Bud Light, someone down the bar is going to say, ‘Hey, buddy, that’s an Anheuser-Busch product you’re holding,’†Williams said.
The slowdown in sales of Michelob Ultra is of particular concern to Anheuser-Busch because it had been one of the fastest-growing brands on the market, said David Steinman, vice president and executive editor at Beer Marketer’s Insights.
Meanwhile, the company is taking heat from all sides, Steinman said. The anti-trans contingent is upset because of the association with Mulvaney, while the progressive contingent is upset by what it sees as backing down from the pro-trans statement made by sending her the beer.
According to Williams, the plunge in sales is hitting beer distributors especially hard, costing them millions of dollars every day. To stop the slide, Anheuser-Busch needs to cooperate with them and come up with a way to entice their former consumers back into the fold, he said.
In addition, the corporation should remember who its customers are and apologize to them for abandoning them in their support of Dylan Mulvaney, he said.
“Right now their compass is completely broken. There’s no game plan,†he said.
