A Bud Light distributor in Alabama made a public plea to get customers to come back who left the brand when it created a can featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney’s face on it.
Steve Tatum of the Montgomery, Alabama-based Bama Budweiser distributor ran a radio commercial on multiple local stations asking customers to buy Bud Light again. Sales of Bud Light were notably down in April and the first week of May, as were sales of other Anheuser-Busch products, as a result of the Mulvaney backlash.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER“We, too, at Bama Budweiser, are upset about it and have made our feelings known to the top leadership at Anheuser-Busch,” Tatum said in the ad, according to numerous news outlets. “The voice of the consumer has been heard, and Anheuser-Busch has taken action.”
Tatum, like Anheuser-Busch’s executives, attempted to separate Bud Light from Mulvaney, a biological male who uploaded the custom-made Bud Light can and with the hashtag “#BudLightPartner” in early April, eliciting widespread condemnation from consumers and conservative celebrities. Several renowned country musicians, including Travis Tritt and John Rich, have stated that they will not serve the drink, while Kid Rock has posted a video of himself shooting cases of Bud Light with a rifle.
“We, at Bama Budweiser, an independent wholesaler, employ around 100 people who live here, work here, and our children go to school here,” Tatum stated in the advertisement. “We do not, and as I said before, did not support this issue involving Dylan Mulvaney. There was one single can made. It was not for sale and wasn’t properly approved. As a result, the Bud Light brand has new leadership,” he added.
Learn to weld. Or, at least pick a different beer to distribute because it’s not looking good for Anheuser-Busch. They lost 25% of revenue since the commercial. People are not going to come back because they don’t believe the CEO’s statement. They think the company chose to go woke to satisfy the crazy leftists in the transgender political world and it cost them dearly. Then, they tried to win consumers back by producing a pro-American commercial and a lame letter from the CEO not apologizing and not taking sides. He didn’t even say the company made a mistake. Red state Americans are sick and tired of the wokeness and when they saw Bud Light enter that arena, it was just too much for them.
“Dylan Mulvaney is not under contract with Bud Light. The videos you may have seen are Mulvaney’s own social media posts that went viral, and many web-based news outlets have distorted the story. You deserve to know the truth, and life is too short to let a couple of individuals decide what you can eat or drink or spend your hard-earned money on. And remember, making friends is our business, not enemies.”
According to the most recent industry data, Bud Light sales fell by 23.6 percent in the week ending May 6, according to Beer Business Daily, which used Nielsen IQ data. Beer sales fell by 23.3 percent in the final week of April.
“Trends aren’t getting much worse, but certainly not getting any better either,” Beer Business Daily said on the findings.
Tatum told AL.com that his ad campaign has garnered great feedback. He claims, however, that he has received no reaction from Anheuser-Busch or Bud Light corporate authorities.
“I’m just trying to look after Bama Budweiser,” he explained. “I’ve worked too hard to give all of it away.”
“I felt like we had to get a message out there,” the distributor told Newsweek.
“We are tied to a corporation, but that’s not necessarily our beliefs in our market here in Alabama.”
According to industry figures, Anheuser-Busch product sales fell 9.7 percent in the first week of May, a little improvement from the 11.4 percent dip in late April. Anheuser-Busch, headquartered in the Netherlands, also produces Budweiser, Michelob, Stella Artois, and Beck’s beers, among others.
Anheuser-Busch CEO Michel Doukeris recently told the Financial Times that his company believes the Bud Light boycott was sparked by “misinformation and confusion” on social media, and he sought to distance his brand from Mulvaney. Doukeris stated that Mulvaney was not a part of an official marketing effort and that “one can” with Mulvaney’s face on it was made.
“It was one post. It was not an advertisement,” Doukeris explained to the news source. He stated that the viral videos of billboards with images of the Bud Light can with Mulvaney’s face on it were made “electronically,” but he did not address why Mulvaney tweeted the hashtag implying a partnership on social media.
Initially, Anheuser-Busch USA CEO Brendan Whitworth issued a statement that made no mention of the boycott or the Mulvaney collaboration. The corporation “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people,” he added in a statement that conservatives slammed.
Meanwhile, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s stock was recently downgraded by an HSBC analyst, who stated that the company is currently struggling with a “Bud Light crisis” of sorts. According to the analyst, there are “deeper problems” than Anheuser-Busch would like to confess publicly after its marketing involvement with the transgender influencer became a heated topic.
While some analysts and experts believe that boycotts of huge firms are rarely effective, Anson Frericks, a former Anheuser-Busch executive, stated this week that the Bud Light boycott is actually working.
“Now, the tide has turned. A poll conducted earlier this year shows that 68 percent of Americans think that companies that speak out on social issues do it as a marketing ploy,” he said. “And a study out earlier this month shows that Americans are much more likely to distrust institutions they view as politicized—even when they take political positions that align with their views. In today’s heated political environment, the surest course for companies—particularly those in high-visibility, competitive markets—is to focus on their brand and stay out of the debates.”
