The damage from Bud Light’s poorly thought-out decision to feature transgender TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney in an ad campaign that alienated customers has now been revealed.
According to a CNN report, Bud Light’s parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev may have lost $1.4 billion in sales as a result of the ill-fated move by a “woke” marketing exec to reboot the popular brand’s image by hooking up with the controversial figure for the cringe-worthy ads that sent beer drinkers in search of other alternatives
The global brewing company reported record revenues but its “full growth potential was constrained” where sales suffered as a result of backlash over the Mulvaney fiasco with subsequent ad campaigns doing little to mitigate the damage of what could go down as one of the most disastrous marketing decisions in business history.
(Video: YouTube/Los Angeles Magazine)
“From May through February, Bud Light recovered only 1.2 percentage points of lost market share, CEO Michel Doukeris told investors Thursday. The pace of the recovery is picking up, he said, but it’s still only 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points every three to four weeks,” according to CNN.
“It’s not at the fast pace that we were expecting or that we’ve been working for. But nevertheless, progress is in place,” Doukeris said.
While the firestorm against Bud Light has somewhat died down since the Mulvaney ad debuted during last year’s “March Madness” NCAA college basketball tournament, sales have yet to fully recover and it could be a while as it seems nothing will be able to wash away the bad taste of promoting a lifestyle that millions of customers view as repulsive.
“In the US, performance remains very underwhelming with revenue down at double-digit rates as the group lost market share,” CNN quotes online investing platform Hargreaves Lansdown equity analyst Aarin Chiekrie.
In the aftermath of the epically bad judgment by Harvard-educated former marketing executive Alissa Heinerscheid who badly miscalculated when she sought to revamp the brand’s “fratty” and “out of touch” image, the company has tried to repair the damage.
A return to the sort of advertising of yore has largely fallen flat and not even teaming up with NFL legends Peyton Manning and Emmitt Smith to appeal to beer-drinking football fans to boost sales has overcome the Mulvaney debacle.
(YouTube/Bud Light)
The brand got some props from former President Donald J. Trump who encouraged conservatives to let bygones be bygones.
“The Bud Light ad was a mistake of epic proportions, and for that a very big price was paid, but Anheuser-Busch is not a Woke company, but I can give you plenty that are, am building a list, and might just release it for the World to see,” Trump said on Truth Social the week before the Super Bowl, which featured more traditional Bud Light advertising. “Why not, the Radical Left does it viciously to well run, Conservative companies – and people! Very nasty, but it’s the way they play the game!”
“As we reflect on 2023, while our full potential was constrained, the fundamental strengths of our business drove another year of consistent profitable growth. Beer is a large, profitable and growing category, gaining share of alcohol globally and with significant headroom for premiumization. Our diversified footprint, global scale and unparalleled ecosystem uniquely position us to lead and grow the category,” the company said in its earnings report.
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