Ted Cruz demands answers from beer giant on Dylan Mulvaney ads he says targets teens

As if Anheuser-Busch didn’t already have enough problems over the Dylan Mulvaney dumpster fire, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is demanding answers from the alcoholic beverage manufacturer over its hookup with the transgender TikToker to promote its Bud Light beer and whether the company partnered with him in an effort to target teens who his schtick is most appealing to.

In terms of brand damage, the company may have a hard time recovering from the disastrous decision by a “woke” Harvard-educated female marketing exec to spruce up the “fratty” image of the formerly popular low-calorie brew by partnering with a failed actor whose name recognition really took off when he began dressing like a woman and acting like an adolescent girl. And the ongoing boycotts of Bud Light which are now spreading to other Anheuser-Busch products will serve as a cautionary lesson to be taught in business schools from now on, but it is a legitimate question if the ad campaign was also an enticement to underaged future customers.

(Video: Fox News)

That is what the Lone Star State Republican aims to find out and on Thursday’s edition of “Fox & Friends” Cruz discussed his scrutiny of the company after he and fellow GOP lawmaker, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) announced they are spearheading a probe into the beer giant as well as sending a letter to the Beer Institute which serves as the beer industry’s self-regulatory body, requesting it “to investigate whether Anheuser-Busch’s partnership with influencer Dylan Mulvaney violates the Beer Institute’s guidelines prohibiting marketing to underage individuals,” according to a press release posted on his website.

“Listen, I can’t think of a company in modern times that has more alienated its customer base and seems to have so little understanding of who it is that actually drinks Bud Light,” Cruz said. “This week, I sent a letter to the CEO of Anheuser-Busch, along with Senator Marsha Blackburn, because the CEO of Anheuser-Busch is also CEO or the chairman of the Beer Institute, which is the regulatory body, the industry regulatory body that regulates itself, and one of the rules that beer companies are supposed to follow is they’re not supposed to market to kids. Remember the whole Joe the Camel thing? This is the same thing here.”

“Well, you know what?” Cruz asked host Brian Kilmeade. “Dylan Mulvaney, a massive percentage of Dylan Mulvaney’s audience are kids, and Budweiser was trying, I believe, with this ill-fated marketing attempt to target teenagers.”

“If you look at things Dylan Mulvaney has online, it’s things like ‘days of girlhood.’ There’s another video where Dylan Mulvaney is singing, ‘My name is Eloise and I am six.’ There’s another one where Dylan Mulvaney is shopping for Barbie dolls,” the senator continued. “These are clearly things aimed at teenagers and even children younger than teenagers, which violates the rules.”

“And so we’re calling on the Beer Institute to investigate the degree to which Anheuser-Busch knowingly was marketing to children in going down this road,” Cruz concluded.

According to the latest figures, Bud Light sales are still tanking and the company is finding out that the brand is so toxic that they can’t even give it away for for free.

“The general demographics of Instagram and TikTok, combined with the pre-pubescent content for girls pushed by Dylan Mulvaney, and informed by comments from Anheuser-Busch’s VP for Marketing regarding young drinkers, should have provided overwhelming evidence to the Beer Institute that Anheuser-Busch’s sponsored social media influencer advertising had both the design and effect of marketing an adult beverage product to an audience whose composition was less than 73.6% individuals of legal drinking age, thus violating the standards required by the Beer Institute,” the senators wrote in their letter.

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Chris Donaldson

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