Bud Light, the largest beer brand in the U.S. before the Dylan Mulvaney transgender furor, has suffered a 17% decline in dollar sales and a 34.7% plunge in volume at restaurants and bars, the New York Post reports.
“These numbers are staggering,” says beer industry newsletter Insights Express of the figures through the week ended April 15. “Right now, this is an extremely difficult scenario for Anheuser Busch, the Bud Light brand and for AB distributors.”
Bar, Restaurant Sales Plunge
Bar and restaurant volume for Bud Light between April 2 and April 15 collapsed by a stunning 34.7%, according to BeerBoard.
Before transgender influencer Mulvaney’s marketing tie-up debuted on April 1, Bud Light was the No. 1 beer brand in the United States. Since the boycott backlash, Bud Light has lost 6.7% of market share and dropped to No. 4.
Meanwhile, competitors Coors Light and Miller Lite are cleaning up, with each of their market shares soaring 18% last week. Beer drinkers’ switch from Bud Light to these brands appears to be gaining momentum, as a week earlier, Coors Light’s market share was up 10.6%, while Miller Lite gained 11.5%.
“Coors Light and Miller Lite were once again big beneficiaries,” Insights Express said.
Anheuser-Busch distributors are meeting with company executives Tuesday in Washington, D.C. They “are looking for a much more pointed and well-developed plan on how Anheuser-Busch might stem the onslaught of negative attention and sales trends,” the newsletter says.
Some of the distributors have canceled marketing events featuring the brand’s iconic Clydesdale horses.
Negative Publicity Escalates
Negative publicity for Bud Light and parent company Anheuser Busch has been gaining steam.
Friday and over the weekend, the historic company, founded in 1852 in St. Louis, Missouri, announced that the two marketing executives who were the brains behind the Mulvaney campaign, Alissa Heinerscheid and Daniel Blake, were each taking leaves of absence. Budweiser Global Marketing VP Todd Allen is replacing them.
Beverage consultants Sean McLean and Emily Lynch of Origin Advocacy have also been brought in to give advice on “general policy regarding the alcohol-beverage industry,” according to lobbying disclosure reports filed with the U.S. Senate on April 1.
On April 10, Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth apologized for the controversy surrounding the marketing campaign featuring the male-to-female transgender activist.
"We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people," Whitworth claimed. "We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer."
Whitworth’s mea culpa was broadly panned as “apology lite.”