The Bud Light beer brand took a massive hit over the weekend and sales continue to be down.
Bar owners and beer-industry experts across the US reported that consumers have protested against the nation’s leading beer brand after it took a “reckless” step into the culture wars with its new spokesperson, transgender (biological male) TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney.
“I think society flexes it muscles sometimes and reminds manufacturers that the consumer is still in charge,” Jeff Fitter, owner of Case & Bucks, a restaurant and sports bar in Barnhart, Mo., told Fox Business.
“In Bud Light’s effort to be inclusive, they excluded almost everybody else, including their traditional audience,” he added.
The brand’s maker, Anheuser-Busch, is based in nearby St. Louis. The company sold out to a Belgian conglomerate in the early 2000s.
The owner said that sales of Anheuser-Busch bottled products have dropped by 30% over the past week, while draught beer has plummeted by 50%.
There have been similar stories told around the country.
Braintree Brewhouse, a sports bar located near Boston, Massachusetts, typically sees Bud Light outsell competitors Miller Lite and Coors Light at a rate of 25 to 1. But not over the past week.
According to Brewhouse owner Alex Kesaris, 80% of Bud Light drinkers opted for something else this week, while the remaining 20% who ordered Bud Light were reportedly not aware of the brand’s new transgender spokesperson and were not active on social media.
“They didn’t order it again,” he said after other customers told them about the Bud Light marketing decision.
A bar in Hell’s Kitchen, a New York City neighborhood with a large and vocal gay community, reported a significant drop in Bud Light sales this week. Draft sales of the beer were down 58%, while bottle sales decreased by 70%, according to reports.
The beer brand’s decision to plunge into the culture wars was a “bad decision” that went against “virtually every rule in building brands and marketing,” one national beer-industry analyst told the outlet.
Bud Light has sponsored a weekly dart league with over 100 players on Thursday nights for years, but the controversy led to a massive drop in sales.
“The bar typically sells though three kegs of Bud Light at the event — a total of 495 12-ounce pours,” Fox Business reported, adding: “The bar sold only four 12-ounce Bud Light bottles this week, as the dart players held a mass protest against their league sponsor.”
In a March 30 interview with the “Make Yourself At Home” podcast, Bud Light’s vice president of marketing, Alissa Heinerscheid, stated that she wanted to modernize the “fratty” and “out-of-touch” humor of the beer company by promoting “inclusivity.”
However, according to St. Louis-area operator John Rieker, the effort to be inclusive excluded the people who matter most – Bud Light drinkers.
“It’s kind of mind-boggling they stepped into this realm,” Rieker, who owns Harpo’s Bar and Grill in Chesterfield, Mo., which is also close to St. Louis, told the outlet. “You’re marketing to an audience that represents a fraction of 1% of consumers while alienating the much larger base of your consumers.”
He added that his patrons are also confused by the decision.
It seems Bud Light has everything to lose and very little to gain,” as its current drinkers “are not real receptive to this new development,” Rieker said.
“Sometimes you just want to drink a beer without getting a lecture on social or political commentary or someone’s sexual orientation,” added Patrick Imig, a hospitality consultant in St. Louis.
