Bud Light Sales Take Steepest Hit yet Since Dylan Mulvaney Promotion

A 12-ounce can of Bud Light on a railing at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Fla. on May 26, 2023. T.J. Muscaro/The Epoch Times

Bud Light saw its worst sales drop since the brand launched a marketing promotion with transgender influencer Dylvan Mulvaney, according to recent industry data.

For the week ending June 10, sales of Bud Light dropped by 26.8 percent, data from Bump Williams Consulting and NielsenIQ show, according to the New York Post. A week prior to that, Bud Light’s sales dropped 24.4 percent, the data show. The previous worst drop amid the Mulvaney fracas was 25.7 percent during the week ending May 20.

Bump Williams, the head of the eponymous consulting firm, told the New York Post on Wednesday: “This was a tough week for Bud Light and other beer brands” that are owned by Anheuser-Busch. His firm noted that sales of Budweiser were down 10 percent, Natural Light was down 2.3 percent, and Michelob Ultra was down 2.4 percent. Notably, Budweiser’s sales were down 7.8 percent the previous week, the data show.

Earlier this month, the same company confirmed that for the entire month of May, Bud Light slid to No. 2 in overall U.S. sales behind Modelo Especial, owned by Constellation Brands within the United States. Modelo also saw a 5.7 percent increase in sales in the week ending June 10, Bump Williams data said.

But Williams told the NY Post that Bud Light is still the No. 1 brand in the country for the year, adding it’s  “unlikely” Modelo will become America’s top-selling beer on a 52-week basis. “In some instances, the trends for a particular brand may be healthy in some local areas across the country and worse in others,” Williams stated.

Earlier this month Anheuser-Busch sent a statement to USA Today and other outlets saying Bud Light remains the top-selling beer brand in the United States this year in terms of dollar sales and overall volume. The Epoch Times has contacted Anheuser-Busch for comment Wednesday about the latest sales figures.

It all started after Mulvaney on April 1 posted a Bud Light beer can on social media and signaled the two were in a marketing partnership. A Bud Light beer can, which featured Mulvaney’s face, drew immediate backlash from country singers and some conservative influencers, who called for a boycott.

This week, an executive with Bud Light maker Anheuser-Busch spoke out about the boycott as he received an award during the Cannes Lions International Festival in the south of France.

“It’s tough to see the controversial and divisive debates that have been happening in the U.S. in the last couple of weeks involving lots of brands and companies, including and especially Bud Light,” Anheuser-Busch’s global chief marketing officer, Marcel Marcondes, told the Cannes Lions International Festival, according to AdAge. “It’s tough exactly because what we do is all about bringing people together.”

AB InBev CEO Michel Doukeris gives a press conference after a shareholders' meeting of the Anheuser-Busch InBev brewery group, in Brussels, on April 27, 2022. Benoit Doppagne/BELGA/AFP via Getty Images

As he received the “Creative Marketer of the Year” at the Cannes festival, Marcondes said the backlash was a “wake-up call” for marketers like himself to be “very humble” amid controversy and during “times like this.”

“That’s what we’re doing, being very humble, and really reminding ourselves of what we should do best every day, which is to really understand our consumers. Which is to really celebrate and appreciate every consumer that loves our brands—but in a way that can make them be together, not apart,” Marcondes told a crowd at the festival.

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And in May, Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michel Doukeris told investors that only one can was made that featured Mulvaney’s face, adding that the company would triple its investment in Bud Light over the summer. The light beer firm appears to be in the midst of a pivot, showing advertisements featuring American flags, Clydesdale horses, and imagery of major U.S. cities and landmarks.

“People often talk about this topic in social media like noise,” Doukeris told the Financial Times in a later interview, blaming the backlash on social media-driven “misinformation” and “confusion.” “You have one fact, and every person puts an opinion behind the fact. And then the opinions start to be replicated fast on each and every comment. By the time that 10 or 20 people put a comment out there, the reality is no longer what the fact is, but is more [about] what the comments were.”

In mid-May, Anheuser-Busch was downgraded after an HSBC analyst revised the stock down to “hold” and claimed the company is dealing with a “Bud Light crisis.”  The analyst also speculated there are “deeper problems” that the company might not be willing to publicly admit.

“Is ABI’s leadership getting the brand culture transformation right? It’s mixed,” the analyst wrote said at the time. “At Ambev, we think the answer is ‘yes’; in the U.S., we think it’s ‘no.’ The way this Bud Light crisis came about a month ago, management’s response to it and the loss of unprecedented volume and brand relevance raises many questions.”

Reuters contributed to this report.