Bud Light Wins Back Some Boycotting Customers Amid Transgender Fiasco, Survey Claims

Bud Light, made by Anheuser-Busch, sits on a store shelf in Miami, Fla., on July 27, 2023. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

A survey has found that Bud Light has allegedly won back 15 percent of Americans who had boycotted the brand after it engaged with a transgender influencer.

An analysis from Deutsche Bank found that the proportion of Bud Light drinkers who say they are not likely to purchase the beer dropped in July. So far, only 19 percent of surveyed beer drinkers said they will not purchase Bud Light, down 21 percent in July.

“The proportion of former Bud Light drinkers who say they are very unlikely to buy the brand in 3-6 months time has reduced from 18 percent to just 3 percent, a significant improvement,” Deutsche Bank analysts wrote, according to multiple reports.

Deutsche Bank questioned 600 respondents about their beer of choice. The company did not include demographic information about who it surveyed.

“Disaggregating our data by age and income level shows that the most material improvement in consumption was for 55+ year olds and consumers earning less than $25k per year. Both groups still have a higher proportion of consumers who are no longer buying the brand than other age groups / income groups,” Deutsch Bank continued. “We continue to see [Anheuser-Busch InBev] as well positioned for the long term helped by a transition to being a more digitally enabled brewer. Reiterate Buy.”

However, the alleged improving sentiment toward the brand, as noted by Deutsche Bank, has not translated to real-world sales. For the week ending Aug. 5, Bud Light’s sales dropped 26.5 percent year-over-year, while volumes have slumped 29.7 percent in the same time period, consistent with previous sales drops, according to Nielsen data.

Earlier in August, Anheuser-Busch InBev announced that U.S. revenue dropped 10.5 percent in the second quarter of this year, and its earnings also fell 28.2 percent before taxes, interest, and depreciation.

“Regardless of favorability, our consumers across all sentiment groups have three points of feedback in common,” Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michel Doukeris told investors during an earnings call. “One, they want to enjoy their beer without a debate. Two, they want Bud Light to focus on beer. Three, they want Bud Light to concentrate on the platforms that all consumers love, such as NFL, (veteran charity) Folds of Honor and music.”

Days later, Anheuser-Busch said it is selling eight craft beer brands to Tilray Brands, including Shock Top, Breckenridge Brewery, Blue Point Brewing Company, 10 Barrel Brewing Company, Redhook Brewery, Widmer Brothers Brewing, Square Mile Cider Company, and Hiball Energy.

In July, Anheuser-Busch confirmed it would be laying off hundreds of mostly corporate employees and restructuring its organization. Frontline workers like brewery operators and drivers wouldn’t be affected, it said.

The statement did not say whether the layoffs will impact Bud Light’s corporate division. But the new job eliminations will signify “less than 2 percent” of Anheuser-Busch’s staff in the United States, according to the company. Reports indicated that about 380 employees would be terminated of the company’s some 19,000 U.S. workforce.

Singer Kid Rock, who filmed himself shooting up cans of Bud Light, was among those celebrities who suggested boycotting the beer. Robert Laberge/Getty Images

“Today we took the very difficult but necessary decision to eliminate a number of positions across our corporate organization,” Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth said in late July. “While we never take these decisions lightly, we want to ensure that our organization continues to be set for future long-term success.”

Other Predictions

Another analyst gave Bud Light a grim prognosis, saying there would be “no recovery” for the beleaguered brand before this year’s end.

“We assume no recovery in Bud Light [this year],” RBC Capital Markets analyst James Jones wrote in a note this week, according to Yahoo Finance. “Recent data continues to show that tracked channels reached a point of stabilization at significantly lower levels for Anheuser-Busch InBev than pre-controversy,” Evercore ISI analyst Robert Ottenstein added in a separate note, reported Yahoo.

The sales slump comes months after Bud Light created a promotional package with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who posted a personalized beer can on social media in early April. Some conservative musicians and celebrities reacted quickly, with some calling for a boycott of the brand.

Weeks later, Mr. Doukeris told investors that only “one can” was produced and that there was no official partnership with the transgender influencer. The company, he said, would triple its investment into the brand over the summer, while Bud Light has since pivoted its advertising to themes that it relied on in the past.

“It was one post. It was not an advertisement,” he said in May.

But Bump Williams, president of Bump Williams Consulting, told the Wall Street Journal that spending more to fix the problem won’t do much.

“The Bud Light shopper who’s left the brand has zero interest in coming back,” Mr. Williams said, “so you can spend all the money you want, but until you fix the problem—apologize and admit you made a mistake—it’s wasted money.”