Mulvaney Breaks Silence, Hits Back Against Bud Light For Failing to Support Influencer

Cans of Bud Light chill in a refrigerator in Oakland, Calif., on April 28, 2023. Jeff Chiu/AP Photo

Transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney spoke out publicly on Bud Light for the first time since the marketing fiasco that has cost the beer company the top position among retail beer brands and billions in sales.

“I took a brand deal with a company that I loved, and I posted a sponsored video to my page, and it must have been a slow news week, because the way that this ad got blown up, you’d have thought I was like on a billboard or on a TV commercial or something major, but no, it was just an Instagram video, and the wildest part is that they also send me one can with my face on it,” said Mulvaney in a recent Instagram Reel.

“I’m bringing it up because what transpired from the video was more bullying and transphobia than I could have ever imagined and I should have made this video months ago but I didn’t, and I was scared, and I was scared of more backlash, and I felt personally guilty for what transpired.

“So, I patiently waited for things to get better, but surprise, they haven’t really, and I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me, but they never did. And for months now, I’ve been scared to leave my house; I have been ridiculed in public; I have been followed, and I have felt a loneliness that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”

Mulvaney continued: “For a company to hire a trans-person and then not publicly stand by them is worse, in my opinion, than not hiring a trans-person at all because it gives customers permission to be as transphobic and hateful as they want.

“And the hate doesn’t end with me. It has serious and grave consequences for the rest of our community, and you know—we’re customers too. I know a lot of trans and queer people who love beer.”

Mulvaney did not mention Bud Light by name.

The activist then talked about supporting transgenders. “Supporting trans people, it shouldn’t be political. There should be nothing controversial or divisive about working with us.

“I’m going to celebrate the fact that no matter how many thousands of horrible messages or news anchors misgendering me or companies going silent, that I can look in the mirror and see the woman that I am and that I love being.”

Mulvaney ended the video by calling for donations to the Transgender Law Center. The law center takes on lawsuits supporting transgender causes like, in 2017, when they won a case against the Kenosha Unified School District for not allowing a trans person to access the boys’ bathroom.

Mulvaney has 1.8 million followers on Instagram with the latest video garnering 2 million views and over 300,000 likes. The video was shared on TikTok as well, a platform where Mulvaney rose to prominence.

Bud Light Responds

Anheuser-Busch, the parent company of Bud Light, said in a response statement to multiple media outlets that, “we remain committed to the programs and partnerships we have forged over decades with organizations across a number of communities, including those in the LGBTQ+ community. The privacy and safety of our employees and our partners is always our top priority. As we move forward, we will focus on what we do best—brewing great beer for everyone and earning our place in moments that matter to our consumers.”

The statement did not mention Dylan Mulvaney by name. The Epoch Times has reached out to Anheuser Busch for comment.

Bud Light beer cans at City Tap House in Philadelphia on Feb. 12, 2023. Mark Makela/Getty Images

Following the nationwide boycotts which started in April when Mulvaney’s promo video came out, the company’s sales crashed in a historic fashion.

In a recent research note, Deutsche Bank analyst Mitch Collett revealed that 24 percent of Bud Light customers are no longer buying the brand, while an additional 18 percent have been buying less, according to Barron’s. He warned that Bud Light, as a brand, faces “significant challenges,” especially with older consumers.

“We believe recent underperformance implies a permanent reduction in ABI’s U.S. business,” Collett wrote in the note, referring to Anheuser-Busch InBev, the parent company of Bud Light.

“Our proprietary survey data suggest these headwinds are likely to fade even if we do not expect the U.S. business ever to fully recover from its current challenges.”

Anheuser-Busch’s market capitalization has crashed ever since the Mulvaney controversy. Between April 3 and June 26, the market cap has fallen from $134.14 billion to $113.57 billion.

This is a decline of over $20 billion—representing a more than 15 percent fall.

Despite the consumer backlash, Anheuser-Busch CEO Whitworth reiterated in a recent interview with CBS that the company continues to remain committed to LGBT causes.

“But Light has supported LGBT since 1998. That’s 25 years. And as we’ve said from the beginning, we’ll continue to support the communities and organizations that we’ve supported for decades.”

For more than two decades, Bud Light was the top-selling beer in America. After the Mulvaney controversy, Constellation Brands-owned Modelo Especial became the number-one-selling beer brand in the United States in May, dethroning Bud Light, which slipped to the second spot.

Kevin O’Leary, chairman of investment platform O’Leary Ventures, expressed his intent to teach the Bud Light disaster during his college visits.

“This is unprecedented in the beer industry. Beer brands take decades to build. And usually, you’re fighting for 1–2 percent share per year by spending hundreds of millions of dollars of advertising,” O’Leary said in a June 20 interview with Fox News. The situation with Bud Light “has never happened before. No beer brand has ever lost 25 percent market share in a matter of hours. It’s so unprecedented that there is no playbook for this.”