Bud Light came under a massive, unexpected boycott after they used a man, Dylan Mulvaney, posing as a woman to sell beer. When they suffered furious backlash, they doubled down and followed that up by tripling down. They also tried to lie about their relationship with Mr. Mulvaney. Their Vice President came out and insulted people who buy their beer.
Anheuser-Busch paid a high price.
At the same time, the LGBT community saw their response as too tepid, and they became angry also.
According to a CNN report, Anheuser-Busch InBev lost as much as $1.4 billion in sales. Beer makes up the bulk of InBev’s revenue.
Modelo Especial dethroned Bud Light, and according to the report, Bud Light only recovered 1.2 percentage points of lost market share from May through February. The pace of recovery is picking up, but only .1 to .2 percentage points every three to four weeks.
Equity analyst Aarin Chiekrie with Hargreaves Lansdown wasn’t impressed and called it “very underwhelming.”
Their fall was hard, fast, and dramatic from the pinnacles of power and popularity. They’re only inching up even after numerous ads trying to look traditional and paying popular, more conservative organizations such as sports sponsorships to promote the beer.
Their brief flirtation with progressivism cost them.
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