'Panic and rash decision-making': ex-Bud Light staff on one of the biggest boycotts in US history

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

‘Panic and rash decision-making’: ex-Bud Light staff on one of the biggest boycotts in US history

A partnership with the influencer Dylan Mulvaney prompted a backlash that tanked sales. Insiders condemn the company’s response

Owen Myers
Tue 19 Sep 2023 12.15 BST
First published on Tue 19 Sep 2023 11.00 BST

When Anheuser-Busch InBev, the multinational beer company, promoted Alissa Heinerscheid to vice-president of marketing for Bud Light in July 2022, she became the first female VP in the beer’s 40-year history. “It’s just old white men,” says one former employee of the company leadership. “That’s why we were excited to at least have Alissa in that role.”

In a March 2023 interview with the lifestyle podcast Make Yourself At Home, Heinerscheid spoke of her remit. “I had a really clear job to do when I took over Bud Light, and it was: ‘This brand is in decline, it’s been in a decline for a really long time, and if we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand, there will be no future for Bud Light.’” Part of that involved updating the marketing to be “lighter, brighter” and more inclusive. “Bud Light had […] a brand of fratty, kind of out-of-touch humor,” Heinerscheid said.

Instead of ensuring a prosperous future for Bud Light, Heinerscheid’s tenure was marked by a sharp decline in sales and one of the biggest boycotts of a brand in US history, after a minor social media partnership with Dylan Mulvaney was attacked by rightwing anti-trans groups. Over the past month, the Guardian has spoken with insiders at Bud Light and the agency the company contracted about what exactly happened and why the brand refused to back Mulvaney during the backlash. Former employees, who wish to remain anonymous, spoke of leadership incompetence and said that executives were operating from a place of fear and were now vetting public comments under the brand’s Instagram posts to remove any hint of negativity. Anheuser-Busch did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.

-snip-

The backlash to Mulvaney’s March Madness post was swift, brutal and unprecedented. It also seemed somewhat random: she was hardly better known than she had been six weeks before, but high-profile rightwingers stumbled on the video and their outrage went viral. One conservative commentator, Ben Shapiro, posted a vitriolic 12-minute video in which he repeatedly misgendered Mulvaney called trans identity “a lie”. Ted Cruz, Ron DeSantis, Caitlyn Jenner and Marjorie Taylor Greene piled on. Kid Rock and the former NFL player Trae Waynes filmed themselves shooting cans of beer, and rightwing influencers flooded their feeds with calls to boycott. (Kid Rock was later photographed apparently drinking Bud Light.) “It was extreme,” says Jon Springer, a senior beverages and sports reporter at Ad Age. “Kind of terroristic. It hit a nerve and said to people that this was something they should be really angry about, and not just uncomfortable about or just prefer that it didn’t happen.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/19/dylan-mulvaney-bud-light-boycott

Alternate non-walled link: https://archive.li/MmQBn

[hlthe2b]

1. The local Budweiser plant that also houses the Clydesdales when they travel to this area received

threats to those magnificent horses--as well as to the Budweiser plant itself. Their main home in St. Louis had to dramatically increase security to their facility--their barns, paddocks, and large properties as well. Just when things seemed to be easing, the company's ridiculous PR response escalated the backlash and threats came roaring back once again. Enough of this idiocy. Enough of the hate.

[jimfields33]

3. Had everyone but the MAGA's supported Bud Light, it would have done fine.

But it seemed everyone stopped buying it or way more then just MAGA (a very small percentage of the American population).

[3Hotdogs]

2. These assholes threaten the fuckin' horses? They don't have big enough balls to threaten

Mickey Mouse.

[LiberalFighter]

4. Too many bad people

[tanyev]

5. We now have elected officials leading attacks on American businesses.

And patting themselves on the back for doing so.

[Aristus]

6. The brand was in decline because Bud Light is shitty-tasting, beer-flavored water.

No wonder only old white men drank it. Everyone else has better taste in beer.

[OldBaldy1701E]

7. Bravo!